The art of coaching - Would be stockbroker and teacher lead Le Moyne Lacrosse (Syracuse Post Standard - Daily Dose) by Dave Rahme

The art of coaching

Would be stockbroker and teacher lead Le Moyne lacrosse

Monday, February 06, 2006

By Dave Rahme

Staff Writer

There are only 82 Division I women's and 34 Division II men's lacrosse head-coaching jobs in the nation, and Le Moyne College's Lauren O'Connor and Dan Sheehan each had snagged one of them by age 25.

O'Connor, 28, is a Syracuse native who played on the first girls varsity lacrosse team at West Genesee High School. She then guided the Dolphins to their second NCAA Tournament appearance in 2003, and last season she directed the team to its first Mid-Atlantic Conference regular-season title. She replaced Patty Kloidt, who resigned to take the head-coaching job at Hamilton College.

Sheehan, 32, is a product of local lacrosse legend Mike Messere's storied boys program at West Genny. A five-time Northeast-10 Conference coach of the year, Sheehan led the Dolphin men to the D-II national championship in 2004. He replaced the popular Shane Lynch, who died from cancer in January 1998 at age 28.

Here, in their own words, is how each became a head coach:


DAN SHEEHAN

Well, first of all I had two different experiences with the game growing up. At West Genesee, the fundamentals are embedded into you. That's part of who I am as a coach. Then going to Ithaca College and playing for Jeff Long, it was a different story. There is much more freedom of expression with his style.

Nobody ever steered me toward education. The push was to be a business major, become a stockbroker, become a millionaire and retire at 40. That was my track. I was in college to become a millionaire.

Well, I did the old "come home, you don't want to get a job too soon, you have to find yourself" thing that is typical of a lot of kids. After a summer of not finding a job, I was thinking about going back to school (at Le Moyne) and called Shane and offered to help, and he said, 'Hey, any time you want to come out to practice, you're welcome.'

I guess it was a way to say to myself that I'm not washed up yet, I can still play. Even though there was no professional lacrosse, I could still go to practice and run with the guys.

What changed. Well, I never did go back to school. I got a good job with AT&T, but I did go to practice as a volunteer coach for a couple of years. Then when Shane got sick, there was such an outpouring of support for him and the team from the lacrosse community, I think Coach Rockwell (athletic director Dick Rockwell) was taken aback by that. He asked me to be the interim coach.

At that point how can you say no? Throughout that spring he kept asking me about doing it full-time, and I repeatedly said no, knowing the lacrosse coach at Le Moyne was never going to be a millionaire.

Finally, at the end of the season he told me I had a week to decide. I remember my grandfather talking to me. He had been the fire chief of Syracuse for 15 or 20 years, and he told me how my father grew up in the firehouse, which is every kid's dream. Then he said my kids would have the opportunity to grow up on the lacrosse fields, in the swimming pool and with all the facilities at Le Moyne. And that was it.

The typical path. A young man who wants to be a coach should have his college coach call around during his senior year and see what kind of graduate-assistant jobs are out there. Then he better be prepared to make $2,000 or $3,000 a year and maybe be able to take some graduate classes. Then he should get involved in the summer-camp circuit, do some networking there, move from one assistant's job to another, and from there he can hopefully work his way up to the point that he doesn't have to tend bar (on the side) to survive.



 
LAUREN O’CONNOR

The way I got to this position is not the traditional path. I had received my undergraduate degree in international studies at American University and was considering getting my master's in education. I'm really drawn to the teaching aspect of coaching.

Yet, when I left college I was ready to take a break from the game. A college athlete makes a huge commitment and a lot of sacrifices. If you had told me that three months later I would be coaching I would have laughed at you.

Anyway, like I said, I was ready to take a break from lacrosse after playing, but my attention was drawn by a couple of openings I saw after I moved back here.

Good timing. One of those openings was for a chance to start a girls team at Westhill from scratch, and I went for it. I really loved the high school game. I really liked high school coaching, and Westhill was a great place to coach. To be able to take a team from JV to varsity * it was a lot more than I expected when I went and interviewed. There was way more to it, but I loved it.

Lure of Le Moyne. I was told about this job opening and was encouraged to apply, and I don't know why I decided it would be OK, but when I interviewed for it * it was just everything they had going on here, the way the girls talked about it, the way they had been successful the year before and were excited to build on it. Their eagerness was contagious. I am different than most young coaches, who had to start as graduate assistants and then become assistants before trying for a head coaching job. I took my first job as a head coach.

More than a coach. The one thing I've learned is that there is so much more to coaching than what goes on between the lines with a whistle. The things you do every day and the interaction with people has been so important to me. There are a lot of benefits. You get to travel, and working with young people is exciting. You deal with the students' personal lives. From the outside looking in, you don't realize how much responsibility you have.

But I love it. It's been a nice progression for me, from college to Westhill to Le Moyne. I plan on being here a long time.

Best advice for a young coach. Speak up. If you start out as a graduate assistant or an assistant, don't be afraid to speak up and share your ideas. I'm so grateful for everything my assistants bring to the table.

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