On a hot Friday afternoon, Ryan Tracy, the new coach of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School girls’ varsity soccer team, demonstrated how to do a touch-and-pass through-ball drill. As he headed the ball, it smacked him in the face and sent his baseball cap flying. The girls erupted in laughter for a moment but quickly went back into focus.
Tracy juggles three roles these days. He is a student teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, head coach of the girls’ varsity soccer team there and a graduate student pursuing his master’s in teaching at Tufts University.
While working full time as a graduate admissions counselor at Tufts, Tracy said he craved a sense of community and found himself coaching soccer at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, his alma mater. After a few years with the junior varsity team, he applied for the head coach position with the varsity team.
The role opened up after Meg Willette, former head coach of the team from 2019 to 2024, stepped down into the assistant coach position.
“When I heard the opportunity was coming up for me to be able to jump in as the varsity coach this year, I was really excited,” Tracy said, “because it’s a lot of kids that I had been working with over the last four years.”
Thomas Arria, athletics director at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, assessed Tracy through the application process.
“Ryan was nothing but outside of exceptional,” Arria said. “He was clear with his goals for the program of how he wanted to grow as a coach and wanted student athletes to grow and get better, and he blew away the interview committee as a whole.”
The team has had a successful season so far, winning its first league game against Somerville, 1-0. The team’s record stands 4-2. Last season the team went 5-10-1.
Tracy had multiple positions working with youths and young adults when he was an undergrad at Brandeis University. He was a Global Youth Summit administrator, guiding students visiting from around the world for a weeklong medical conference. After his time at Brandeis, he continued working with college and high school students, organizing soccer prep leagues.
Tracy joined Tufts in 2019, working in the admissions department before becoming associate director of graduate admissions in 2023, a position he still holds. At the same time, he sought a position in which he could feel connected to a community.
“I knew I always wanted to teach and get into educational roles where I’m working more directly with students,” Tracy said, “so I’ve started to pursue a master’s degree in teaching.”
Despite the excitement of stepping into a position, Tracy said he has run into challenges handling multiple roles.
“There’s the part of my brain where I’m the admissions professional, and I’m locked in on how to develop strong admissions pipelines, continuing our recruitment,” Tracy said. “Then I’m putting on my student teacher hat, where I’m observing and stepping into the classroom and seeing what other people at range are doing and trying to think about how learning from them can help me to build my own practice in the way I approach my own pedagogy.”
Beyond serving as varsity head coach, Tracy oversees all levels of girls’ soccer at the high school. He leans on his assistant coaches for help and guidance.
Wins and goals are ideal, Tracy said, but his priority for the team is improving players’ confidence and giving them the skills to tackle challenges in life.
Tracy said he went into the season with nothing other than high hopes. He said coaching girls has been a rewarding experience.
“At the varsity level, it’s making sure that these players have a positive growth experience, personally and socially,” Tracy said. “Also how they can be a team member but also as an individual, both inside and outside the sport.”
This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
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