When men’s cross country/track and field coach Will Freeman started his career at Grinnell, he began not with runners, but football players. “I was hired as a track coach and football just kind of came with it,” he said.
Grinnell’s contract requires coaches to fill two positions and teach classes. Sometimes, this means that a coach will lead one team while assisting another, while other coaches end up with a seemingly random pairing of teams, putting coaches in positions where they have little experience.
Though Freeman has since been moved to men’s cross country and men’s track and field, he went into cross country with no background in distance running. “I really like distance runners and their investment with what they’re doing, and maybe one day I’ll know as much about their sport as they do, but when I started, I definitely didn’t,” said Freeman.
For some coaches, like men’s and women’s swimming and diving coach Erin Hurley, the sports clearly correlate. But when coaches are hired for one specific sport, and then are asked to coach a second sport that they’re unfamiliar with, it can lend to success in one sport over another. Volleyball and softball player Sandra King ’08 is directly effected by the policy as both her sports are coached by Tom Sonnichsen. She sees dual coaching as a disadvantage. “I don’t think that it is a coincidence that the teams that are traditional powerhouses at Grinnell have coaches that are coaching their traditional sport, versus women’s basketball or softball or golf that don’t have coaches in their traditional sports,” said King in an email.
While Hurley’s sports are similar, for other coaches, continuity is hard to find, and teams can get hurt because of it. “When a coach is not coaching his or her traditional sport, the amount of specialized instruction decreases drastically and ultimately the team doesn’t reach its potential,” said King.
When men’s soccer head coach Brian Jaworski was asked if he would consider coaching golf instead of his previous position in track, he jumped right into the opportunity. “While it’s challenging for me to coach the technical side of golf because I have limited expertise, there are many other ways the coach can contribute to the overall success [of the team],” said Jaworski.
Golfer and basketball player Joe Fox ’08 agrees. “I believe that expertise is only a partial ingredient of what makes a successful coach,” he said. More important to him, and teammate Carlos Lu ’10, is Jaworski’s passion for the game.
“Of course it would be nice to have a coach who knows everything about the game, but what matters more to me is having a coach who is fully dedicated and loves the sport, and that’s precisely how Coach Jaws is,” said Lu.
Jaworski’s dedication to golf has come naturally to him after being involved in athletics for much of his life. “I have to rely on what I’ve learned over the years in all different sports to help the kids have an enjoyable experience,” said Jaworski. “If you’re putting the time in, and the players know that I’m watching golf and trying to improve at the game, if I can gain their respect, you know you’re going to be fine.”
Lu agrees, “I think that if the coach is fully dedicated to his players, whether they are soccer players or golfers, and everyone’s having fun win or lose, that’s all that matters.”
Both Freeman and Jaworski agree that the biggest challenge to fulfilling two positions is keeping up with recruiting. Because seasons run almost back-to-back, it’s difficult to travel to see prospective athletes play. “I have to work hard every night on the phones; it becomes much more important because you’re not out there seeing kids play,” said Jaworski.
“We work a lot of hours, and it seems to never end,” said Freeman. “But I think we do it well. We have quality people who are deeply engaged with both of their sports.”
