This spring, the Boys Varsity Tennis team will see something new and exciting on the court: a head coach who is also a Nobles faculty member. History and Social Science Faculty Nick Cary joined the Noble and Greenough community this year as the school’s first boys’ tennis coach and teacher, forging a connection between athletics and academics.
Cary’s ties to Nobles run much deeper than one might expect. “I think coming in, I was familiar with it because I went to Belmont Hill years ago,” he said. “But my brother went here, and other family members — cousins, really close family friends — have gone here, so it’s not as if I was coming in not knowing that much about it.” These connections made Cary’s transition much smoother, especially seeing familiar faces among staff members. “The fact that teachers and coaches that my brother had, and the fact that so many of them are still here, is automatically comforting for me,” Cary said.
Cary began the year teaching ninth-grade students alongside History and Social Science Faculty Louis Barassi, who later retired. This helped Cary adjust quickly to the Nobles’ environment. He said, “[This experience] was a great soft landing for me.”
Cary also had the opportunity to get some coaching in before the tennis season began. He said, “I get some muscle memory going before the start of the spring.” Cary said.
Cary brings years of experience to the Nobles tennis team from his coaching roles at several other schools. He explained that after graduating from Tufts University, where he was a member of the tennis team, he worked for a year in the Midwest at a boarding school, where he both taught and coached tennis. He later returned to Tufts not to teach, but to serve as an assistant tennis coach for two years. He acknowledged that he worked mostly at boarding schools, but noted that there are many similarities among all those schools and Nobles.
In the past, Cary noted that spring often goes by too fast, and he never got enough time to connect further with his team members. “I would sometimes let myself down, thinking, okay, every other practice, I’m going to check in with these couple of guys just to see how they are,” he said. “And sometimes practice would just go by.”
Now that he teaches at the school as well, Cary will have many opportunities to forge relationships with each player. “It’s nice that I get to get a pulse check during the school day,” he said. “Or if someone’s not feeling great, I get to sit and catch up.”
Boys Varsity Tennis Captain Jack Babka (Class I) said, “[It’s] good to have someone on campus that can kind of help with the team in that regard. We also have our old coach from last year, too. It should be a good balance. I’m excited for the season to officially start. I think it will be good.”
Babka also highlighted Cary’s tennis background as a strong asset to the team and its overall performance. “I know he played college tennis at a pretty high level,” Babka said. “I think it’ll be a good addition just in practice, so you can play with them. It’s a really good balance between teacher and coach. He has a ton of experience.”
As the season kicks off, Cary hopes to combine his expertise in both his roles as teacher and coach to support students, both on and off the court, in whatever way he can. Lexie Hoffmeister (Class III), a student in Cary’s Global History II Class this year, said, “He brings really good energy to class each day. He is a great teacher.”
With Cary’s extensive experience in both academics and athletics, he is extremely eager to help both the tennis and the overall Nobles community continue to grow, while also forging a new path for the school as the first in his dual role as tennis coach and teacher.
