Scott Dowling is overjoyed to finally get a chance to coach the Wilton-Lyndeborough softball team after the retirement of legendary coach Denny Claire. (Courtesy photo)

How do you replace legendary softball coaches?

With someone who has either coached with them or played for them.

That was the approach taken by the Wilton-Lyndeborough and Milford High School administrations. Warriors legendary coach Denny Claire two years ago retired on top, with WLC winning the Division IV title.

And Milford coach Jim Rines this past winter decided to hang them up. Both coaches had multiple championships between them, and it was time to hand over the reins.

Enter WLC’s Scott Dowling and Milford’s Julia Mazzeo. Dowling had been the middle school coach in Wilton, but later moved up to be Claire’s right hand man. Mazzeo, meanwhile, played for Rines while graduating in 2015 after a stellar four-year career. She went on to play college ball at Assumption, graduating in 2019. She also is a grad assistant for New England College.

Dowling also had coached at the youth level, so he knows all the players.

And he knows a lot of softball, thanks to Claire, whose tutelage he calls “priceless.”

“No matter how you look at it, fortunate for him (retiring) and me,” said Dowling, who was all set to coach last spring before the plug got pulled on the spring season. But he had done a lot of prep work back in the winter of 2020 with the players he has now.

“The girls I have this year I actually started working with them last year in January, up until the COVID situation happened,” Dowling said. “So I was able to build a good repertoire with the newer, moving up from the middle school, those girls moving up. I’ve worked with those girls my entire coaching career. Those are the same girls I worked with at the youth level.”

That’s helped make things, even with the year away, a seamless transition.

“Absolutely,” Dowling said. “It’s made it so much easier than say if I was a stranger who came from a different school. There’s already a lot of familiarity between myself and the players.

“They knew what I expected, I knew what I was getting. It’s actually been a blessing.”

What’s the biggest thing Dowling has learned from Claire?

“I learned just to be strong, more positive, and understand that no matter what we’re up against, if we remain positive and work hard, we can accomplish anything,” Dowling said. “We can move mountains. That’s something I took directly from him. He had prove it, over the course of his fantastic 32-year career, and it was really something he instilled.”

Dowlng remembers what Claire said between the Division IV semis and the finals vs. Profile and then Epping.

“We were going to see what their record was, we’re well aware of what the seed was,” Dowling said. “He said, ‘Just stay positive, don’t get down on each other. If we keep fighting and having fun, we can win this thing. That attitude stuck with me. It’s a great thing he taught me.”

And thus Dowling is looking forward to starting the season next week.

“I’m extremely excited,” he said. “During the time I was an assistant with Denny, I was active in the travel (softball) community as well, coaching. I’ve been champing at the bit to officially take over the reins of WLC, get out there and get started.”

But, he says, he’s not trying to fill the shoes of a legend. “He was a legend I don’t think I’ll ever accomplish the things he accomplished,” Dowling said. “I just want to be able to take what he taught me and utilize it in a way that will make him proud and the school proud.

“Filling his shoes would be impossible.”

That’s the case, too, in Milford, where Jim Rines, a year or two after a long stint at Souhegan, came over to the Spartans and left with two championships in his back pocket.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to coach a team that I once played for,” Mazzeo said. “Taking over a program that has had its share of success is something that I’m honored to fill.”

And she knows how she’s going to do it, too.

“I’m looking forward to working with each girl and giving them the opportunity to be successful,” she said. “I have big shoes to fill but I believe that I have a wide range of experience to continue wo improve the Milford softball program.”

And that’s how you replace a legend.