This past football season, former head coach Lee Carlson resigned from his position. However, after a tough season, a new hope came to Braintree High’s football team. Dale Olmsted, an experienced football coach, came to BHS to take over the new head coaching job and pass on what football has given to him.
“I’ve always liked high school football, I love what it did for me, and all my other friends, and figured, you know what the heck lets give this another shot,” explains Dale Olmsted.
After struggling last year, the team definitely has some room for improvement. However, returning captain Nick Saunders believes that the addition of Coach Olmsted will bring a promising future to the program.
“He is a very experienced coach and it’s going to help our program very much by all of us in making us better players so we can win more, also he has connections to college coaches which could help some players get recruited. It is always good to have someone that has connections like that in your corner,” Saunders says.
Coach Olmsted has had plenty of experience with coaching high school football. However, in his case, has enjoyed the challenge of turning around a program and building a culture where there never seemed to be one before.
“That led me to a head coaching job at Millis high school where I was able to turn the program around nice and good. You know good tradition, but hadn’t won lately, helped them become a conference champ.”
Despite his situation of coaching at Millis being similar to Braintree, there are more factors that led to his decision of coaching here.
“I like the idea that it is division one, you know it’s the biggest division, you’re going to play the best teams in the state. There is a great challenge there.”
Although the football team has seen some struggles over the years, Coach Olmsted believes that the community here in Braintree deserves a good football team and hopes to be able to bring it.
“There is a great community, you know I didn’t really know how tight it was until I came here about a month ago. A lot of people, a lot of teachers I see grew up in Braintree, and are still here, so there is a lot of pride in the town. Got a lot of history in other sports, not so much football, so I’m hoping that I can bring that to the high school, and we can be good.”
With all of these factors, Coach Olmsted was already very interested in Braintree. However, the deciding factor for him was being able to work in learning center.
“But I think the really big thing was I was able to be able to teach in the building, that was important, so I can meet the kids,” he explains.
Coach Olmsted came here with hopes to be able to form bonds with his players. Nick Saunders told us how Coach Olmsted has been able to form bonds with the players and how these bonds have affected the players.
“He has pushed all of us very hard in the weight room which helps us towards our goals. I feel like he is a person I feel like I can talk to about any of my problems. I talk to him everyday which helps me grow a stronger connection to him. With other coaches I only see them during football, and seeing him everyday helps me trust him more,” explains Saunders.
Coach Olmsted has some very big goals for the team this year. Returning coach, Angelo Venturin told us how Coach Olmsted is planning on helping the team achieve these goals while letting the players still live their lives.
“I’ll be surprised if all the kids get out of bed that early. We’ve tried to do early things in the past and kids always showed up late. I think that making morning workouts at 6am is very early, but it is just if the kids decide to show up,” Coach V questions.
Although winning is part of the goal for the team, Coach Olmsted believes that building a relationship with the players is just as important.
“I went to a baseball game this weekend to support some of the guys, and you know maybe some of that might not be sure if they want to play will see me there, and I think like building a relationship is important, and the more I’m in the building the more I can build out on those relationships.”
