Marijke Alsbach, Interim Athletic Director at Milton Academy

Marijke Alsbach, the well-loved, successful teacher and coach with a 22-year history at Milton has stepped into the position of Milton’s athletic director on an interim basis. Marijke has coached field hockey, volleyball, tennis and golf. Many, but not all of her teams have been girls’ teams. Girls’ teams at Milton have a remarkable 12-year success record. Soccer, field hockey, ice hockey, basketball, volleyball, squash, track and tennis, in particular, have frequently earned top league standing, along with division and even national championships. Mike Kinnealey, formerly the athletic director at Milton, has taken the position of assistant director of admissions and director of financial aid at Belmont Hill School.

Marijke’s coaching style is well-defined and familiar to hundreds of alumni. She believes in a deep feeder system as a key element of successful varsity teams. In an interview for this magazine in 2001, Marijke said, “Most people think you should put your best coaches at the varsity level. Putting excellent coaches at levels where they can teach the correct skills early is equally as important. Then students have time to build upon those important basic skills throughout the years. By varsity level, they have a solid foundation and know what to do.”

“Team building, participation, winning and excellence are what I look at,” Marijke said, “all coaches are supposed to do that. I coached girls’ tennis for 10 years – 1983 to 1993 – and in that time we were the ISL champions six times, the New England champions six times, and national champions twice. I love to coach and winning championships is great, but it’s not the end of the world if the team doesn’t do well. I’m a successful coach if the players are happy and have learned from and enjoyed each other.

“Teams do well when a good coach comes back, year after year; the team benefits from the consistency. Our goal should be to have more coaches return year after year, or season after season.”

Marijke will guide the Athletics and Physical Education department and participate on a committee charged with identifying the next strategic steps for athletics at Milton. Consultant Dan Covell will assist the committee; Dan has helped a number of New England colleges with outstanding academic programs define a clear mission for their athletic program. Marijke’s work, and that of the committee, will give clear direction to the search process for the new athletic director.

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