Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 12/27/10
Staff Report
Wissahickon boys’ lacrosse coach and teacher Anthony Gabriele has been named the “Citizen of the Week” by Montgomery Newspapers.
Gabriele led the Trojans to a share of its first Suburban One American Conference championship last year (12-7 record) as well as a berth in the District 1 tournament.
Gabriele has made community service a key component of the Trojan program. In 2009, Wissahickon was named Phillylacrosse.com Team of the Week for its community service.
On the field, Gabriele has guided the Trojans to a record fo 32-24 the past three years. He also served as Wissahickon head coach in 2001-02.
Gabriele is a 1994 Wissahickon graduate who studied secondary educatiion at Boston College. He said he was inspired by his teachers at Wissahickon to become a teacher and work with students to give back.
Gabriele first taught seven years at Wissahickon Middle School ands then was a stafff developer for two years. He now teaches 10th- and 12th-grade English as well as public speaking, at the high school.
Gabriele, who played lacrosse at Wissahickon, took off from coaching in 2003 while he earned his master’s degree in organizational development and leadership from St. Joseph’s University.
Gabriele then went back into coaching lacrosse at the youth level, and he started the lacrosse program at Wissahickon Middle School.
Gabriele also gives much of his time to helping other teachers improve their craft.
Gabriele has worked the past five years with the Penn Literacy Network, a division of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. In this job he helps run graduate classes in the schools themselves.
In the past, Gabriele has helped teach courses at schools in Wilkes-Barre, Springfield (Delaware County) and at night at Wissahickon.
This summer, Gabriele worked with other teachers for four weeks at inner-city schools in Detroit, helping them with literacy education.
