Familiar face John Frederick returns to Algonquin varsity pitch, as girls' soccer coach

NORTHBOROUGH — After two years with John Clifford at the helm following Scott Taggart’s retirement upon the end of the 2019 season, the Algonquin Regional girls' soccer team again has a new coach.

And he’s a familiar face.

Prior to the start of the season, John Frederick, a 1989 graduate of Algonquin, was named the new girls' soccer coach. Last season, Frederick served as the girls' JV coach, marking his return to coaching high school soccer.

“I really, really enjoyed coaching the JV team last year,” Frederick said. “It was a lot of fun, and we had a great group of girls.”

Frederick previously coached the boys' soccer team at Algonquin for 10 years, leading the then Tomahawks to Division 1 state championships in 2004 and '05. He also led Algonquin to a state championship appearance in 2006 but came up short of a three-peat, falling to St. John’s Prep.

In April 2009, Frederick resigned from his post at Algonquin to become an assistant men’s soccer coach at Holy Cross. Since his stint with the Crusaders, Frederick also has coached at the New England Revolution Development Academy.

“It was a ton of fun,” Frederick said of coaching at the Revs soccer academy. “One of the greatest jobs I’ve ever had.”

But as Frederick said, “Once that came to an end, it didn’t mean that coaching came to an end.”

Frederick, who has also been an English teacher at Algonquin for the last 22 years, got back to coaching at the high school level when he took over the Algonquin girls JVs.

“It reminded me last year very much of how awesome it is to be a teacher and a coach at the (same) building where you teach and coach,” Frederick said. “The relationships that you develop with your players are hard to match.”

Clifford, who had to resign as coach following last season because of his full-time job, couldn't have been happier who was taking over for him.

“I certainly would have preferred to be back, but life circumstances said otherwise,” Clifford said. “Having John (Frederick) back has certainly made (leaving) easier.”

Frederick just wants to make sure that his players continue to have fun and get better every day as the season progresses.

“I don’t know what the long-term goals are this year,” Frederick said. “We are just hoping to keep getting better. I think the way that we play, sometimes early on it’s hard and challenging, but I can already see the progress that the girls are making. They are more confident and freer and I think we are getting better.”

Entering the week, Algonquin is 1-0-1 on the young season, defeating Nashoba in the season opener on the road last Thursday, followed by a scoreless draw with Acton-Boxborough on Saturday night.

“It’s been great,” Frederick said. “I am really, really pleased with where we are at right now. The kids are working super hard and are having a lot of fun. … To beat a team like Nashoba who is awfully good and then to draw with a team like Acton-Boxborough, who is awfully good, we are pretty pleased with the way it’s started and we look to keep building on it.”

While he and his team aren’t looking to the postseason quite yet, the playoff format has changed since he last coached a team to the playoffs.

“I definitely approve of (the statewide playoff format),” Frederick said. “I know from having been the boys coach when they used to regionalize it with the West, Central, North and South, there was a clear advantage to being in the Central and the West, a little bit easier to come out of it.

“I don’t mean to diminish what any of our teams accomplished, but for teams in the North and the South, it was a little bit harder to come out of the region,” he added. “I think now with the statewide tournament, you win the state championship, you really earned it.”

But for now, Frederick is just enjoying getting reacquainted with the Algonquin soccer community.

“The Algonquin soccer, boys and girls, are a really proud program, and I’m happy to be a part of it as both a player in the late '80s and now as a coach of both the boys and girls (team),” Frederick said. “I think it is such a tremendous community, and it’s really nice to be back and be a part of it.”

—Contact Ethan Winter at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: John Frederick returns to Algonquin varsity pitch, as girls' soccer coach