Coach Chris McDonald knows the importance of giving back

By Matt Pascarella

Chris McDonald loves sports. He passed this love of sports on to his son, who is a sports fanatic. When his son started playing little league, McDonald had a hard time just sitting on the sidelines and wanted to get involved, and thus began his coaching career.

Chris McDonald

McDonald has been a coach for six years over all the different sports his son has played. McDonald owns Windham Powersports and is head coach of the Windham Powersports team, part of the new AAA little league division this year.

It was his son’s love of sports that got McDonald interested in coaching. He was at every practice and every sporting event in which his son was involved. “I go to everything I can possibly be at, and just me and my personality...I want to be a part of it. I want to offer any help that I can to make all the kids better in what they do.” He started out assistant coaching and just moved into the head coach position.

“At the little league level, coaches have two very important functions,” he explained. “We want to develop the skills and ability to play the sport...being able to do all the different parts of the sport. 

Almost equally important, we want to train the kids to have good sportsmanship.” McDonald and his coaches have a giveaway after every game, win or lose, two players have an opportunity to win a Windham Powersports, custom-made sports shirt. One shirt is awarded to the VIP (Very Important Player); a player who exceeded expectations during that particular game or a player who had a shining point in a game that made them stand out.

The other shirt goes to the best sportsmanship of the game; this includes cheering for your team as well as supporting the other team. Examples include letting an opposing team player know if they’re pitching a hot streak or if a player has had a good at bat. Encouragement is important says McDonald. “Winning is great, but to get all these kids to the same successful point is extremely important in all of my coach’s opinions for our team and every other team.”

Giving the shirts away builds the player and builds the person. McDonald and his coaches sit down at the beginning of the season and discuss where they’d like to go for the year. They go over practices and games and ask, ‘what did we see and learn for the individual boys in various scenarios on the field?’

Their objective is to take the boys to another level. They want to take the players from their starting point at the beginning of the season and by the end of the season, they want those players to be multiple steps above where they were. To be better at the game, and better people inside.

“I love the sport,” he added. “For me to be involved in a coaching position is what I can offer, and it makes me feel young.”

Although McDonald is a guy from ‘away, having been born in Connecticut, but Maine is in his veins. He went to Lake Region High School and is married with two kids and a stepdaughter he considers one of his own. He moved to Windham in 2005 and opened Windham Powersports roughly six years ago where he turned his hobby of fixing four wheelers into a job he enjoys.