After 34 seasons, this Quabbin Regional coach is hanging up his whistle

BARRE — “That John Wooden quote: ‘A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.’ That’s one of the first things I thought of when I heard Rick Lindsten had announced he was retiring as the Quabbin varsity boys soccer coach,” Quabbin Regional varsity girls’ soccer coach Jamie (Szafarowicz) Cook said.

Lindsten informed Panthers’ athletic director Mark Miville late last month of his decision to retire as varsity boys soccer coach, a position he held since 2011. This fall, for the first time in 35 years, Lindsten will not be coaching soccer in some capacity.

“I’ve been thinking about it for the last couple of years. I’ve been coaching soccer for 34 consecutive years; I started when I was 29,” the 64-year-old Lindsten said. “It’s been a long time and it’s been enjoyable. For the last 11 years I’ve also been the girls’ golf coach at Quabbin.

“Coaching two sports is a big-time commitment,” said Lindsten, the all-time leading scorer (60 goals, 21 assists, 81 points) in Quabbin Regional soccer history and a member of its Athletic Hall of Fame. “I get finished with girls’ golf season in June and then we have a week-long soccer camp in July. The next thing you know it’s August and soccer starts. From the start of the golf season to the end of the soccer season it’s a pretty long stretch; about 23 weeks.”

Miville said Lindsten’s retirement will create a void on the sidelines at Panthers’ soccer games.

“We’ll most certainly miss Rick’s knowledge, enthusiasm and competitive spirit,” Miville said. “Rick always had an anecdote to back up the point he was trying to get across to his team. His players respect him. They respect the fact that he is a Quabbin alum and has poured his life and so much effort into Quabbin athletics.”

In addition to getting some much-needed time off, Lindsten, in retirement, will be able to follow the cross-country and track careers of his 14-year-old daughter Julianna, who will be a freshman at Quabbin Regional in September.

Lindsten was the varsity girls soccer coach at Wachusett Regional from 1996-2006. The Mountaineers qualified for the Central Mass. Division 1 Tournament every year Lindsten was the coach.

During Lindsten’s tenure, Wachusett compiled a 138-53-29 record and won the Central Mass. Division 1 title twice (1996 and 2001). In 2001, the Mountaineers defeated Notre Dame of Hingham, 2-1, to capture the Massachusetts Division 1 championship. The 1996 Central Mass. championship and the 2001 state title were the first of their kind in Wachusett girls’ soccer history.

Lindsten’s Quabbin teams weren’t as successful from a wins and losses perspective as his Wachusett teams, but the Panthers did qualify for the Central Mass. Tournament in 2013 (Division 1), 2018 and 2019 (Division 3).

Quabbin’s 2020 varsity boys’ soccer team is widely considered the strongest team during Lindsten’s tenure. The Panthers were 7-0-1 in that COVID-altered year, winning the Mid-Wach C Pod Championship. The Panthers scored 36 goals in those eight games while allowing just seven.

In between his high school coaching stops Lindsten was head coach of the women’s soccer team at Becker College (known as Becker Junior College at the time) for three years, an assistant coach at Anna Maria College for a year, and assistant coach at Clark University for two years.

During his career Lindsten also coached several travel teams that played in tournaments internationally, including Antigua (four times), Barbuda, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. On one of his trips to Antigua his team won the 3 Nations Cup. Lindsten was also part of a four-day excursion he called a “coach’s trip” to Iceland with a collection of soccer and ice hockey coaches.

Lindsten also coached in the Quabbin Youth Soccer program, which is where he met Cook.

“I started playing for Rick when I was 13,” said Cook, the all-time leading scorer (57 goals, 23 assists, 80 points) in Quabbin Regional girls soccer history and a 2016 inductee of the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. “I would not have had the playing career or have the coaching career without him. He definitely had the biggest impact on my soccer journey.

“Up until that point (the teen years) you’re playing youth soccer and you’re just happy to be out there, happy to be on the team,” Cook said. “Right around that age though, it clicked with me that soccer was going to be my thing. Rick played a role in that. The way he coached, the way he pushed me, the way he pushed all of us.”

Lindsten also showed Cook and her teammates that the sport was bigger than what they could experience at the youth, high school, and college level.

“Around that time the U.S Women’s National Team was in the headlines; they were doing really well, women like Michelle Akers and Mia Hamm were becoming nationally known,” Cook said. “Rick really brought that to our team. He made us aware there was this higher level of playing soccer. I had no idea at that point. To have him bring that to us in the early 1990s, I thought was spectacular.”

About eight years ago, when Cook decided she was ready to dip her toe in to the shallow end of the soccer coaching pool it was Lindsten who came along, picked her up and threw her in the deep end of that pool.

“We were both working at Quabbin and he came up to me one day and said, ‘We’ve got to get you into coaching,’” Cook remembered, “and I told him I didn’t think I had the time because my kids were really young back then. That summer Rick called me and told me his JV coach had to step down and he needed a JV coach and the season was starting in two weeks.

“Again I told him I didn’t think I had the time,” Cook continued, “and he said, ‘nope, tryouts start next week. I need you in here.’ Rick had done so much for me I told myself I had to figure it out. I was excited to try it and I thought the JV position would be a good stepping stone. So I said to myself, ‘OK, let’s do this.’ I remember going to that first practice thinking ‘What am I getting myself into? I’m not prepared for this.’”

Lindsten took Cook through the practice plans and how tryouts were going to go, explaining the process every step of the way.

“I took it all in. I worked alongside him that whole season. Midway through the year we had a lot of injuries and he had to pull a lot of my JV players up to varsity. So many that we ended up having several games at the end of the season cancelled,” Cook said. “I ended up on his bench as the varsity boys soccer assistant coach for the rest of the year.

“I watched him coach that season and said, ‘That’s where I want to be. I want to be coaching on the varsity sideline at some point,’” Cook continued. “And then, by sheer coincidence, the varsity girls position opened up that next season and I applied for it. I wouldn’t be anywhere in my playing career or my coaching career if my path had never crossed with Rick’s path. I’m so happy for Rick. He had a long career playing and coaching, but I am sad he’s retiring.”

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Quabbin Regional boys soccer coach Rick Lindsten retires