In Laconia Schools: Alan Wool displays his Laconia Pride as sports historian

Laconia is a special place. As a person who was privileged to have the honor of working in its school system for 15 years, I have had the opportunity to meet and develop friendships with many of the community members within this little City by the Lake. I have also been given the chance to be a part of different groups that have worked to make Laconia a better place for everyone, two of those being Stand Up Laconia, a group that was literally born out of the Laconia Middle School PTO and Better Together. To me, these groups and the people who invested in them, represent a whole bunch of what is amazing about Laconia.

At the same time, it is the individuals of our community that really make this an amazing community. I would like to offer one of these people, Alan Wool, as an exemplar of the Laconia Pride I know and love. Mr. Wool is a Laconia High School alumnus from the graduating class of 1968. When he attended our high school, he participated in track and field, baseball and football, developing relationships with his peers and his coaches that shaped his life forever. His recollections of his coaches are inspiring and represent what our schools should and must be; places where futures are nurtured, planned and acted upon.

Mr. Wool’s passion for our school, which is based on his experiences while attending here, has turned into action. I was honored to meet with him to discuss his vision for a track and field record board, a task that he is committed to because of the “influence of my coaches.” Those coaches were Irwin Smith, Socrates Babotas and Ken Parady. Part of their legacy is that their influence over those they coached continues to this day.

Mr. Wool’s vision for this task is now four years old. During that time he has researched Laconia High School’s track and field history, mainly on microfiche, with the constant support of Randy Brough, director of the Laconia Public Library. He has also scoured the Laconia Evening Citizen’s records to find accurate information. His best source of track and field information, however, always came from Mr. Smith. To quote Mr. Wool, this was because he “always explained what happened in color!” When it came to acquiring more recent data, Mr. Wool relied on former Sachem coaches from more recent times, Chris Byers and Paul Phelps, a member of our Laconia Hall of Fame who helped restart it in 2014.

This is not the first time Mr. Wool has worked to present the amazing history of Sachem Nation. He also researched the Balky Boyson Sportsmanship Award, identifying every recipient going back to the 1950s. This award is at the heart of our athletics mission, “Good people first, good players second!” That trophy now sits, completely refurbished, in the Sachem Hall of Fame.

Wool was a three-sport Sachem athlete, inducted into the Laconia High School Hall of Fame and is a sitting member of the Hall of Fame Committee. He truly represents what is great about our community and stands for the pride we in Sachem Nation have for what public education can do to impact the lives of those who commit to their education. Thank you sir, for your constant support and effort to uphold our community’s pride.

Go Sachems!

Jim McCollum, principal, Laconia High School