Podcast: Phil Reuland of Winchester (Mass.) on the MIAA’s public dilemma

Winchester (Mass.) coach Phil Reuland is this week's guest on the "Chasing The Goal" podcast.

On this episode of the “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Owen Hart are joined by Winchester (Mass.) High School head coach Phil Reuland.

Reuland has been coaching in the Winchester program for more than a decade. He took the job right before the cancelled COVID season and proceeded to put his stamp on the program. He won the MIAA/NFHS Coach of the Year award for the 2023 season and has continued to build the program.

A teacher in the Medford (Mass.) school system, Reuland has developed multiple college-level players. This past season, the team went 13-8 and took strong teams like Medfield and Andover to the brink.

Watch the full podcast below on YouTube. It’s also available on all major podcast platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review. Watch more episodes on the Chasing the Goal podcast channel.

Here are some excerpts from the pod.

Owen Hart: Take us through your playing days. How’d you get there? What was it like coming up in youth lacrosse?

Phil Reuland: Let’s start with youth lacrosse. No such thing. I grew up in a very different era for eastern Mass. lacrosse. I was introduced to the game in my freshman year in high school. My folks kept me out of contact sports when I was a kid. I was dying to play football. They always told me, “You can play football when you get to high school.” And I had such a blast playing freshman football at Winchester High School — I loved the contact.

In the spring, the guys were talking about lacrosse. I’m like, “Can you just, you know, hit somebody in lacrosse like you could this fall in football?” And they’re like, “Yeah, you can.” So it’s, let’s put the baseball glove away and give this sport a shot. Then my sophomore year had the opportunity to play varsity lacrosse for John Pirani. And it was a great experience, a lot of fun. I learned a lot and continue to learn a lot from John Pirani. Then I graduated from high school at 17, which is young. I needed some additional time in the classroom and in athletics. So I spent a year at Bridgton Academy.

Kyle Devitte: You’re talking to two JV guys. I’m the JV coach and varsity assistant at Hopkinton (N.H.). And Owen’s the JV coach and varsity assistant at Westwood (Mass.). There are a couple of photos of us talking about JV that people take screenshots of, and it’s always us “with our hands to our heads” telling a story of something that happened. Do you wanna share maybe one of your more formative moments as a JV coach early on?

Phil Reuland: Well, we’re going back some years now. (It’s being) around young guys who are in the process of falling in love with the game and deciding that they want to be varsity athletes. This is something that they really want to push forward with. There are always a lot of funny moments working with the younger guys. I would say just figuring out the right way to lead a group.

Maybe not so many specific little moments here and there, but the overall experience. I think a lot of people look at our job as coaches and are like, “Oh, I can do that.” And then you’re standing up in front of a group of people and trying to get them to do something. Whether it’s athletics or in your professional career, just leading a group of people and trying to get them on the same page to accomplish anything, you figure out very quickly that it isn’t so easy, and learning how to do it is the tough part.

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