After the departure of Holbrook Middle-High School’s athletic director, Mr. Case, HMHS welcomed alumni Mr. William Holden.

Even with his huge passion for sports, Mr. Holden enjoys classical and rock music. He frequently goes to concerts and music shows. He’s passionate about reading. “I think I always surprised people because I love reading. And prior to becoming an athletic director, I would read like a book a week and I haven’t read a book since.” His favorites are murder mysteries, crime-related books, or anything fiction. 

Mr. Holden has previously been a college basketball coach for 16 years, coaching for universities such as Harvard, Bentley College, and Colgate University. He’s also had experience as an athletic director at the Middlesex School.

His job consists of “being the day-to-day operations director of athletics.” Duties include scheduling sports games, ensuring referees at games, informing people on social media of sports-related announcements, and much more. 

When asked about his favorite parts about working in Holbrook, Holden states, “The biggest thing for me is that this is home to me. I grew up here, I went to high school here” Holden states,  “I lived in the town from when I was born until the early 90’s, when I finally moved on to get into college coaching. So there’s a lot of family history here for me.” Being within the sports education field runs through Mr. Holden’s family as his father also taught in Holbrook as a physical education teacher at the previous South School and an athletic director 40 years ago. 

Holden explains that fitting into Holbrook Middle-High School was a surprise to him. Going from a private to a public school was a huge change because “kids are of a different mindset here and it’s a little challenging.” When attending his first few sports games, he was shocked at how amped-up fans can be.

While he’s still adjusting to the new school, Mr. Holden states, “I enjoy being back here. I’ve learned a lot in my first two months on the job.” He still has a lot to learn, but he looks forward to making an impact on kids’ lives in a positive way.