From ehrlich@wilma.widomaker.com Fri Jun 5 00:26:49 1998 Newsgroups: rec.sport.rowing Subject: Re: Head Coach Position Available - University Of TexasI guess I can be expected to reply to this thread.
I do not know anything about Texas Crew other than what has appeared here on this newsgroup. However, I can give perspective on the rewards of program-building.
I have been involved in developing several collegiate programs over the last few years, and have currently completed the second year of a three-year development plan at William and Mary.
I know full well the frustrations of club-status programs.
But the status of a program is to a great extent that which it has in its own mind. The athletes make their own program. If they are winners - true winners - who simply find themselves in a non-existent program, they will apply themselves to making that program turn into something. That will usually require the help of a good coach, someone who has some perspective, who can provide guidance. The coach does not have to be the world's best with a proven track-record, just someone with a little more experience than the athletes and a long-term vision. It sounds like Texas Crew would provide an excellent opportunity for a young coach to provide that vision, and it sounds like there are athletes there capable of following the coach's lead and making things happen.
I have seen plenty of programs over the years - some of which were indeed varsity-status programs - which were dreadful and did not seem to care that they were dreadful. The athletes had no respect for themselves or their programs, and as a result they turned out year after year of miserable crews. Personally, I cannot respect people who have no respect for themselves.
When people do show interest in working hard and in improving their lot, when they have respect for themselves even if they are - at that point, at least, lousy rowers - those are the real winners, and coaching them provides abundant rewards.
Even if you were the best rower in the country, I am not sure I would want you as part of my team until you changed your attitude. The sport is not about individual rowers, it is about a team. If there is not a team, if there are not enough people to create a full crew, or if the team is simply not very competitive at the moment, then my advice is to go out there and create a competitive team. Take pride in everything you do. Show some respect for yourself and everyone else around you willing to put in the effort. Texas Crew does not have to be the national champion to be full of winners, it merely has to work hard. Even if your crews were to finish last in their races, the opponents should at least come away with respect for the effort you have put in just to show up on race day. Your opponents should never walk away laughing at you whatever the margin. If you do your part, I assure you that within a short period of time you - or your successors at Texas - will walk away from races as victors.
I know from personal experience. I know how much effort goes into turning a program around. And I know that it really is not that hard to create a winning attitude. Of course, I have been fortunate to have had the chance to work with some very determined students.
Success does not come easily, and it does not happen overnight. It takes effort, faith, and determination to see it through.
You should not be warning people away from the post at Texas. You should be broadcasting it. Maybe Texas Crew will be lucky enough to find someone willing to move down there and help the program grow, to give it direction. There are people who would jump at the opportunity, whether you want to believe it or not. You should hope you are lucky enough to find someone like that, and if he comes that he even lets you and your defeatist attitude on the team.
When I arrived, by chance, in Williamsburg two years ago, William and Mary Rowing was not much different from what you describe in Texas. There was essentially no men's rowing at all, and only a handful of women - most not very dedicated. This year, year two of my development plan, we had one hundred athletes race for us, about evenly split between men and women, and we turned out crews which were some of the most competitive in the mid-Atlantic region. Our varsity heavy women were the highest-ranked club-status crew at Vails. Many of our crews got in the habit of beating up on well-funded opponents with longer rowing traditions.
How did we accomplish this? Not because I know how to work any miracles (I don't - even if I did try to stop the tides). Not because the College gave us any financial support (well, they gave us $600 total for the year - $6 per athlete) or even any encouragement. Not because we happened to recruit a bunch of super-stud rowers (we teach them to row ourselves). No, we did this because when I arrived there were a few students who were committed to the team and determined that they wanted to see our program grow. They gave a lot to the team, and presented the positive attitude which made me and my colleagues want to coach here and the leadership to encourage novices to take up the sport and work hard to overcome our appalling lack of resources. And they have passed the mantel onto a new group of leaders - a larger group of leaders - all determined to leave this team better than they found it when they stumbled into practice for the very first time.
Like Texas, we are desperate for proper coaching down here. We are too poor to offer anything resembling a proper salary. I have had advertisements out for a year now, and tons of replies to those ads. I level with applicants up front about our finances, and tell them to stop me if they are not interested for that reason. Very few of them hang up, and many of them continue to stay in touch. However, no one has yet filled our vacancies because they keep getting offered proper money elsewhere, sometimes in lower positions than what they might have had here. I think many of them are making a mistake not taking this sort of opportunity, however.
I am willing to offer positions to young coaches who would not get the opportunity to have this much responsibility at this level elsewhere. I think it is a great opportunity. I had two assistant coaches this year who would have been lucky to get intern positions elsewhere. They did not initially consider coaching, at least not full-time, but I got desperate and twisted their arms. I gave each of them a novice squad. I went out in the launch with them and their crews at least once a week. I talked with them on the phone almost every night. We learned together. They both did phenomenal jobs, produced fast crews, and lots of rowers who will rise onto the varsity squads next year. They are both sadly leaving Williamsburg, but both are now looking to continue coaching as they get on with their lives - so rewarding was the experience they had working with these great young men and women.
I wanted to find a women's varsity coach this year as well so that I could concentrate on building a men's program as I was asked to do when I first arrived. The position was (and still is) out there for a coach, even one who might only get a novice position elsewhere but who would like a break and a chance to prove himself. I am happy to provide whatever guidance I can give there as well.
Texas is advertising in a similar way. These are opportunities. It does not matter what level the program is currently at as long as there is someone there willing to work for a new coach. I wish Texas better luck than we are having in that hunt. Do not chase these people away - be honest about where you are and your financial situation, sure, but have some pride in yourselves and you will find someone good to guide you.
This year, I found I had to coach both men's and women's varsity squads myself, plus I had to supervise the novice coaches, plus I had to do the coaching-related admin. All of this would have been time-consuming even if coaching were my primary full-time occupation. It is not, so you can imagine how over-extended I was. This year took great tolls on my health, my sanity, and my career. And was it worth it? Yes. Why? Because of the students. Because they took themselves seriously as rowers and as human beings. They wanted to grow, and they did. I did not make them, they made themselves. If it were not for them, I would not be involved. They make it all worthwhile.
Coaching has been the most rewarding activity I have done throughout my life. Back when I competed, I did have the chance to be a part of some rather established traditional programs. I know what it is like to have a lot of resources, to use them wisely, and to win major races. I also know what it is like at the other end. And, believe me, many of the rowers I have had the pleasure to work with in developing programs are as serious and as fine human beings as many I have worked with at the top. Indeed, I have observed plenty of rowers at big programs who may row in faster crews but who could never hold a candle to those down below struggling to get something started wherever they happen to have ended up.
Let me mention one student, Kyle Stier. Kyle was for a time the lone male rower at William and Mary. Logic dictated that he should have quit. He bought a single so he could still row on his own, but he did not need to show any interest at all in the team (all women, and not many of them at that). Well, Kyle served as an officer for two years. He loaned his Bronco as a towing vehicle for our trailer since we don't have a towing vehicle of our own (and Broncos aren't strong enough to pull our trailer properly, so his has required several thousand dollars of his own summer earnings to repair). He gave himself completely to the team, with the dream that one day he would have people - good people with serious attitudes - to row with. This year was his senior year, and finally he was surrounded by a full varsity men's squad. He may not have been on a particularly strong crew - my men's varsity crews were out-matched in size and experience by pretty much everyone we raced and it will take a second wave coming out of this year's freshman class to make our varsity men competitive. But Kyle can leave here with a sense of satisfaction, and take great pride that the program is stronger than ever and that he is one of the prime reasons for the program's prognosis for success in the future. Kyle may not have won many races - and may indeed have gotten used to far too many things going wrong for him in his rowing career - but he will always be a winner.
I can also mention Mary New, who for a time was the only woman rowing at my previous head coaching assignment (in Britain). She, too, gave herself to the program and convinced me that yes, indeed, I wanted to coach her program despite its recent pathetic history. She rowed with novices, trying not to grimace. She got things accomplished. She was a leader who got the others to work and told them her dream of how things could be. Thanks to her efforts, our program went from a laughing stock which I would have no part of, to a serious contender at British competitions. How many people in r.s.r-land have heard of Mary? Few, I'd imagine. But I will mention her name because she deserves recognition as one of the most single-minded determined rowers I have met, and she has made a difference in the sport of rowing for all who have rowed with her and who have come after her - whether those there today know her or not.
I can mention many others whom I have had the great privilege of coaching, and many others still whom I have seen turn other programs around.
I will always be there to offer encouragement to those who need it, and scorn for those who deserve it.
Not even the best coach in the world can turn people with your attitude into winners. You have to make that decision yourself. But any halfway-decent coach can help turn a program around if the athletes want to do their part.
Remember one thing about club-status programs: they are run by the students. They will not turn themselves around if there are not students there willing to turn them around. That takes considerable maturity. I would love to think that I have made a difference at the places I have coached, but if I have done so it has been because I have had the good fortune to have been nearby when some determined students came knocking and asked for my help. In the end, I am not the one pulling the oar through the water. I just coach - the athletes have to decide to make the effort. I always insist that their decision to work hard has to pre-date my decision to coach them.
There may not be much of Texas Crew right now. But it sounds like there is something - even if it is just three guys. As long as those three guys do not share your attitude, here's an opportunity for a young coach to make a difference. I wish them luck. And I hope you learn to have some respect for yourself and that you can go back to the program and the new coach, tail between your legs, and contribute something useful. And if you do not, the program will lose nothing by losing you.
Good luck to Texas Crew and those three fine students who are willing to bear down and build something.