After graduating in 1994 as a member of Andover’s lacrosse team, Coach Heidi Wall returned to Andover as the Head Coach in 2014. She played collegiately at Amherst College, where she served as team captain and led her team to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championships in 1997 and 1998. While coaching at Andover, Wall uses her knowledge of the game to create a positive environment on her team.
Wall has been coaching lacrosse ever since she started teaching as a fellow at Deerfield. She highlighted being able to share her love of the game with players and expressed her love for helping build a team of players who support each other and work together.
“I have been coaching lacrosse since I started teaching. I was a teaching fellow at Deerfield right after I graduated from college and started [coaching] then and have been coaching ever since. What I love about it is that it is an opportunity to share my love of the game with players. I get to instill in them a sense of confidence in their abilities and to play the game well. I love helping to build a team of players who support each other, build relationships and friendships with each other, who are excited to be out there working towards a common goal,” said Wall.
Dylan Siegel ’26 noted Wall’s ability to assist players in all positions, maximizing the effectiveness of each practice. Her knowledge of the game is demonstrated through the organized drills and activities she runs during practice.
“She definitely uses her college experience while coaching. She creates a lot of great offensive plays for our attacking end of the field, and she’s really good at stopping us throughout practice and giving us tips on how we can work better on and off the ball. She’s also great at helping the defense and the midfield and using practice to the fullest. She brings a good set of exercises and plans for practice that really just demonstrate her high IQ for the game,” said Siegal.
Wall strives to make sure all members of the team, beyond just captains, have an opportunity to lead. Wall pointed out how there are a multitude of ways players can demonstrate leadership and she encourages everyone to do so.
“I am really interested in making sure everybody feels they have the opportunity to be a leader on the team. We have our designated leaders as captains, but I think everybody on the team has important roles to play and can be leaders in their own way… There are lots of ways to be vocal leaders, but there are also many other ways players can lead like by example, taking care of the little things, and more. Celebrating all of the different characteristics and strengths that all of the girls on the team have and can bring makes us stronger as a team,” said Wall.
Within her coaching, Wall projected the importance of enforcing a strong team culture on her players. Autumn Christian ‘27 noted how Wall is always there for each player and ensures they receive support whenever they are in need.
“She is really there for all of us, and she really knows the game which helps when we are in tough situations. She brings the idea of team culture and how important it is to be a good teammate. One of our things is to ‘lead to lead better,’ and I think it is very important to apply that and she does every time at practice. She is always checking in on us and overall is just a great coach,” said Christian.
Keeping a positive attitude even when dealing with mistakes is a large part of Wall’s mindset while coaching the team. She highlighted how she views mistakes as an opportunity to improve and stresses the importance of moving on and collectively focusing on the next play.
“After mistakes, I try to keep people thinking about the next thing. It’s not super helpful to dwell on that moment but instead think about what is in our control and what we can do better next time. If there are moments when we are down in a game it’s an opportunity to ask ourselves what we can do collectively to reset and focus on the next play,” said Wall.
Siegal spoke about how Wall is an encouraging leader who helps lift the team up during tough moments by encouraging them and providing in-game suggestions. Siegel noticed how Wall’s perseverance helped the team believe that they could come back from mistakes.
“She’s really good at lifting other people up and just giving everybody helpful tips and things like that. Whenever we are in tough moments in games, or maybe losing by a bit or something like that, she’s really good at moving forward, encouraging us and telling us adjustments we can make during game situations. She never gives up, and she always perseveres. I think that energy and her believing really helps our team believe that too,” said Siegel.
