Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series of features on women leaders in Western Massachusetts high school athletics. UMass journalism students wrote the stories as part of a semester-long project in their sports writing class in partnership with MassLive.
They call each other “The Yin to my Yang” as they balance each other out. They don’t take a coaching job unless the other is coming with them. Ashley Ziemba and Andrea “Dre” Enright have been coaching girls high school sports together for over 15 years, and the dynamic duo wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I rely on her a lot,” Enright said about Ziemba. “Every time I’ve taken a job, my first call is, are you coming with me? Because if you’re not, I can’t do this.”
When Chicopee offered Ziemba the girls varsity soccer job, she was not taking it unless Enright was coming with her, and it’s the same story whether it was Longmeadow or Holyoke. This coaching tandem has led them to success and helped them impact the lives of the players who played under them.
The pair, though, would have never started coaching together, let alone become best friends, if it wasn’t for a scoring book error back in 2009. At the time, Ziemba was the soccer intern for the girls soccer team and Enright was the JV girls basketball coach at Chicopee. Ziemba showed up to the basketball games to build relationships with her players and to get more involved with the school.
During one game against rival Chicopee Comp, one of Chicopee’s starters fouled out in the third quarter due to a scoring book mistake by one of the JV girls. R.J. Marhefka, the girls’ varsity basketball coach at the time, asked Ziemba to do the book since she was always at the games. After games, all the coaches went out to eat at a restaurant owned by Ziemba’s father. That night they became not just best friends but started their coaching journey together.
Players often described Enright as a hard-nosed coach who gets into your face and pushes you to become a better player. Ziemba has been described as the “Team Mom” because of her calming presence and motherly instinct. Sometimes Ziemba, though, becomes the enforcer.
In one soccer practice, the girls were sluggish and were not working hard enough. Enright decided they needed to do something different to get the girls to work harder, so Ziemba disciplined the girls, setting the tone for a better practice.
The two have prided their philosophy of coaching on making their players focus on their studies. There are not only coaches but teachers as well. Another aspect of their coaching philosophy is that they will always be there for their players no matter what. While neither of them has kids of their own, they jokingly say these players are their kids.
“We want to make sure that (the players) know that after they leave us, they still have a home wherever we are. We’re always going to be there,” Ziemba said.
Olivia Shapiro, 25, played under Ziemba and Enright for three years (2014-2016) on the Longmeadow girls varsity basketball. She almost quit playing basketball after her freshman year. If it was not for Ziemba and Enright coaching her sophomore year, Shapiro might not have become the person she is now.
“They really got it across that I was a basketball player, they let me make my own decision. They let me take control, they let me lead the team in my own way, guiding me the entire time in honing my leadership skills without even knowing it at the time.” Shapiro said.
Ashley Vazquez, 19, played varsity basketball at Holyoke, where she has been jokingly called the “adopted child” of the coaching duo. At one point during her high school career, Vazquez was going to quit the team after she was thrown out of a game. A few days later, her coaches showed up at her house to resolve the problem.
“Not a lot of kids have parents that care, so luckily I had four,” Vazquez said. “They just care so much that they would do anything to take care of a situation. That’s one of the biggest things I love about them is that they make sure everybody’s good.”
Coaching is still male-dominated, and the duo recognizes how important being a female coach is, especially when coaching a female team. Ziemba said it’s important to have a female perspective on the bench so that girls can feel comfortable talking to and relating to them.
During, their high school years, the duo wished they had a female coach they could turn to talk about their problems or ask for advice. After becoming coaches, the pair are now becoming the mentors and role models they wished they had as high schoolers.
“I feel like Ashley’s kind of able to read all of our energies and have that like female connection, where she already knows what we need before we even know what we need,” said Gabriella Hicks.
Hicks, 25, is the current coach for Chicopee’s girls’ varsity soccer team and played under Ziemba for four years (2013-2017) on Chicopee’s varsity soccer team.
The stories the coaching duo remember the most are the ones that brought them and their players together. People can say whatever they want about how they coach, they just want their players to know that they care about them. That’s why their number one priority is they set up their players to be successful in their lives.
“We do what we for the kids,” Enright said, “and I think that’s the most important part, they really are our kids.”
