Winning NDA coach cheers on

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

WORCESTER  - Patty Provost was on hand for the Notre Dame Academy field hockey team’s season opener, but for the first time in school history she didn’t coach the Rebels.
Ms. Provost, 70, coached NDA’s field hockey team from its inaugural season in 1976 until she retired this past school year.
When NDA opened its season with a 4-1 victory at St. Bernard’s High School in Fitchburg on Sept. 7, Ms. Provost was a spectator.  Meighan Allison, who starred for Ms. Provost’s 23-0 state championship squad in 1992, debuted as NDA coach.
“I was excited to see one of my proteges taking over the program,” Ms. Provost said. “I was also a little apprehensive about if I wanted the kids from last year to know that I was there. I didn’t want to overstep any bounds. I just wanted to be there for support.”
Mrs. Allison said she was thrilled when Ms. Provost informed her the night before the game that she was planning to attend. The girls were excited too. During the game, Ms. Provost shouted words of encouragement to the Rebels.
“I tried not to open my mouth, but that really didn’t work,” Ms. Provost said.
After the game, the Rebels ran up to her to say hello. A little while later, Ms. Provost gave them a pep talk on the bus before it headed home. She wished them luck and success, and, as she always has, she wished them mostly to have fun. Her former players knew what she was about to say so they joined in, shouting, “fun.”
Ms. Provost always had fun, but she also had the drive to succeed.
“If you don’t have the fire in your belly, get off the field,” she said during an interview at her home.
The day after NDA’s season opener, she watched Kate Phillips, her former NDA player and longtime assistant coach, win her head coaching debut for Leominster High School.
Ms. Provost was an athletic hall-of-famer at Wachusett Regional in her former hometown of Holden and at Worcester State College, where she played field hockey, basketball, tennis and volleyball. She was coaching freshman field hockey at Wachusett when the NDA basketball coach and physical education teacher at the time asked Ms. Provost’s good friend, Ann Ash Zelesky, if she would be interested in replacing her. Mrs. Zelesky was already teaching and coaching at Marian High School so she urged Ms. Provost to apply instead.
Ms. Provost had no idea where NDA was so Mrs. Zelesky had to give her directions. She met with the principal, Sister Justina Daley, and she was hired. The following year, she urged Sister Daley to start field hockey and softball teams to give the students sports to play year-round. Sister Daley agreed, but only if Ms. Provost coached those teams as well. She also became the athletic director.
She coached the softball team for six years and guided the basketball team to 232 victories in 27 seasons before stepping down in 2001. The pandemic postponed what turned out to be her final field hockey season, until last March, and later that month she collected her 600th victory as a coach in that sport when the Rebels defeated St. Paul Diocesan Junior/Senior High School, 4-1, at home.
Ms. Provost retired in June after posting a 603-161-113 record in field hockey for an eye-popping winning percentage of .752. Her teams won 13 Central Mass. championships, including six in a row, and captured the 1992, 2002, 2003 and 2005 state championships. Before the pandemic cancelled postseason play last season, her Rebels had qualified for the playoffs for 31 consecutive years.
So there’s little wonder that in 2011 she became the first high school coach in Massachusetts to be inducted into the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
That’s a tough act to follow for Mrs. Allison, but Ms. Provost has a lot of confidence in her successor.
“The school has this special family feeling,” she said, “and for a family member to take it on is great. People ask, ‘Who is going to fill your shoes?’ I say, ‘Don’t talk like that. No one fills anyone’s shoes.’ She’ll be great. She has a lot of passion for life and field hockey.”
Mrs. Allison admitted that at first she was a bit overwhelmed in taking over for the NDA legend whom she respects so much.
“I was intimidated at first, but now I’m honored,” she said, “and I want to continue a fabulous legacy at Notre Dame.”
Mrs. Allison credited her former NDA coach with inspiring her to become a coach as well. When Mrs. Allison coached at Becker College, Worcester State College and Franklin Pierce University, she used some of the team bonding tactics she learned from Ms. Provost.
Mrs. Zelesky has been best of friends with Ms. Provost since they played sports together at Worcester State and they later coached against one another when Mrs. Zelesky coached at St. Peter-Marian Central Catholic High School. 
“Her dedication, support and love for her student athletes,” Mrs. Zelesky said. “She treated them just like they were her own kids. She was an extension of the parents who were raising these young ladies and she cared about them year-round. She taught them how to win and always gave them that mindset that if you think positive, anything can happen.”
Ms. Provost won’t name her favorite teams or players because she doesn’t want to slight anyone, but she did admit that one of her proudest moments was coaching her niece, Mackenzie (Granger) Abraham, who won two state championships in field hockey and three in tennis.
Ms. Provost’s early field hockey and softball teams played home games across the city before NDA opened its own fields in 1985. 
NDA’s gym during her first decade as coach was smaller than regulation size, but the Rebels made do. Then NDA played its home games at Anna Maria College before the high school opened its current gym in 1990.
Ms. Provost may have been destined to spend decades at NDA because the school was founded in 1951 and that was the year she was born.
She was born on St. Patrick’s Day, but she considers the luckiest day of her life to be the one she met Kevin Lecuyer, her partner for the past 26 years.
“He’s been my rock,” she said. “His love and support has been unending and it’s the most special part of my life.”
Throughout her 45 years at NDA, Ms. Provost can remember missing only one game she was scheduled to coach in any sport. She missed a field hockey game when her mother, Betty, died at age 93 in 2012. Her mother and father, “Whitey,” attended most of her NDA games until they passed away.
Ms. Provost also attended nearly every NDA game in sports she didn’t coach.
During retirement, Ms. Provost plans to attend lots of NDA games, as long as they don’t conflict with her golf, and she’ll tend to her vegetable and flower gardens. She will also visit her 11 grandnieces and grand-nephews, and Mr. Lecuyer’s five grandchildren. She’s attended many weddings of former players and she’s looking forward to attending those of her former players, Jennifer Foley and Erin Iandoli, over the next few months.
“God is good,” she said. “I’m having fun.”
“Patty will forever be a staple of Notre Dame Academy athletics,” said NDA athletic director Caitlyn Germain. “Her championships and awards adorn our campus, but that doesn’t speak to her competitive spirit and passion for everything that is NDA. Her legacy is one that is unmatched and I wish her so much success and happiness in retirement.”