GUEST COACHES GET A NEW TAKE ON FIELDWORK

Coach Danya Pilgrim welcomes faculty assistants.

When Bryn Mawr faced Swarthmore's Garnet Tide in field hockey last fall, one might have expected Lecturer in Spanish Peter Koelle, Swarthmore '80, to feel divided loyalties. But Koelle was an unequivocal Owl that day. At the invitation of one of his students, Koelle assisted Head Coach Danya Pilgrim as a guest coach during the Swarthmore game. Now he's a diehard fan of the women in yellow and black.

Koelle is one of several members of the Bryn Mawr faculty and staff who served as guest coaches last year. Coaches, athletes and guest assistants were all delighted with their experience, and the Department of Athletics and Physical Education is hoping to recruit more help from the faculty and staff.

"A few teams did this on an informal basis last year, and it worked out so well that we want to make it an ongoing program," says Head Basketball Coach Katie Tarr. "We don't have a standard formula; it will be driven by the needs of each individual team. Some coaches may draft guest assistants for just one day, while others may ask for a longer commitment."

"Our guest coaches were all wonderful — real morale boosters for the swimmers," says Swimming Coach Judy Wolfe, who got help last year from Professor of Greek Rick Hamilton, Visiting Professor of English Jennifer Horne and Director of Film Studies Jonathan Kahana.

Pilgrim was equally pleased with the program. "It's great for students and professors to see each other in a different context," she says. "The students were so excited to see faculty involved in this part of their lives. And it may be a new experience for some members of the faculty. There are probably quite a few faculty members who've never had an opportunity to see what a coach actually does."

Koelle, for one, says he's serious about sports. "I like to say that I double-majored in track and football and minored in Russian and international studies at Swarthmore," he quips. He suspects that many other members of the faculty and staff have athletic pasts.

"This is a remarkable community, with a diverse range of aptitudes and skills," he says. "People here have all kinds of hidden talents."

<<Back to Bryn Mawr Now 8/25/2005

Next story>>