Windham varsity field hockey coach's passion for sport earns 100th career win

By Matt Pascarella

Windham varsity field hockey coach Cory DiDonato has always had a passion for field hockey. She returned to field hockey as a coach after playing in high school and college because she loves teaching players how to be strong young women and thrives in a competitive team atmosphere. She coached Windham’s varsity field hockey team from 2003 to 2008, and after taking time off to have her son, returned in 2016 and has been the varsity coach ever since. On Tuesday, Oct. 15, DiDonato earned her 100th career win as a Windham coach when her team took down Sanford 2-1 in a thrilling game.

Windham High School varsity field hockey coach Cory
DiDonato, center, celebrates her 100th victory as WHS
defeated Sanford, 2-1. on Tuesday, Oct. 15. DiDonato has
been the coach at Windham for 13 non-consecutive years
and is incredibly dedicated to the girls and success of
the program. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA      

“I come back every year because ... they are like daughters for me,” said DiDonato. “I love them, and they give me the competitive drive. It’s the best group of girls; a lot of them I’ve had in class as middle schoolers, and I’ve gotten to see them grow all the way up through (varsity). I come back every year because I enjoy spending every fall with them and I get to help hopefully mold them into good people who know how to work hard for something that they want.”

DiDonato was an Educational Technician at Windham Middle School from 2003 to 2008. Since 2016, she’s taught sixth grade English Language Arts and Social Studies at Windham Middle School.

“She’s the main reason I stuck with it, and she really just pushed me to be the best version of myself,” said Windham senior Zocia LaWind, who scored twice in the first quarter of the Sanford game. “I think the main reason is she believes in each and every one of us with her whole heart, she would do anything for us.”

WHS Junior Varsity coach Lyndsay Stretch and DiDonato, along with other coaches, work well with the youth and the middle school programs. When there is consistency in the coaching staff, DiDonato has found it makes a big difference.

“Cory embodies dedication to the program,” said Stretch, who has been with the program since 2017 and has coached alongside DiDonato since 2021. “She has instilled in me the values of perseverance, community, and cultivating leaders off the field. Her lifelong passion for athletics has fostered incredible teams and athletes. She teaches them to dig deep, strive for excellence, and lead by example for the younger players. Cory’s nurturing spirit creates a family-like bond within the team. Each year she brings in a college coach to run the players through some of the top skills and drills being taught at advanced levels. I love how much the team loves this opportunity and it empowers them to believe they have what it takes to take their skills beyond high school.”

To DiDonato, 100 Windham wins means she got to spend 13 seasons with amazing young ladies who she’s gotten to see turn into fine young women. Hopefully this means she’s teaching them how to work hard for something and how good it feels when they finally achieve that goal.

“My goal was to take a program that ... hadn’t historically been strong and build them from the ground up,” said DiDonato. “Both times I’ve come back that’s been my goal; it’s much more rewarding to take a program and teach kids how to work hard for something and not just be handed a winning program. Two years ago, when we made it to regionals, I talked about back in 2006 ... we won our prelim and we had a fire engine escort back, that’s how big of a deal it was to even make it to the playoffs ... it's cool to see how far we've come and it's because of them. They show up and work hard every day, so it’s definitely because of them.”

The past 13 years has taught DiDonato how to adapt depending on the team’s needs; some need a tough love approach, while others thrive under more compassion, but she always holds their feet to the flames to keep them motivated. It’s been incredibly rewarding for her.

The 100 wins is a testament to her teams and how hard they work. While DiDonato does put a lot of time into coaching and works very hard trying to make the team the best it can possibly be, it is her teams over the years who have earned 100 wins. Windham is ready to show people that they deserve to be in it, so they came ready to work. DiDonato wants to make it deep into the playoffs this year.

“A lot of us knew that it was coach’s 99th win before (Sanford) so we were really hoping we could push ourselves to do it for her,” said senior Grace Joly. “It was a really good motivator for us, we just went in as positive as we could and tried our hardest. I think we were all ecstatic for her, sometimes it’s hard for us to push ourselves to do everything we can, but when you’re doing it for someone else greater than us, it definitely helps.” <

Windham town hall offices shifting to four-day work week

By Ed Pierce

Starting June 21, Windham Town Hall employees will be shifting to a four-day work week.

Following a discussion during a Windham Town Council workshop earlier this month, Windham Town Manager Barry Tibbetts consulted department heads and other town hall staff and asked them how to best accommodate residents while creating a competitive work/life balance for employees.

Employees of the Windham Town Clerk's office will adapt 
to a new work schedule soon as Town Hall workers will be
shifting to a new four-day work schedule starting June 21.
PHOTO BY LINDA MORRELL

Tibbetts said other nearby communities have adopted four-day work week schedules and currently having a number of municipal vacancies, Windham needs to be as competitive as possible to attract and retain workers. During the previous workshop, several councilors expressed concerns about town hall offices being closed on Fridays and those seeking services having to wait until Monday for employees to be available.

“To be competitive, we need to be similar to towns around us yet be accessible for services,” Tibbetts told town council members during a meeting on Tuesday night.

According to Tibbetts, department heads told him that the greatest demand for town hall services is earlier in the day and not in the late afternoon and evening. He said many services available at town hall can also be found easily and accomplished online.

Because the town charter grants him the authority to determine operational hours for employees, Tibbetts said he’s willing to try shifting to a four-day work week for town hall staff on a six-month trial basis.

“After review of the proposed operational times, discussions with staff at multiple levels, comparisons with similar municipalities, I have made the decision to amend the operational open times for the town,” Tibbetts said.

The new hours effective June 21 will be 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays, and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursdays, and closed on Fridays.

“This date coincides with the time-recording system for payroll. This change does not affect the total hours worked; those remain the same. I asked staff to provide what they thought were the best times for providing services to the public with a four-day work week schedule,” Tibbetts said. “The majority of the staff felt the following time, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., worked best for the public with an extended day. The town allows for numerous opportunities on-line to re-register vehicles, smaller recreational vehicles, trailers, pets, hunting & fishing licenses, recreational programming, voting registration, request vital records, and taxes.”

He said advances in technology opportunities further enhance the convenience of reaching the town hall and that if a resident cannot make the time frame of hours, a friend or relative can process a re-registration for them or they can use mail.

With the change, public entry to municipal offices on Fridays will not be available, excluding the gym at town hall, which has a separate access point.

In a memo to councilors, Tibbetts pointed out that some senior level and other staff members may work on Fridays to process necessary filings as needed, but public access to municipal offices will be closed.

“Fire, Police and Public Works currently work a variable schedule with no major impacts from this proposed four-day work week,” Tibbetts said. “There may be some union language changes to work through on existing contracts. The library currently has a six-day week and would look to maintain that schedule with modifications to hours open and closing while coordinating staff to have two consecutive days off.

Tibbetts said that the June 21 effective date for the change has been established to provide an eight-week window to let the public know about the new hours for the Windham Town Hall.

“It’ll be a bit of an educational process and it’ll take some time, but we need to move forward with this,” Tibbetts told councilors.

He says a summary report will be provided to the Town Council in six months about the effectiveness of changing the hours for operations and any next steps, along with tracking of transactions for analysis. <