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Hudson resident takes over as athletic director at Salem State University

By Tom King - Sports Writer | Jul 18, 2020

Photo courtesy of Salem State Hudson's Nicolle Wood, left, shown in her role as Salem (Mass.) State women's soccer coach, is now the school's permanent athletic director.

HUDSON – The commute could seem daunting, going from here to Salem, Massachusetts, on a daily basis.

But for newly named Salem State Univerity athletic director Nicolle Wood, it’s almost essential.

“It’s one of those things I’m used to, and I actually value it,” said Wood, a former soccer standout at Dracut (Mass.) High School. “When you’re in athletics, your time is all over the place anyway, so it’s not a traditional morning commute.”

Wood, her husband Patrick and two boys, have lived in Hudson since 2003, interrupted by just a few years back in Dracutt. She knows the ins and outs, knowing that each way it could be really quick or really long on Routes 128, 93 or 3. She’s used the time to be on the phone to get some of her work done, or as she said, “kind of self reflection, kind of decompressing, so if I’m leaving campus after a game, or a long day of meetings, by the time I get home I’m back to being mom.

“I get home, my kids need me. They need me to look over their schoolwork, or have dinner with them.”

Photo courtesy of Salem State Longtime Salem (Mass.) State women's soccer coach Nicolle Wood of Hudson is set to make her mark also as the school's permanent AD after doing the job on an interim basis the last year.

Wood will often, on the way home, call her players after a game, or her assistant coaches. Her in-laws had moved to Hudson, she liked the school system – son Cody plays soccer at Alvirne – and “living in New Hampshire is something I’ve always wanted to do.”

For Wood, she takes over at Salem State in a challenging time as she is preparing for an uncertain fall, with the levels of return for school and athletics. It’s a place she has basically called home since she was a student there in the 1990s, and Wood had had a couple of stints as interim AD, last year as well as 2017, when she was the MASCAC Coach of the Year in women’s soccer.

And she will continue to coach even while serving as AD.

“It’s a really important part of my position,” Wood said. “It’s my self care in a way, at the end of the day during the season, my ability to get out on that field and connect. And train. I still love that part of the job. I think a lot of coaches late in their career just love the game days, but I really love the training. I love the passion the girls put into working hard when no one’s there to watch.”

Wood says she has a good support system of coaches and administrators that will help her run the department when she does have to be on the field.

Photo courtesy of Salem State Hudson's Nicolle Wood, shown celebrating her 100th career coaching victory at Salem State, was recently named the Massachusetts school's permanent athletic director.

The NCAA is giving Salem State a grant, Wood said, that will enable her to have an assistant as well.

Ironically, Salem State was Wood’s “backup school” when she was recruited out of Dracut to play soccer as a goalie by a few of the bigger schools. She had committed to Quinnipiac in Hamden, Connecticut, which was making the move from Division II to Division I, and study physical therapy.

But by the time fall of her freshman college year arrived, her father, Roger Cote, had become very ill. Cote passed away six years ago, and Wood and her sister had set up a road race in his name in Dracut.

So Wood decided to go to Salem State for a year and then transfer to Quinipiac. After basically ignoring Salem State’s recruiting efforts earlier in the process, she found herself writing a handwritten letter to the Vikings coach back then “asking if he would give me a chance.”

The chance was given, as she had to be a third stringer. But once she spent time at Salem, it became love at first sight.

“From day one, I knew it was the best thing that had happened to me,” Wood said.

In fact, her father had told her, as he recovered, “I probably helped you end up exactly where you were supposed to be by getting sick.”

“As I look back, he was probably right,” Wood said. “I instantly felt like I was at home. It was a real difficult first year with my Dad’s health. Such an uncertainty. But the support, the people, I think I was extremely lucky to end up at Salem.”

Months later, in January, she got a phone call from Quinnipiac to go over her expected transfer. Wood called it off.

Wood, ultra competitive, liked that competitive atmosphere at Salem to “do whatever we could to compete with the people at those private schools. Being an underdog, I took a lot of pride in that experience.

“By the second week in preseason, I knew that was my home and I never turned away from it.”

Wood felt a sense of gratitude for Salem State welcoming her with open arms and giving her an opportunity. “This opportunity (as permanent AD) allows me to pay that forward,” she said. “And give that opportunity to other students. That’s what makes it so rewarding.”

Of course, she didn’t stay completely at Salem State. After graduation, she worked at the North Shore Jewish Community Center as the director of sports, health and fitness, and also a director of programs at a sports medicine company in Peabody, Mass.

But after a year, she was asked back to Salem State as an assistant (goalkeeper) coach, part-time. So she kept her hand in it, and was promoted to first assistant coach. But after having her oldest son, Wood felt she needed a change. At that same time, in 2007, she was named Vikings head women’s soccer coach.

Had she always wanted to coach?

Originally no, she was studying fitness and athletics training. But on the bus ride back from a game her sophomore year, her coach, legendary Vikings Hall of Fame coach Stephen Sherriff, tapped her on the shin guard walking by and said, “You’re going to be a really good coach one day, Nic.”

“That was it,” she said. “If Sherriff thought I should coach, right then and there, I knew I needed to pursue coaching. … It was really as simple as that.”

Her first foray into coaching was right after graduating as the assistant varsity girls soccer coach at Wilmington (Mass.) High School.

“That was my first paid coaching job and Sue Hendee saw something in me and offered it to me,” Wood said. “She is a legend in the area as a coach and really gave me my first shot. I only stayed that first year and it was Sue who encouraged me to take a shot at the college level.”

But taking the next step into athletic administration was something she was also thinking about. She had to do a lot of marketing, planning, etc. in her fitness jobs to acclimate her.

But the change really came at Salem State.

“I had imagined coaching would be my primary passion,” Wood said. “I would coach at Salem, I would maybe build up and coach somewhere at a high level and coaching would be my primary responsibility.”

But the AD at the time she was coaching at Salem, Tim Shea, began giving her other opportunities.

“I started to see the impact, and the opportunity on the administrative side,” she said. “Being able to reach out beyond my 25 players – get to know the school’s values and the principles they operated by and how we could really tie that in to what we’re doing in athletics. That’s really when I started to shift.”

In fact, Shea was the first person she called when she was named permanent AD.

“He saw something in me that he thought would be an important additon to what we were doing at the university,” she said. “I’m really grateful for that.”

Of course, Wood has to think of the big picture now.

“Especially in a state setting,” Wood said. “We don’t have any disolusions about coaching. You’re coaching but you also have some heavy administrative responsibilities. That side of things gives you a window into what the univeristy stands for. …I really do enjoy planning, and bringing people together, and getting them to achieve more than they could.”

And now this summer she has committed her time to the administrative job that is now completely hers.

That drive is even more valuable, so don’t expect a move to the North Shore anytime soon.

“I can’t imagine a quick commute at this point,” she said. “I can’t imagine turning on or turning off that – like I said, I’m very competitive, it’s something I can’t turn off – having that hour, hour and 15 minutes to kind of get (the competition) out of my blood is a good thing.”

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