Walk a Mile in your Coaches’ Shoes

To give a little background on myself, I played for coach Burst for four years graduating in 2022. I ended up staying in Dubuque after graduation and getting my first ‘big boy job’. There was a bit of a competitive void in my life that I know a lot of collegiate athletes feel after graduation as well as a little ‘bug’ I caught while interning over my post-grad summer; the coaching bug. Once you get it it’s hard to shake so in the fall, I started volunteering my time coaching at my alma mater. With my work schedule I was able to make practices Monday through Friday and if I swapped some shifts around, would make almost every game. I would show up to practice, coach, and then go to film and help out wherever I could. Even at that point as a volunteer assistant, I was still somewhat oblivious to what really happens behind the scenes of a college lacrosse program. 

Fast forward to summer 2023, I hit the road recruiting and learned on the fly how to recruit. With our graduate assistant (GA) graduated, our staff was reduced to a head coach and two volunteers, and as I’d assume a lot of coaches could tell you, finding a GA can be difficult with all the extra eligibility granted because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. We went into the fall with a head coach, two part-time assistants (myself included), and a volunteer. We were blessed to have gotten a GA from Australia beginning in the spring semester, bringing us to a head coach, a GA, one part-time assistant, and one volunteer. I went from showing up to practices and games for the most part to being thrown into the fire. I work my full-time job at odd hours Friday-Monday, so I was able to be in the office Tuesday-Thursday, as well as working from home and being in on afternoons Monday’s and Friday’s. 

As naive freshman things seem pretty straight forward; you play lacrosse and your coaches coach lacrosse. I can say that our job as lacrosse players goes much beyond showing up and playing lacrosse. We’re pushed to excel in academics, be outstanding citizens within the community, and perform on the field amongst many other things. I can now attest to how far from the truth that “coaches just coach”. Kasey has already discussed the coaching profession in an earlier blog, so I won’t go too into depth on all it entails. But I can provide an insight on a player-turned-coach and how I have an even more profound respect for all coaches, especially my college coaching staff.

So, a ‘typical’ away game weekend from a players perspective goes like this: practice Friday with film and scout to follow, go home and get some rest, wake up, head to the locker room and throw your gear and jersey in your bag, get on the bus, eat breakfast proved by the team on the bus, get there, warm up, play a game, have dinner, and head home. Seems straight forward, right? Yes and no, yes in the fact that a player gets that great student-athlete experience and no in the fact of all that goes into that relatively seamless schedule. As a player, I’ll admit I never thought of how everything happened, it just simply happened. To start with practice on Friday, we have a staff meeting every day where we discuss the prior day, watch some film, and plan practice. As for film, us assistants are responsible for cutting film and completing the pre-game scout, a job that can take hours on end. Then we get to the fun stuff: game day. Assistants and our team student-manager ensure everything is ready to go for gameday. From hanging jerseys in stalls, getting the medical kit restocked, making sure we have buckets of balls, cones, the camera, have ordered food for the trip, and (most importantly to the guys) making sure we grabbed the fan-favorite pregame snacks for the bus. Leaving the office on a typical pregame night can be anywhere from an hour after film ends to 9:00-10:00.

Then comes game day, as a player if the bus was leaving at 7:30 A.M. I was rolling out of bed at about 6:45, not even close as a coach. The alarm is going off at 5:00 sharp as sandwiches from a local deli need to be picked up as well as our breakfast bagels need to be picked up. Bus rides would seem like a relatively relaxing time for coaches, but I can’t count the number of times this season we were back on our laptops getting gameday and final score posts created as well as cutting more film whether it be for another pregame film session or getting a jump start on the next game’s scout.

Postgame comes with its multitude of responsibilities, making sure we don’t forget anything, ensuring the team has food, getting film uploaded, and a various assortment of other items. The prime example I can think of this this season we had a player get injured and must stay overnight in the hospital six-hours from campus. In this event a coach must stay back with the player. It’s far from ideal for anyone; the injured player, the coach staying, the parents of the player, school administration, and the head coach knowing he just had to leave two people behind. But the one thing I can tell you is I’d do it over again. That extended stay on a trip made me realize we all do it out of love for our players and the game of lacrosse. 

As Kasey discussed in an earlier post, it’s a profession of passion and love. It’s not for the faint of heart, I’ve learned you’re all in or all out. I and the rest of our wonderful staff chose all in. Yes, it’s a tough job, the hours are not always ideal, and there’s a lot of ups and downs but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Just like as a player you remember those late-night bus trips, spring breaks, and everything in-between, as a coach you get the privilege to see naïve freshmen grow into not only exceptional athletes, but outstanding members of society. You learn to cherish the late nights in the office and big wins, learn how to console after a tough loss, and simply be there for your players. Teammates become brothers throughout the course of a season, but so does a coaching staff.

In conclusion, there is so much that goes into running a collegiate lacrosse program that as a player one may not put much thought into. But after living the player experience and then getting to be a part of a coaching staff I learned that what I saw as a player was only the tip of the iceberg. Therefore, I’d like to sincerely thank all my former coaches for all their work behind the scenes that goes frequently unnoticed. 

Thomas Martin

University of Dubuque Men’s Lacrosse Class of 2022 & current assistant coach