Personal Profile:
Wally skated recreationally until his senior year of high school when he decided to begin training competitively. Upon graduating college, he retired from competitive figure skating in part because he enjoyed, and wanted to explore, his coaching and the relationships that he was fostering with students on the ice as they learned, employed, and enjoyed strategies and skills that helped them on and off the ice.

That desire soon spread to outside the rink. Since 2004, Wally has taught high school English, and currently teaches 10th, 11th, and 12th grade classes at Norwell High School, a position that gives him tremendous satisfaction. Outside of the rink and school, he enjoys cooking, boating, travel, running, and most importantly, being with his wife and two daughters.

Formal Education:
B.A. English, Boston College
M.A.T. English, Brown University

Coaching Philosophy:
I approach my relationships with my students in the classroom much like I do with my students on the ice. My planning and my lessons are built around the concept of planning backwards with a key sense of each particular student’s objectives, and consequently basing daily lessons on a fundamental pedagogy and skill-set acquisition needed towards meeting those goals while keeping in mind the student’s own independent learning styles and needs.

In the same way that I value giving my English students confidence to take informed intellectual risks in the classroom, I believe strongly in the intellectual component of figure skating. My goal is for my skating students to feel confident in the skills that they can employ to problem-solve independently during practice. Particularly with young students, I try to build confidence and self-esteem so that they can leave the rink feeling confident in taking risks, understanding that mistakes are normal and important for growth, and believing in their own abilities to problem-solve in the world outside the rink walls.