By Ryan Tipps
D3sports.com

There’s more to being a football coach than winning on the field.

You’re plunged into school politics, placed face to face with the media and forced to build relationships beyond your players and staff. It’s a like-it-or-not situation, but two coaches from the Mid-Atlantic were given the keys this summer to better handle those and other aspects of the job.

Salisbury head coach Sherman Wood and Bridgewater assistant head coach Stephon Healey spent three days in Orlando, as part of the NCAA’s Expert Coaches Football Academy, a diversity program intended “to assist ethnic minority coaches with career advancement,” according to the organization’s website.

For these two veteran coaches, the experience was like no other.

“I’ve been coaching for over 25 years,” Wood said, “and it’s one of those programs that, ‘Man, where was this 10 years ago?’ Any young coach, they need to apply and try to get into this program. I believe that it will just make the entire association and relationship between coaches and administration much smoother, and it can prevent a lot of problems down the road.”

The weekend this past June analyzed the administrative structures of schools as well as what athletic directors are looking for in a head coach. It became about how a coach presents himself both physically and verbally and contributes as a resource for the school. The 19 people who made up the 2009 academy’s class were veterans of the game – Wood with 11 years at his alma mater alone, and Healey with seven at Bridgewater.

“Being in the coaching game for so long, they expect you to know your X’s and O’s,” Healey noted. “They kept on reiterating that the program was about preparing people to be head coaches and be successful.”

Success means winning off the field, as well as on it.

“The on-field process was, to be honest with you, was probably 10 percent of any discussion,” said Wood, a 1984 graduate of Salisbury and former coach at the Division II level. “It’s mainly, from what we gathered, our presidents are supportive of football, but they want to know how you’re going to graduate your kids, how you’re going to handle rules and regulations, how you’re going to handle policies, and are these kids going to be productive as students.”

Among the more unexpected topics for the two coaches was etiquette training. Healey, a native of London who played collegiate football in Pennsylvania, said in terms of etiquette, “A lot of things you take for granted, we actually had to be trained in. It was quite eye-opening.”

The two were also put under the microscope for several hours of media training, where Healey said they went through filmed mock interviews and discussed how a coach should be presenting himself in an interview situation. He said they talked “about what’s the message you want to get out when you speak to the media. You have to make sure you have a clear message, make sure that you’re well prepared for any situation.”

A good attitude is also crucial.

“You are in front of a camera, in front of a microphone,” Wood said, “and there are going to be questions just thrown at you, regardless of how you feel. And you have to leave personal feelings aside.”

Wood and Healey were the only two Division III coaches at this year’s academy and were surrounded by coaches from Brigham Young, Nevada, Ole Miss and more than a dozen others. But despite the scholarship programs and other large universities in attendance, there were no big fish in this pond.

At first, being around Division I schools, “There’s a certain apprehension, but realistically, once you got in there, the program … involved so many things, nobody could really separate themselves. The whole content was pretty much foreign to everyone,” Healey said.

Wood noted, too, how much respect transcended the levels and experience of the attending coaches. But as one of only two head coaches there, Wood was also cast into a spotlight of sorts.

“As a head coach,” he said, “I had people from the University of Mississippi and the University of Buffalo coming to me and saying, ‘I want to be where you are.’ They’re not thinking program, they’re thinking title.”

Interaction with the folks from larger schools also helped make Wood keenly aware of the benefits he has on the small-college level, how organization and administrative duties are commonplace.

He tells of one position coach he spoke with: “There was a Division I coach who played in a bowl game last year, and he has a position on the football field. He informed me that he doesn’t know whether his name will be out there to get another job because he doesn’t have administrative duties. He’s not in charge of recruitment, or he’s not in charge of on-campus hosting, or he’s not in charge of study hall, not in charge of any administrative things. So he wants to do those things, like a small college does, to enhance his resume.”

More than a fifth of Division III athletes are minorities, but just three coaches in this division fit that descriptor. The percentage doesn’t increase much in the broader NCAA ranks, either.

Among the speakers during the weekend was Charlotte Westerhouse, the NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion. Her approach “set the tempo from day one.”

“After the first lecture, she spoke, and we were drilled with questions,” Wood said. “She observed our demeanor, our body language, our eye contact, and she gave all of us an ‘F’ after that first presentation. From that point on, it was so much business, and we had so much respect for her.”

Healey, too, found her to be among the most influential voices of the weekend.

She taught him, most importantly, that “every day is an interview. … Everything came back to that, because you need to be able to present yourself in every setting. It might be great that I might be able present myself to the media, but if I cannot relate to the alumni, then it has no relevance. You have to be the complete product.”

While a “complete product” of a coach is well-rounded, skilled, adaptable and passionate, what ultimately surprised each of these two coaches was how much of a “complete product” the academy turned out to be.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Wood said. “At one point, we thought we’re just going to listen to a bunch of lectures. But that wasn’t the case.”

Beginning in big fashion

George Eager had 13 receptions for 104 yards and three touchdowns in F&M's season-opening win. Photo by Ryan Tipps, D3sports.com

After a week of relatively cool weather, these two teams – and most others out there – met in the heat that is typical this time of year in the Mid-Atlantic. And, after a slow start, these two teams brought heat of their own.

Many Washington and Lee students were moving into campus Saturday, and it wasn’t until actual kickoff time that the stands filled up and the echo of cowbells rattled the still-new stadium. Ahh, that sound, coupled with rising voices and smacking pads, meant that football was finally here.

The matchup, an iconic meeting of the Diplomats and the Generals, proved that diplomacy is greater. Fueled by three receiving touchdowns by senior George Eager, F&M edged out a 29-27 victory. Eager was mentioned in this column two years ago after some acrobatic plays that kept the Dips in a tight night game against Dickinson. I was happy to get to see him play again en route to his 100-plus-yard day.

Though he was the star wideout, five other F&M players nabbed three or more catches, suggesting that quarterback John Harrison is getting much more comfortable throwing the ball in his sophomore season. His 35 completions set a school record.

And even though this game didn’t bear the shutout hallmarks that were seen by each team in ’07 and ’08, defensive did play a big role on Saturday. Four players, including conference Player of the Week Sam Massaro, hauled in interceptions, while junior linebacker Drew Hutcheon put his 200-pound frame in front of W&L quarterback Charlie Westfal during a final 2-point conversion attempt, sealing the Dips’ win.

For their part, though, the Generals didn’t let F&M get too far out of reach, after closing a 16-point gap midway through the second quarter.

F&M’s excitement on the field, which was buffered by the disappointment in the home stands, played out in many other places around the region, where some games came in close while others led to, perhaps unexpected, blowouts …

That was close!

Far and away