Tim Graves
Tim picked up a lacrosse stick in the 10th grade at Deerfield Academy and went on to play lacrosse and hockey at Hamilton College, captaining the hockey team his senior year. He has coached lacrosse for more than 16 years, co-founding and helping to build the Whitman-Hanson program at both the youth and high school levels. Graves was instrumental in starting the boys and girls varsity lacrosse programs at Whitman-Hanson High School, providing stewardship over the process along with the school committee, athletic director, and high school leadership.
During his tenure as the offensive high school coach, Graves helped take Whitman-Hanson from a 1-15 season in 2008 to a 12-6 record and the program’s first post season tournament qualification in 2009. Now a fully funded high school varsity program, Whitman-Hanson has qualified for post-season play six of the last seven seasons, with the number of players participating continuing to grow.
Graves initially started teaching lacrosse in Whitman-Hanson with the goal of building a successful program at both the youth and high school level. His approach has always been to focus on teaching the game, fundamental skills, and life-long lessons that can be carried beyond the season. “It has been particularly satisfying for me to see some of our high school players giving back to the program by coaching and participating with the youth teams,” said Graves. “Our current varsity players actively participate in our new skill development clinics for the youth players and we try to provide a fun highly energetic pace with our high school kids leading the charge. The younger players really respond to the high school coaches and it is great to see the dynamic between the age groups.”
Graves’ coaching philosophy is about giving the kids the right balance of work ethic, skill development, game knowledge, and respect for the game. He wants his students to be the hardest working players or team on the field and always striving to get the best out of themselves regardless of the outcome. Graves looks at coaching as a life-long learning process and is constantly discovering better techniques and methods to help kids get to the next level of the game.
Graves has lived on the South Shore for the past 30 years with his wife Tracy and has three grown boys. He continues to coordinate development efforts and volunteer for the high school lacrosse program. He was also the past President of WHK Hockey program and coached for a period of 18 years. For his day job, Tim is the Senior Vice-President of product and business development at burst.com in Boston.