Before I get into the point of this article, I just wanted to call attention to the fact that I correctly predicted all four Final Four teams in the Bracket Challenge. I see you, Fartmaster. Anyway, I wanted to call attention to something that typically does not get a lot of press, and that is the difficulty of coaching both a men’s and a women’s team. Think about it for a second, folks. Coaching both men’s and women’s is literally double the amount of work. It is double the practice time, double the amount of talent to develop, and most important of all, double the amount of recruiting, which is the most important part of building a competitive team. Let’s look at the UAA tournament this year. Coach Tee of Chicago (and Coach Girard of Carnegie) both were on court at least double the time of Emory, Wash U, and Case in that hot Florida sun. While this can definitely lead to a good tan, it is also incredibly exhausting and a ton of work.
Another aspect of coaching both men’s and women’s teams is the importance of a great assistant coach. At NCAA’s this year, Coach Tee had both his men’s and women’s teams playing huge Sweet 16 matches on the same day at completely different locations, with the women home at Chicago and the men on the road at Whitewater. Coach Tee had to make the decision of whether to travel with the men or stay home with the women, and he had to trust Coach Gray to stay with the other team and do all the things that a head coach would typically do. This also is not a one-time situation by any stretch of the imagination. A men’s and women’s team will likely travel together whenever possible, but scheduling often will not work out, and it will be on the captains of one team to lead a good practice at home while the other team is on the road. This season, Chicago is one team that has excelled at balancing their men’s and women’s programs, as the women made the Sweet 16 and the men are still battling in the Final Four. I wanted to look at the past few years and see if anything like this has ever been done before. I could only find brackets from the past three NCAA tournaments, so that’s what I’m going off of. This article will be relatively short, as I’m supposed to be working I think, but I really wanted to get this out before the Final Four kicks off this afternoon. Here’s the data:
2012 Elite 8:
Men: Wash U, Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Kenyon, CMS, Emory, Johns Hopkins
Coaches who coach both men and women: 1 (Kenyon)
Women: Williams, CMS, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Emory, Bowdoin, Carnegie Mellon, Amherst
Coaches who coach both men and women: 2 (Carnegie Mellon, Chicago)
2013 Elite 8:
Men: CMS, Middlebury, Kenyon, Wash U, Amherst, Emory, Trinity (TX), Williams
Coaches who coach both men and women: 1 (Kenyon)
Women: Amherst, Wash U, CMS, Chicago, Emory, Middlebury, Williams, Johns Hopkins
Coaches who coach both men and women: 1 (Chicago)
2014 Elite 8:
Men: CMS, Johns Hopkins, Amherst, Emory, Middlebury, Case Western, Trinity (TX), Wash U
Coaches who coach both men and women: 0
Women: Emory, Wash U, Williams, Bowdoin, Johns Hopkins, CMS, Carnegie Mellon, Amherst
Coaches who coach both men and women: 1 (Carnegie Mellon)
So from the data, you can see that it is difficult, but certainly possible to build an Elite 8 caliber team while coaching two squads. However, the most difficult part is having a sustained level of success on both teams at the same time. In 2014, the Carnegie men also made the Sweet 16, giving Coach Girard a similar achievement to Coach Tee. However, besides that one team, none of those other five Elite 8 teams had their men’s or women’s counterparts even make the tournament. That would be the 2012 women’s Kenyon team, 2012 men’s Chicago and Carnegie teams, 2013 women’s Kenyon team, and the 2013 men’s Chicago team. Coaching both men’s and women’s teams is really difficult, so hats off to Coach Tee for an unbelievable season on both sides!
Since the start of the AQ
Both teams to Elite 8:
2010: Carnegie Mellon
Team to Elite 8 and Sweet 16:
2011: Chicago (W)
2009: Carnegie Mellon (W)
Team to Elite 8 and Second Round:
2008: Kenyon (M)
Other team didn’t make NCAAs
2007: Trinity Texas (M) and Denison (W)
2008: Denison (W)
2009: Kenyon (M) and Chicago (W) and Denison (W)
2010: NCWesleyan (M) and Denison (W) and Chicago (W)
2011: Kenyon (M) and Denison (W)
Thanks for putting this together! It’s definitely pretty rare that a coach has a deep run with both teams, but there are definitely several instances where coaches have both their teams in the top 30:
– Tee (Chicago)
– Girard (Carnegie)
– Roache (Redlands)
– Fried (Wesleyan)
– Barnes (Whitewater)
– Lamanna (Brandeis)
– Riggle (DePauw)
– Bizot (UT-Tyler)
This was a quick look-up and I’m sure probably missing a couple teams, but these coaches are clearly all doing a great job with all the challenges that come with coaching two teams. Recruiting and coaching two teams into the top 30 is no small feat.
Your leaving out that the Hopkins coach had two teams in the final eight last year and years before and he is a part time coach. Probably a bigger feat than the others when you consider that the other teams have full time head and assistant coaches, better facilities, bigger budgets. Also, Hopkins gave CMS the best match this year on the men’s side. Jimmy.
Thanks for the note Jimmy. I wasn’t really intending to compare different programs or say one situation is more difficult than another. I just wanted to focus on a coach who coaches both men’s and women’s teams, since that is a relatively common situation and I didn’t think a historical analysis had really been done before.
Actually according to the bios on the Johns Hopkins webpage, they didn’t make the Final 8 until they split the program into the two different head coaches.
Great blog bro keep up the good work
Thanks Ed – appreciate it.
It does beg the question why, with a $7.5 billion endowment, Chicago’s Athletic Director can’t/won’t afford a dedicated coach for each of the men’s and women’s tennis teams. Since they do have a single combined coach for both teams, it surprises me that Chicago has done as well as they have with recruiting. I would expect other schools to stress their separate men’s and women’s coaches (and, implicitly, their financial commitment to their programs) when recruiting in competition against Chicago, CMU, et. al.
Don’t forget Mike Fried at Wesleyan, who also coaches both teams. He hasn’t achieved the same level of success yet, but he is still relatively new and is off to a good start.
Absolutely! Definitely had a UAA focus with Girard, but Fried (Wes) and Gastonguay (Bates) are two other guys who come to mind who have done a great job with two teams.