Emma Sawatzky, Staff Writer
March 8, 2024
As the New England athletic sphere grows more competitive, Tom Resor and Alex Gallagher continue to lead championship programs.
In 1986, Nobles Girls Varsity Hockey Head Coach Tom Resor began his decorated Nobles career. Working at Lawrence Academy for three years prior, Nobles had long been on Resor’s radar. “I think I was always attracted to a great school, and then later an opportunity to be a head coach,” Resor said. Arriving as the Boys Varsity Hockey Coach and English Faculty, Resor could not have foreseen the journey that would lead him to 800 wins.
Resor’s esteemed legacy began with 14 years in the boys’ hockey program. “I loved it. We had some great, great teams and great players,” Resor said. Before the inaugural Flood-Marr Holiday Tournament, Resor promised his team that he would cut his hair on stage if they won. He sported a mohawk for the following months.
By 2000, Resor had five children playing hockey at different schools, two of whom played for the Nobles girls’ team. “If I was going to have a chance to coach my own kids at Nobles, making the move to the girls’ program just made sense,” Resor said. After years of sharing the Omni ice in practice, he had witnessed the girls’ team’s prowess for years. Resor knew he was inheriting something special.
As Resor transitioned to full-time work in the College Office in 2016, hockey remained a pillar of his Nobles experience. Likening the team to a family, Resor views the educator-coach model as foundational to school culture. “After our teaching or administrative duties, we get to go hang out and do something that we love,” Resor said.
Above anything else, Resor credits his players’ tenacity and drive with the team’s continued triumph. “Obviously, we’ve had great success if you look at wins or losses, but I think the consistent high level of play makes the difference,” Resor said. “There’s hardly been a game where we can say, you know, it wasn’t a good performance. Maybe the outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but I think that says a lot about the kinds of players that I’ve been able to coach.”
Reaching a similar milestone is Girls Varsity Basketball Head Coach Alex Gallagher (N ’90), breaking 600 career wins. “You know, I’ve told people a lot that it makes me feel both lucky and old,” Gallagher said.
In the spring of 1990, Gallagher walked at Nobles graduation. Believing that marked the end of an era, he had no idea that he would be back in Dedham so soon. “I had a good Nobles experience, I really did. I had great friends and unbelievable teachers who have had an impact on my life to this very day. But when I left here, Nobles was a much different place than it is now,” Gallagher said.
After being offered the chance to lead a Nobles summer league team by boys’ basketball coach Doug Guy, Gallagher felt called to coaching. “I fell in love with it,” Gallagher said. When Guy left Nobles to coach at Boston University, then-Headmaster Richard Baker offered Gallagher the Head Boys Varsity Basketball coaching position. “I was only 21, going on 22, years old. And I felt so lucky and blessed to have that opportunity,” Gallagher said.
After leaving to work at Weston High School and Stonehill College, Gallagher found his way back to Nobles as the Boys Varsity Assistant Coach. Within two years, he became the Girls Varsity Head Coach, where he has thrived ever since. “The last 23 years, leading the Girls’ Basketball team has been, outside of my family, the best thing that’s happened to me in my life,” Gallagher said.
Like Resor, Gallagher gives all credit to the players he has worked with throughout his career. “There are so many great coaches who have never been given the chance to coach the kids that I’ve been fortunate enough to coach, and I am humbled by it every day,” Gallagher said.
Evidently, the appreciation is mutual. “Coach inspires us to be relentless, and surrounds the team with love and care, while also encouraging us to be the best we can be,” Chloe Leng (Class IV) said of Gallagher’s impact.
In the hockey program, Resor is just as beloved. “He knows when he needs to be serious and push us, but also acknowledges the times we will respond better to a more lighthearted approach. I think that is what makes his methods so effective,” Calleigh Brown (Class II) said of Resor’s unique coaching style.
Both Resor and Gallagher champion core values that have held constant throughout their careers. “In hockey, we have a saying: ‘If you respect the game, good things will happen,’” Resor said. “It’s just honoring it, a game that you can really play most of your life.”
Grounded in Gallagher’s coaching philosophy, the basketball team, too, will continue to shine. “The biggest things in our program [are] the three words love, serve, and care. We say that if every day you love yourself, and you love your teammates, if every day you serve yourself well and serve your teammates well, and if every day you care for yourself and you care for your teammates, [it] will be a championship program,” Gallagher said.
(Photo Credits: Tim Carey)