Athletics

By Bradley Bigelow ‘21, Summer Intern

Bradley Bigelow ‘21 is interning in the Marketing Department of The Winchendon School as a videographer and video editor. Recently, he was at The New England Sports Center to record an interview with Jeff Pellegrini, Director of TWS Hockey Development | | Girls’ Head Hockey Coach. We asked him to write about the experience. You can learn more about Bradley here and TWS Hockey here.

After coming to the New England Sports Center, we were amazed by the sheer size of the complex: 10 ice rinks, multiple restaurants, and even an arcade. Navigating our way to the correct rink, where we took our seats, one of our upcoming stars for the girls’ hockey team Zoe ’22, recipient of the Jason Ritchie Hockey award in 2020, took to the ice- who was then joined, unexpectedly, by her teammates Kaylen ’22 and Rhea ’23. Their team, with maroon jerseys on, played an exciting match, truly showcasing their skill and previewing an exciting season for The Winchendon School’s Girls Hockey team this winter. In the end, Maroon came out with a win adding to a record of 4 wins and 2 losses in their tournament.

After the game, and a brief lunch, we met up with the players and our brand new Girls Hockey Coach and director of the TWS Hockey Program, Jeff Pellegrini. Pellegrini has experience in coaching both college and prep level teams: “I’ve been lucky enough to be able to coach college hockey for 18 years. And then the last three years I spent coaching at the prep school level. So experience wise, looking at about 21 years in the game, incredibly exciting to be able to make the transition back to the women’s game, I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to work at Harvard… I was able to go to Northeastern and spent seven years at Northeastern, and we were able to build some, some really special teams and programs.”

When asked what drew Pellegrini to joining our community this is what he had to say: “the size of the school… was perfect, the location was perfect. And then class size, I think he has a lot to do with it as well… my wife’s a teacher, she’ll be teaching [in the] winter as well. She was excited about the class size. And I just think that you know, to be able to have a gorgeous rink that we have on campus, and to be able to use that every single day to improve our ability on the ice is was something that I was looking for and watching and had everything, every possible thing, that you needed to tick off of our list…This is a really special spot. And now that we’ve been able to step foot on campus… we cannot wait to get going.” Jeff’s wife, Tiffany, will be joining the Humanities department this fall as a teacher.

In seeing our players work their magic on the ice, and in getting to know “Coach”, we recognized the potential of next year’s hockey team. Pure talent radiated off of our players, knowledge, and strategy radiated from our new coach, and love for the game beamed out from all of them.

See for yourself!

WINCHENDON, MA: The Winchendon School has named Jeff Pellegrini as Director of Hockey Development and Head Girls’ Coach Hockey. Coach Pellegrini will be joining The Winchendon School community over the summer.

Jeff Pellegrini will arrive at The Winchendon School from Shattuck-St. Mary’s where he has been coaching since the fall of 2018. Previously, Pellegrini racked up 15 years of NCAA Division I and Division III collegiate coaching experience. His experience includes six years coaching women’s hockey at Northeastern University and guiding the Huskies to the program’s first-ever Hockey East Championship (2018). His experience developing players means he will not just take the reins of the varsity girls program, but he will also help drive broad program development, including recruiting and development of all players across The Winchendon School’s teams. He will also be responsible for guiding the mentorship of our hockey coaches.  With Jeff, we expect The Winchendon School’s programs will be consistently ranked among prep school programs, especially for those student-athletes who are seeking both Winchendon’s style of highly personalized and fully immersive learning and the opportunity to play and be recruited at the highest levels.

In discussing the announcement, The Winchendon School’s Executive Director, John Kerney said, “Jeff brings terrific experience and a great reputation to Winchendon.” 

In a joint statement, Director of Athletics, Dan Chretien, Head of School Laurie Lambert, and Dean of Enrollment Management, John Toffey wrote, “One of the most amazing aspects of this search was the very strong references that came in for Jeff – often unsolicited.  We heard from legendary college coaches and heads of top high school programs about how fortunate Winchendon and our students would be if we could “nab” Jeff.   We are thrilled that Jeff, his wife Tiffany, and their two children will be returning to New England and joining the Winchendon community this summer. “

You can follow Jeff Pellegrini on Twitter at @JeffPellegrini. To learn more about The Winchendon School and our approach to education, contact John Toffey, Dean of Enrollment Management at 978-297-4476 or at [email protected]

#GoWinch!

In a year not like any other we’ve ever known, The Winchendon School’s baseball team returns to the Small School Championships after a hiatus due to Covid-19 in 2020.

Varsity Coach John Toffey said, “The team played really well against Providence Country Day. In many ways it may have been our best game of the year. We pitched very well- Andrew Chevarie set the tone on the mound. And Ross Dexter was terrific in closing the game out. Offensively, we had many big hits including a homerun by Will MacLean and multiple extra base hits by Payton Manca. The defense played excellent as we did not commit any errors. It is nice to be playing our best baseball as a team at the end of the year. “

Will the team be repeat champions? We’ll find out Saturday after graduation!