As Varsity soccer practice starts, the players begin warming up. They start jogging laps around the track, and later, coach Nick DePompei comes out and gives them drills to work on. Although he is the head coach, he still lets the players work themselves and also lets the assistant coach have a lot of say in the practice. 

DePompei has been the head coach of the Men’s Varsity soccer team at Revere High School since 2015 and was an assistant coach for two years before that. He has recently gotten his 100th win as head coach. DePompei has also been working as a counselor at RHS since 2009. 

The day of his 100th win, DePompei did not even remember that this accomplishment was going on. He says that he only realized when a former player of his congratulated him. DePompei was glad that this milestone was able to connect him with former players of his. 

“Getting a text from a past player made it feel really important to me because that’s what the whole thing is about really, just building those relationships with people. The fact that I’m still able to talk to past players that are now on to college and even out of college and into their own careers,” DePompei said.    

Although DePompei’s first year of coaching at RHS was 2013, he had coached soccer at two other high schools prior to his time at Revere. DePompei has also been playing soccer even longer. 

“My whole life was playing all kinds of sports, and then once I hit about 10th grade in high school, it was soccer all day, everyday,” DePompei said. 

DePompei says that why he chose soccer over other sports is because he enjoys how you have to think a lot while you are on the field. He also says that he loves the flow of the game and how you have to think on your feet. 

“What I love about it, there’s not really plays in soccer, because everything is free flowing and moving, so the idea of how to build formations, the deeper stuff about the game and understanding it is where I really get to be interested,” DePompei said.

He says that the reason he enjoys coaching is because he likes to be able to help and watch the players form bonds with each other that they will have for a long time. 

“The reason why I coach now is that I’ve had the ability to play high school soccer and college soccer and go through the team building stuff and understand what it’s about to be a part of a team, also, understanding how that flows into your career, like when you go out there into the world. When our players go out there in the world, majority of them are not going to play soccer professionally, but how much those experiences help and just make them a better person,” DePompei said. 

DePompei explained that in his own experience, he is able to still talk to some of his old teammates, and he wants the same for all of the players that he coaches. 

“Hopefully they will still be close to each other and can talk about bigger, real life issues and things going on,” DePompei said. 

DePompei explained how he likes to give the players a lot of responsibility when coaching. He believes that the leadership really comes from them. 

“We really believe in slowly handing the power or handing the responsibility over to the players. . . . We always tell our players that the true leadership needs to come from the locker room with those guys, so as the summer and year goes on, we give them more leeway and more responsibility with making decisions, we let them fix problems on their own at times,” DePompei said.

Ryan Cunningham, one of the captains of the soccer team, can confirm this. He talked about what a typical practice is like and how DePompei lets the captains start up practice. 

“The captains warm up, and he comes out after warm ups and gives us drills to work on. We pretty much just work ourselves; he knows that we can get it done,” Cunningham said.

John Rorabaugh, the assistant coach of the Varsity soccer team, also talked about how DePompei gives him a lot of freedom and trust. He explained that DePompei listens to other people’s opinions. 

“He allows me and he allows the other coaches to have some say to do some things. He’s not authoritarian, where it’s his way and that’s it. He’s always asking questions,” said Rorabaugh. 

Rorabaugh also talked about how much he collaborates with DePompei on everything going on. He believes that the communication that goes on is one of the reasons that the team has done so well. 

“We talk all the time, all of us talk, all the coaches talk non stop, about shape, about personal, about our training sessions. We’re prepared and that’s part of the reason this program has had the success it has had,” Rorabaugh said.

Cunningham also talked about how he likes DePompei’s coaching style. He said that DePompei isn’t afraid to give feedback to the players but also knows when to give it at the right time. 

“He’s quick to tell you what you’re doing wrong and he’s informative about it. He doesn’t just yell at you; he’s honest with you and pretty straight forward,” Cunningham said. 

DePompei said that he tries to be as flexible as possible when coaching. He explained that soccer is not a game where you can always plan ahead, and he and the players need to be able to think on their feet. 

“We want to play for a state championship every year, so what we always say is we need to be able to fix things in five minutes, not after a game, because if you lose the playoff game, you’re going home . . . I’m big on flexibility, on being able to do things more than one way so we can handle it quickly in the playoffs,” DePompei said.

Cunningham said another thing he likes about DePompei as a coach is how he uses past teams as examples. 

“I like how he talks about past teams that have gone super far in state championships and he’s like ‘you guys can be just like that,’ and he gives us models to go off,” Cunningham said. 

DePompei says that being a counselor at the school also helps him when coaching soccer. He is able to understand how to communicate with the players better. 

“The talent and the soccer ability, we’re not missing anything there, so to add that extra piece of us mentally being engaged and on task . . . but also knowing when to lay off of somebody and when you have to push someone a little bit, I think is a huge important piece. I definitely think this role has helped me a lot,” DePompei said. 

DePompei believes that the greatest thing to come out of his coaching is the players and how much they have grown. 

“Seeing them grow as a group is for sure the biggest take away that I have from coaching,” DePompei said. 

DePompei will continue to push the Varsity soccer players. They are continuing to try and make it to the State championship this year and are currently ranked number one in the state.