Steve Scanlon relieved of hockey, soccer coaching posts at Wilmington High

If he wasn’t patrolling the soccer sidelines, he was perched atop the hockey bench.

But Steve Scanlon, a longtime head coach at Wilmington High, was recently relieved of his coaching duties.

Scanlon has served as the boys soccer coach at Wilmington since 2000 and has been the boys hockey coach since 1992. Scanlon has amassed a 595-452-145 combined record in both sports, while claiming two hockey state championships and 11 league titles and four league crowns in soccer.

Scanlon received a text from Wilmington athletic director Dennis Ingram to call him a few weeks after the team’s hockey banquet. Scanlon was told both of his jobs at the school had been posted.

“I felt blindsided,” Scanlon said. “I thought for sure, like we do every year, we sit down for end-of-the-season meetings. Both parties bring up concerns, and you kind of go from there.”

Scanlon was diagnosed with throat cancer in January 2023 and has been receiving chemotherapy treatments since. He said his future at Wilmington was open for discussion but that he wasn’t granted an opportunity to talk it through.

“I think after the amount of time and the success that I deserved better at the end,” he said. “And we could have had some discussions about things and come to some kind of common decision, not this.”

Ingram said he appreciated Scanlon’s time and effort that he dedicated to the athletic program during his tenure.

“Steve was such an important person to me in my development as coaching,” Ingram said. “I’ve got nothing but the utmost respect for him, and we just wish him the best if he chooses to do anything in the future.”

Scanlon was a three-sport athlete at WHS in soccer, hockey and baseball before graduating in 1980. He played soccer and hockey at Curry College.

His coaching career began in 1985 as the boys soccer head coach at Methuen High. He coached two seasons and won a Merrimack Valley Conference small school title before later coming back to the soccer scene in 1990, where he coached the Westford Academy boys team for eight years. He won a state title in 1992 while capturing three league titles and four sectional titles titles in Westford before replacing his father, Dick, in Wilmington.

Meanwhile, he started as the JV hockey coach in Wilmington in 1985 and stayed in that role for six years until taking over at the helm. He coached 39 total years in the hockey program between JV and varsity.

He’s reached an all-time record in hockey of 386-275-74, while recording a 338-228-101 mark in soccer between his three coaching stops. In total, he’s coached 1,473 games with a 724-503-246 record.

Scanlon is enshrined in the Massachusetts State Coaches Association Hall of Fame in hockey and soccer. He’s also in the WHS Hall of Fame as a coach and for the two state championship hockey teams.

“You got to have the right players,” Scanlon said. “I think we’ve had good players here. All my teams in the different towns I’ve coached in, we had good, dedicated players, and good, dedicated assistant coaches and guys that were really committed to winning.”

Scanlon said he never could have imagined the success he enjoyed as a coach. He’ll never forget the consecutive state titles with the hockey team in 2012 and 2013.

“It was incredible,” Scanlon said. “It was a culmination of everybody who ever played hockey in Wilmington. We always had that goal to win the state title. So when that came, that was a dream come true for sure.

“And then being able to do it a second time was just incredible. To see it through everybody’s eyes a second time. It was unreal.”

Scanlon’s teams endured some struggles as of late, turning in a 7-41-7 mark in soccer the past three seasons and a 27-54-4 record in hockey the last four seasons. He has also coached through the last few seasons with his cancer diagnosis, something he said was challenging at times.

“I missed very little, and if I had to, my kids and my assistants did a great job,” Scanlon said. “All my fellow coaches in the rest of the league, they all knew the situation and they were all super supportive.”

But Scanlon found things to appreciate in each and every season. Last winter, he took pride in Wilmington’s ability to overcome three deficits against Reading, a perennial power in the Middlesex League, before eventually falling in overtime.

“All the seasons are special, even losing seasons,” Scanlon said. “The kids do great things for you … each team makes you proud in a different way.”

But nothing will make him prouder than being able to represent his town the way he did for so many years.

“My proudest thing coaching was coaching all that time at my own school,” Scanlon said. “To be a coach of your alma mater for all those hockey seasons, it was something I took a lot of pride in.”