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How to handle the head-coaching stress
By JOE SCALZO
YOUNGSTOWN
Less than two weeks ago, just hours after a dramatic overtime win over Notre Dame, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio was hospitalized with a heart attack.
That came a few months after Florida’s Urban Meyer took a leave of absence due to health concerns (then immediately reversed himself) and a few years after Northwestern’s Randy Walker died of a heart attack at 52.
The lesson? Being a head football coach is good for a lot of things, but your health may not be one of them.
“The stress, it’s definitely different,” said YSU’s first-year coach Eric Wolford. “Our society today wants everything now.
“Coach [Brian Kelly] at Notre Dame, he talked about how the days of having a five-year plan and really laying a foundation are more difficult to do because of the media and the fans wanting to win so fast.”
This is Wolford’s ninth coaching stop and he’s been in programs where he stayed up until 1 a.m. and he’s been at others where he goes home at night and gets some sleep. He prefers the latter, but even coaching at an FCS program such as YSU requires 12-hour days (or more), particularly during the season.
That pace can take its toll, so Wolford has learned some tips to help manage the workload and keep his sanity.
Take a break during lunch.
Monday through Thursday, Wolford is usually in his office around 6 a.m. He uses his lunch to break his day into two sections. The first part is devoted to preparation, the second to practice. In between, he eats and works out.
“Working out at lunch, it’s just kind of a stress reliever,” he said. “It’s more of a mental relief than anything. It’s the only time of the day when I don’t have someone calling me or asking me a question or bothering me.”
Get some sleep.
Wolford likes to spend a few hours with his family at night but usually spends all day in the office.
“I’m not into that pretending to be up here with midnight oil on and all those kind of things,” Wolford said. “When I was working until 1 [a.m.] I couldn’t make good decisions and maybe that would affect me on game day because of the fatigue. I was just not mentally [sharp].”
Trust your staff.
One of the reasons head coaches work so many hours is because they don’t trust their coordinators to do their jobs well. Wolford isn’t one of them.
“I have a lot of confidence in my staff,” Wolford said. “I have confidence in what we’re trying to do schematically.”
Following those tips help, but they don’t change the reality of the job. But Wolford doesn’t necessarily believe an organization like the NCAA should regulate the number of hours coaches are allowed to work.
“I think the number of hours that each coach decides to put in, he’s got to manage his own organization,” Wolford said.