Published July 9, 2021
MELROSE—The third annual 2021 Melrose Little League Scholarship recipients are Liam Coen and Emily Waden.
Melrose Little League seeks to implant firmly in the children of Melrose the ideals of good sportsmanship, honesty, loyalty, courage, teamwork and respect for authority. Both Coen and Waden exemplify these traits and have grown up to be good and trustworthy role models, deserving of the $1,000 scholarship.
Coen graduated this year from Melrose High School with a 3.25 GPA. He was a member of the MHS varsity baseball team and a volunteer coach for Melrose Babe Ruth for the past two seasons. He shared the value of skills he learned on the field. “Being a confident person and thinking positively helps a lot, because you can’t go into something with a bad mindset,” he says. Liam will attend Merrimack College in the fall.
At Melrose High School, Waden was a member of both the varsity softball team and she was a five year member of the girls varsity hockey team, yet she remembers her Little League days with fondness. “Here I am at 18 and playing on the Cabbage Patch in my Red Sox uniform is such a vivid picture for me.”
She is an active volunteer in the community including working as a skills coach for Melrose Youth Hockey. In her essay, she thanks her first Little League coach Dave Fox. “When the season ended, he gave each of us a Red Sox pennant. On the back of mine he wrote a personal message to me that included ‘keep on smiling’. When I doubt myself, I look at it and I’m reminded to have courage, to believe in my abilities and persevere.”
Emily will attend Curry College in the fall.
