HOLDEN — An updated recreation spot in town created by an Eagle Scout pays homage to a retired coach who made a difference in countless student-athletes’ lives during his long tenure in the Wachusett district.
Hayden Pierce, 18, said he was inspired to clean up a trail at Wachusett Regional High School and install a new bridge and sign at it as his Boy Scouts Troop 182 Eagle Scout project because of his time on the cross-country and track & field teams while a student there.
“An Eagle Scout project must benefit the community,” the Wentworth Institute of Technology computer science major shared. “I looked to aspects of the community that I was familiar with, where I could put more passion into my work. I quickly thought of a deteriorating trail used by the cross-country team during practice. The trail was not well kept, and there was a pile of decomposing logs that had become unsafe to walk on or remove. I knew that I could fix the trail so that the community could get as much use out of it as the team did.”
The lifelong town resident began his project in spring 2022 and finished it that fall. Pierce decided to name the trail after Coach Brian Wallace, who was his cross-country and track coach during his freshman and sophomore years.
“He had a large impact on why I love the sport as much as I do,” Pierce said of Wallace. “I wanted to name the trail after him to give back after so many years of helping others.”
Wallace started coaching at WRHS as an assistant indoor and spring track coach in 1976 and became the head cross-country coach in 1987, taking over for longtime coach Fred Warren upon his retirement. In addition, Wallace was head coach of both the boys’ and girls’ indoor track teams.
Wallace held these positions until he retired from teaching and coaching in 2007, but he continued to coach cross-country and stayed on as an assistant spring track until he retired in 2021. He moved from Princeton to Maine the following year after spending his whole life in Central Massachusetts, and said he is honored to have his name on Pierce’s project.
“I was very appreciative and humbled to learn that this trail that was part of the original cross-country course would be named after me,” Wallace conveyed. “It clearly is rewarding to have student athletes recognize that you are working toward helping them become productive members in their communities after they finish their schooling. Hayden’s decision to take on an Eagle Scout project like this is a great example of a young person’s willingness to work on a project that enhances his high school facilities.”
Pierce presented his project to the school committee last year, who voted on and approved naming the scenic nature trail after Coach Wallace. There are five entrances marked on the trail that runs along the fire station side of the high school: two entrances near the rotary, one by the mid-level baseball diamond, and another one up top near the outfield fence of the baseball diamond.
“The trail was originally part of the old cross-country course, so it also has a bit of history linked to it,” Pierce said.
He said that while the physical labor of cleaning up the trail and installing the bridge and sign only took a few days, “Eagle projects undergo lots of paperwork and revision.”
“I put together a group of Scouts, teammates, friends and family to help clean the trail and construct the bridge,” he said. “The bridge’s supplies were paid for through a GoFundMe page where many people generously donated, allowing the project to happen. There are lots of moving parts and revisions that go into the completion of a project, so it was a relief when everything was finally submitted.”
Pierce is now officially an Eagle Scout, and is waiting to schedule his dedication ceremony until a time when he is back home from college in Boston.
