Canton High bids farewell to veteran lax, cheer coaches

The 2018-19 school year marked the end of an era for two of Canton High School’s athletics programs following the departures of veteran coaches Bill Bendell and Valerie Baker.

Bill Bendell

Bendell, who headed the boys lacrosse program, and Baker, who led the fall and winter cheerleading squads, were two of the school’s longest tenured coaches with a combined 34 seasons under their belts. Both raised the profile of their respective programs while leading their teams to newfound heights — including an 18-2 season and state “final four” appearance for the Bulldog laxmen (2013) and a trip to nationals for the CHS winter cheerleaders (2014).

Bendell, a former standout lacrosse player at Bentley University and the Falcon’s all-time assists leader, joined the Bulldogs’ staff in 2003 as the JV coach and was promoted to head varsity coach partway through the following spring. He went on to coach for 15 more seasons, helping to transform the program into a consistent winner and guiding the team to nine MIAA tournament appearances, seven of which have come in the past nine years. In those seven playoff years, the Bulldogs combined for 82 total victories while winning at a 62 percent clip. Bendell also finished his career on a high note — advancing past the first round in each of the last two seasons while earning a program-best No. 3 seed in 2019.

A member of the mathematics faculty at the Galvin Middle School, Bendell still has strong ties to Canton and plans to continue to follow the team as a supporter and fan. But with his own children growing older and now involved in youth sports, he felt it was the right time to step aside and is looking forward to spending more time with his family.

In a post on the CHS Athletics Blog, Bendell said he considers himself fortunate to have had “great athletes and very supportive parents” throughout his coaching tenure. “Coaching at the high school level requires a lot of time and effort, but it is also extremely rewarding,” he said. “The moments I will always remember are the little things — times when guys volunteered to play another position to help the team or when someone made everyone laugh with a quick line.”

Val Baker

Baker also fondly recalled her years as coach in a blog post announcing her retirement. “Coaching Canton High School cheerleading for the past nine years has been an honor and an amazing experience,” she said. “I’ve been very fortunate to go from an alumni to a mentor. Watching athletes grow from freshmen to seniors has been beyond rewarding, and I will miss it tremendously.”

A 2006 CHS graduate and former Bulldog cheer captain, Baker went on to cheer at Assumption College, where she was a three-year participant at the NCA Collegiate Cheerleading Nationals in Daytona, Florida. She also cheered for East Celebrity Elite and has a background in competitive gymnastics and competitive dance.

During her 18 seasons as Canton’s cheer coach (9 fall and 9 winter), Baker’s teams qualified for states in nearly every season and won two south regional titles to go along with a fifth-place finish at nationals in the 2014 winter season.

Her younger sister, Krissie, who was an accomplished cheerleader in her own right, served as her assistant coach throughout her nine-year run and is also stepping down, as are longtime volunteer coaches and program alumnae Kelsey Cummings and Hannah Dickie.

Stepping into Baker’s shoes for the fall 2019 cheer season is Stephanie Parker, a Sharon High alum who now teaches science at CHS. Due to the timing of the hire, cheer tryouts, which traditionally are held in June, had to be moved to the late summer and will take place August 21-23 from 3 to 5:30 p.m. in the Rodman gym.

Bendell’s former position, along with the position of CHS girls head varsity lacrosse coach, were both posted in the summer and applications were due earlier this week (August 4). To stay up to date on the latest coaching announcements and all other CHS Athletics news, visit chsbulldogsathletics.blogspot.com.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Aug 9 2019. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.