Newton South Lions Wrestling
MEET THE WRESTLING COACHING STAFF
HEAD COACH - ALAN ROTATORI
Coach Rotatori enters his 19th year as head coach of the Newton South wrestling team. Alan’s competitive nature and love for athletics is evident through his long career coaching many different sports at many different levels of competitiveness. Alan enjoyed great success in his own high school wrestling and lacrosse career, but lacrosse was the sport that he really excelled in and outshined everyone else on the field. Alan was recruited to play Division I Lacrosse at UMass Amherst where he continued to be a standout player, choosing to play lacrosse professionally after college for the Boston Blazers in the National Lacrosse League (NLL).
After his professional lacrosse career, Alan shifted his athletic focus to coaching. While he also has experience coaching high school soccer and field hockey, Alan’s true sports passions are wrestling and lacrosse. He spent 10 years as the varsity head coach of Lincoln Sudbury’s wrestling team before signing on as Newton South’s head coach in 1999. In his 28 years of coaching wrestling, Alan has over 200 career wins, during which time he has coached 9 sectional champions, 1 state champion, and 2 New England champions. Alan is also a very successful lacrosse coach, approaching 300 career wins. After 19 years coaching Newton South’s varsity lacrosse program, Alan took over Grafton high school’s lacrosse program (in his home town), leading the team to a Division III central/west district championship last year and competing all the way to become a finalist for the Division III Massachusetts state title.
Alan holds a Master’s in Adventure Education and has been a P.E. and Wellness teacher at Newton South High School since 1998 (serving as the Director of Wellness since 2005). Alan’s passion and dedication to his students is a hallmark of Alan’s charismatic presence around the athletic facilities at Newton South. Alan is a natural role model and mentor who is dedicated to enthusiastic and dynamic teaching as a means of creating and nurturing a lifelong love of knowledge in children and adolescents. Alan is a master of building confidence and self-esteem in student-athletes, pushing them farther than they believed they could reach. His gift is his ability to bring the best out of young athletes - he expects them to succeed on the mat, in the classroom, and in all of life's future endeavors.
ASSISTANT COACH - BILL FAGEN
Coach Fagen enters his 19th season coaching the Newton South wrestling team alongside Coach Rotatori. Bill grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York and spent a considerable time of his life studying, coaching, and working in New York before relocating to Massachusetts. While in high school, Bill was a competitive varsity wrestler, swimmer, and rower. He was a divisional qualifier in New York’s state wrestling tournament, a two-time finalist at West Point’s Junior Olympic swimming tournament, and also a qualifier for the National Schoolboy Championships as part of his school's varsity crew team.
Bill continued wrestling all four years in college, attending The College at Brockport (SUNY). During this time, he had the privileged experience of wrestling against Dan Gable in a clinic exhibition match. Bill continued to be involved in wrestling after college, accepting the challenging job of coaching blind student-athletes at the Batavia School for the Blind. He also remained involved in swimming and was a coach with USA Swimming for 9 years before he moved out of New York. After his wrestling career, Bill became an avid runner and was sponsored by New Balance Running Club in 1979. For 35 years, Bill ran over 1,000 miles each year and raced in 14 marathons!
Bill has two master’s degrees, including a M.ED from SUNY New Platz and a M.PE from Springfield College. His passion of working with adolescents led him to pursue a career in physical education and has been a P.E. teacher at Newton South since 1999.
ASSISTANT COACH - ALAN CHANG
This year is Coach Chang's first year in an official coaching capacity with the Newton South Wrestling team. Alan graduated from Newton South High School in 2002 and his freshman year on the wrestling team was also Coach Rotatori and Coach Fagen's first year taking over the wrestling program. Alan was a three-sport athlete at Newton South, a six-time Dual County League all-star, and the varsity captain in all three sports he played (football, two seasons in wrestling, and lacrosse). When Alan wrestled for Newton South, he was a sectional finalist and placed 5th in the Massachusetts Division I State tournament (he was Coach Rotatori's first Newton South wrestler to place at states).
Alan was the 2002 recipient of the Mendelson Award, Newton South's most prestigious senior athletic award.
Alan played football at Colby College and was the recipient of the Wadsworth Award his senior year for defensive player recognition. A defensive leader at middle-linebacker, he helped lead his senior-year team to a one-loss season and a 2nd place final ranking in all of New England Division III football. That 2005 squad is widely recognized as one of the best football teams in Colby's 130+ year football history. Alan also competitively trains in mixed-martial arts at Wai-Kru Boston. One of his training partners is John "Doomsday" Howard, a professional MMA fighter in the UFC. Alan has fought in MMA fights and the proceeds from the events were donated to various charities benefiting underpriveleged children in Boston. Alan is also an assistant coach for Newton South's varsity football and lacrosse teams.
Alan is completing his Master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and plans to start his counseling career as a school counselor. He is currently completing his practicum internship as a guidance counselor in Newton South's Goldrick House. Alan believes that the relationships he builds through sports is a core component to building genuine rapport and is crucial in truly connecting with student-athletes. Alan strives to help each and every athlete on all his sports teams reach their potential in all areas of life, on and off the athletic fields.
CONTACT US
We would love to hear from program alumni, parents, fans, and other members of the wrestling community. All questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome and encouraged! Please use the contact box below to get in touch with any one of our coaches.