HAVERFORD COACHING EXPERIENCES

Fall 2019

The successful foundations paved in 2018 continued into 2019 with Fords Water Polo winning another undefeated Inter-Ac League Championship but this year improving on the runners up finish in Easterns last year to becoming champions of the tournament this year.  It is a historic double never before achieved by the program, and like the success last year, it was built upon teamwork, preparation, skills development and strategic coordination.  Like last year, every member of the program understood the unique talents that they contributed to the team and committed themselves 100% to their roles.  In light of Covid-19 and changes made to sports across the country, the upcoming 2020 season promises to be like no other, but the classes of 2018, and 2019 leave Haverford knowing that the program is heading in the best possible direction. 

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Fall 2018

Over the 2018 summer, I was approached about joining the Water Polo program, a sport I had some experience with having played a bit in high school and college, but that I hadn't given much consideration to since then.  In contrast with the soccer program, the water polo team was in the ascendency and you could feel in the pre-season that the program was on the cusp of doing something big.   The swim team, many of whom were water polo players, had just had an incredible season the year before, so many of the boys had experienced the taste of winning, and perhaps more significantly, many of the players who had participated in the early years of head coach Kevin van Such's club water polo program were entering their junior and senior years, so the playing philosophy and practice routines were well entrenched through the entire program.  The coaching staff had been together for many years now, so the challenge for me was to figure out my role in contributing to the success of the program.  We had water polo and swim fitness experience in abundance amongst the coaches, but I was the only academic teacher in the program who got to see the students in the hallways during school, understanding first hand the ups and downs of the day, so that is the role I took on.  I took particular joy in asking the kids about their day, checking in with them about their classes, offering them extra math help and talking with them about maintaining a healthy balance between academics and sports.  Sure enough, those early premonitions turned out to be accurate, and we won the league for the first time since 2009, going undefeated in the process.  The expectations remain high going into the Fall 2019 season

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Fall 2017

My first impressions as a faculty member at Haverford were actually as a coach for the varsity soccer team in August during pre-season before the academic year had even started.  I had met with the head coach Bill Brady a few times before meeting the players and was immediately struck by the level of professionalism and intentionality with which the program was build.  The players were equally gracious in welcoming me to the program and school in general.  We ended up having a tough season, the reasons for which were evident for me from the beginning when the senior players continuously referenced reclaiming an identity built a few years earlier during a tremendously successful period in the soccer program's history.  So much effort was spent trying to reclaim that identity, that we didn't ever fully succeed in forging one of our own.  Despite the challenges, the season presented a number of memorable success stories.  I devoted much of my own energy in those first few months at the school to listening, learning and building relationships and I didn't feel, perhaps mistakenly, that I yet had the status or familiarity to claim to know where the adjustments were needed.  Fortunately, the soccer program succeeded in building an identity that reflected the players the following year and they went on to win the Inter-Ac.  Congrats to them!