On March 27, Will Becker and Lydia Caputi gathered the Tabor girls basketball team for what seemed like a typical meeting.
Becker and Caputi instead revealed their master plan for the future of the program. Caputi would be taking over as head coach next season while Becker, the 33-year architect of one of New England's prep strongholds, would step aside and continue as an assistant.
The Seawolves reacted with various levels of surprise. It's an unusual exchange of leadership. But Tabor's succession plan had been in the works for years, well before Caputi even came on staff as an assistant in 2023. She's now tasked with keeping the Seawolves, most recently NEPSAC Class AA champions in 2022, entrenched as a regional power.
"There's a lot that's going to be the same, but there's also a lot that's going to change," Caputi said. "I think there's excitement in that for them — in the not knowing, but also knowing me, and hopefully trusting that any of anything that quote-unquote changes will be good and exciting for them, and not scary and overwhelming."
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Caputi is a well-known face around Tabor, a former three-sport star in soccer, basketball and lacrosse who graduated in 2014. She knew Becker as both a coach and math teacher, and they shared similar basketball ambitions.
"I knew I really liked this guy that I was playing for, and that there was value in it, and that this was a level of basketball — not just on the court, but the X's and O's and film watching — that I hadn't been exposed to yet," Caputi said. "That sort of excited me and fueled my fire and in terms of learning and thinking the game differently, and so I credit Will for making me a student of the game."
Caputi, from Brunswick, Maine, then played at Bowdoin under Adrienne Shibles and helped the Polar Bears reach the Division 3 national championship game in 2017-18. She followed the inspiration of her parents, both coaches, and the influences of Becker and Shibles to join their ranks. Caputi started as an assistant at Trinity and briefly followed Shibles to Dartmouth as director of basketball operations.
It was then, in 2021, that Becker floated the idea of Caputi succeeding him at Tabor. Caputi thought he was joking.
"Will said something to me like, 'Yeah, I mean, I'm just waiting for you to say you want to come back here so I can give over the reins to you.' And I was like, 'Haha, what?'" Caputi said.
Though Caputi wasn't sure about Tabor yet, the conversation did get her to think more about coaching at the high school level. She became the head coach at Westminster and said she loved her year there. But Becker and Tabor came calling again with a more serious pitch. Becker would coach two more seasons until his son, Henry, started freshman year of high school, with Caputi learning on the bench. Then in 2025, Becker would step back to an assistant role, in part to spend more time with his family, and Caputi would ascend to head coach.
Caputi had her reservations. She didn't want to force Becker to cede the role if he still felt the hunger to win as head coach. Caputi also felt Becker deserved more celebration during his last year, but Becker didn't want the attention. By spring, he held true to the plan.
"I am happy if I feel like the program is serving the best interest of the student-athlete experience," Caputi said. "I think Will can do that, and I think I can do that, and I think it looks different under two different leaderships. But at the end of the day, if the No. 1 priority is the success and wellbeing of the student-athletes on and off the court, then we're doing something right."
So what does Tabor girls basketball under the direction of Lydia Caputi look like? She stressed the importance of players taking ownership. Caputi, though she'll certainly lead as a head coach, wants players to feel like they can problem-solve mistakes themselves on and off the court.
"That ownership and accountability piece, I think, is really important in terms of basketball performance and success, but I think it trickles over into every aspect of of a student athlete's life and life beyond basketball," she said. "I don't coach basketball exclusively because I love basketball. I do it because it is a connector to the rest of the world, and you develop skills and confidence and conviction in all aspects of life through sport."
Caputi also must take authority over a bench that has looked to Becker for more than three decades. She's not concerned about that — Caputi felt it was her job as an assistant to disagree with Becker and give other perspectives as an assistant. She's confident in both her individual coaching ability and the duo's ability to evolve their coach-to-coach dynamic.
"The easiest way to say it is: I could do this on my own without Will. But I am so much better off having a trusted basketball mind, mentor, friend, and more than anything, really good person to collaborate with," she said.
Tabor enters a new era on the court. Most of the roster is back, and with Colgate commit Molly Corcoran, elite 2027 talent Corinne Lomax and several more Div. 1 prospects in the fold, it's certainly strong. But the last four years have largely been defined by the Big Three of graduated seniors Kaelyn Carroll, Ava Black and Olivia Rodrigues. Caputi wants the returning squad to play with more pace and defensive intensity since it's no longer leaning on the sheer star talent of that trio.
She'll also be dealing with the spectators that can see Becker, a representative of all of Tabor's past success, directly behind her on the bench. Caputi acknowledges the pressure is real for her. She also knows that's what makes this such a unique opportunity.
"It's a privilege — and there might be some discomfort with that privilege in moments," she said. "To me, the discomfort is a growth opportunity. If I'm preaching to the student-athletes that I work with that they need to be learning and growing and challenging themselves, and I'm shying away from that, or I'm not acknowledging when there are moments where I'm learning and growing and challenging myself, then I think that poses for kind of a confusing leadership model. And so I see it as a privilege."
