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Coach? Dad? These pairs mixed football and family successfully at Hudson and Holliston


Coach? Dad? These pairs mixed football and family successfully at Hudson and Holliston

Jake Attaway emerged from the pile on the other side of the first down marker. His quarterback sneak gained the yard Hudson needed to effectively end Saturday's Division 6 state semifinal against Norwell and send the Hawks to their first Super Bowl in more than a decade.

He looked over at his coach, Zac Attaway. Zac Attaway locked eyes with his quarterback, his son.

"When we got that first down, the first person I looked at was him. The first person he looked at was me," Jake Attaway said. "We made eye contact, and we knew it was over."

Only that look passed between them. They save the hugs for home. Zac is a coach for his team in that moment whether its celebration or dejection. Jake understands. There are more than 70 other players on the roster. The coach's son can't receive special treatment.

"Sometimes on the field, I'll say a little something, he'll say something back," Jake said. "But overall, just on the field, it's football."

Zac was a father before he was a coach. He had Jake when he was 23 years old but started coaching his son and his friends in kindergarten. As a coach's kid himself, Zac knew how to manage the arrangement. His father Jim was the defensive coordinator at Hudson for Zac's four years in the program and coached for 40 years.

"My father always knew when it was time to talk football vs. time to talk life and life skills," Zac said. "I carried that on when I became a coach and have my son playing for me knowing how to balance that and keep a healthy relationship both on and off the field."

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That translates to higher expectations for Jake.

"I'm a little harder on him. That keeps anyone from thinking like there's any favorites being played. I what his threshold is, what he can handle," Zac said. "He knows and all I'm doing is looking for what's in his best interest."

Jake welcomed it when his father took over the Hawks before last season.

"It helped a lot with my confidence, because I knew he was always there for me if I needed something, and I knew I could talk to him if I see something," Jake said. "It's just different."

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That shared language connects every pair that bridges both relationships. Todd Kiley became a coach and a father within a year of each other when he took over his alma mater Holliston in 2003 and had his son TJ not even a year later. The thought that he may one day coach TJ didn't enter Todd's mind amid the chaos of raising an infant.

"Growing up you try and expose your kids to everything, and then you, you hope they find their niche," Todd said.

TJ grew up with a football coach for a father and a massive football fan for a mother. The sport was the first thing he knew.

"It was the first love I found. I've always wanted to play for my dad when I was a kid," TJ said. "Even starting in the third grade, I remember the first practice I'm thinking, 'I wanna get to the point to where I can actually play with my dad one day.'"

Todd knew that would invite complications no matter how they approached it.

"It's not easy being a coach's son," Todd said. "You have to have thick skin."

Fortunately TJ developed a hardy hide and the prerequisite mental toughness.

"I was the hardest on TJ," Todd said. "You know what he can handle."

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They did their best to leave football on the field. That is unless TJ wanted to bring it home and watch film.

"I know this is bad to say, but I didn't really see him as a dad. I just saw him as a coach because I wanted to get work done," TJ said. "It didn't really distract me."

Their collective focus brought trophies to Holliston. The Panthers reached the postseason in 2021 during TJ's first year as a starter. They made the Final Four his senior year, and TJ was named the Tri-Valley League MVP.

"It's tough to see it when it's going on because as a coach you have a job, and that job is to get the team prepared. I barely congratulated him," said Todd, who now coaches at Franklin. "We still had Thanksgiving left, so we had a playoff game left, our playoff games left, so we still had more to go. It's just like business as usual. He didn't bat an eyelash."

Todd could only appreciate their time together fully once it ended. Holliston demolished Westwood to claim the outright league title on Thanksgiving. The Kileys embraced.

"It seemed like we were hugging forever just because it was that moment where there was nothing else left and we could finally enjoy that," Todd said. "You get lost in it as a coach because my responsibility is not as a dad at that point. My responsibility is as a coach. That's what this team is depending on me for and this community is depending on me for."

TJ wouldn't trade it for anything. He's still playing football as a sophomore quarterback at Westfield State. Todd sees all of his games. They still talk about football constantly.

"Having my dad as a coach is probably the one of the best experiences of my life, even though some can view it as maybe it'd be stressful for me, it actually wasn't stressful," TJ said. "I was calm, and I enjoyed every second."

Those seconds tick quicker closer to the end. The Kileys can appreciate the breadth of their experience in hindsight. The Attaways are immersed in the chaos for two more games: a century-old Thanksgiving rivalry matchup against Marlborough and the program's first Division 6 Super Bowl appearance the following week.

They'll share more than a look afterward.

Contact Kyle Grabowski at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kylegrbwsk.

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