Call her Coach: No obstacle seems too big for Windham's Lauren Gaudette

Oct. 10—LAUREN GAUDETTE tries to teach her freshman and junior varsity Windham High School football players that no matter what they deal with growing up, they can make their mark in the world.

Gaudette, who coaches both Windham's freshman and junior varsity teams as the program's assistant head coach, was born with spina bifida, is severely hard of hearing, has two hip disorders and stomach and bladder issues. The 33-year-old Nashua resident said most days she wakes up with soreness.

Those health challenges have not derailed Gaudette's coaching career.

She began coaching football at her alma mater, Nashua South, under the tutelage of coach Scott Knight from 2007-16 and spent the previous four years on Jimmy Lauzon's staff at Londonderry High School before joining Windham coach Jack Byrne's staff this fall.

Though she was responsible only for calling timeouts, Gaudette may have been the first woman to serve as a head coach for a New Hampshire varsity high school football game in Windham's 26-7 loss to Salem on Oct. 2. Byrne missed the game because of his best friend's son's baptism.

Gaudette is also the Nashua South boys junior varsity basketball coach and the javelin specialist coach for the Manchester Memorial track and field team.

"Talking about fighting through adversity and all the lessons you want to teach kids, she's maybe the No. 1 person to learn from for that kind of stuff because she's done it," Byrne said of Gaudette. "She's walked the talk, for sure."

Gaudette served as a student manager for the South football team and dove into coaching once she graduated high school.

"From 2004 on, I've always been involved with a football team and I absolutely love it," Gaudette said after Windham's freshman team lost, 38-12, at Londonderry on Thursday. "There's nothing else I want to do."

Knight showed Gaudette the coaching basics and Lauzon taught her about program organization, game-planning and preparation. In her role at Windham, Gaudette is responsible for all the logistics for the freshman and junior varsity teams like communicating with parents and bus arrangements alongside coaching.

"I'm trying to get her in a situation where she's getting all the responsibilities I have at the varsity level with the JV and the freshmen because I know she's looking to go the head coaching route down the road," Byrne said. "Anything I can give to her or teach her along the way, we do it."

Because she was a late hire, Gaudette said she did not start coaching her Windham players until the first week of the season. While waiting for her hiring paperwork to clear, Gaudette could not be on the field so she helped the team by handling equipment manager duties.

"That just showed me how hard of a worker and how much, for the program, she cared about (it)," Jaguars senior linebacker/offensive lineman Keegan Parke said.

The Windham freshman team trailed the Lancers, 32-6, in the third quarter Thursday but that was not evident in Gaudette's demeanor. She shouted instructions to her defense once she saw Londonderry's offensive formations, coached up the special teams unit before a kickoff return and ran with her players down the sideline after a fourth-quarter scoring drive.

"We were down early and they (the players) very easily could've rolled it up. ... Kids respond to who their coaches are, I think, and that's sort of how I am — never give up on a play, fight tooth-and-nail until the zeros strike on the clock," Gaudette said.

Gaudette uses her knowledge of the game and the small details she notices at practice or from watching film to get the best out Windham's players, junior wide receiver/defensive back Bryan Desmarais said. Parke said Gaudette broke down Alvirne's offense to him when the team scouted a Broncos game earlier this season.

"She definitely knows a lot (about) football — more than any of the players, most of the coaches, too, probably," Parke said. "She studies it more than everyone."

Desmarais, who suffered a concussion in the Salem game, said Gaudette has already helped him improve as a wide receiver this season.

"She made me realize even when you're not getting the ball, you really need to run (your route) to sell the play," Desmarais said. "I would go like probably 80% through it and she was like, 'If you give 100%, they're going to always think you're getting the ball so they've always got to be prepared for it. It makes them a lot more tired.' And I always had that extra step on them after she told me about that."

Gaudette, who said she hopes her career inspires more women in the state to coach football, wants to prepare her freshman and JV players for the varsity level and how to succeed in school and life.

"I have a very long-view approach to things," Gaudette said. "I talk about life all the time. That's really what my end goal is at the end of the day. Do I want to win games? Yeah, I'm one of the most competitive people in the world. But I'm preparing these guys for future endeavors not just in football but in any other sport they do and also be successful off the field as well."

ahall@unionleader.com