July 1, 2004

By John Cerilli
CollegeSports.com

Richie Meade keeps a very special photograph in his office. Pictured is a statue at the United States Military Academy at West Point bearing the inscription, "The lives and destinies of valiant Americans are going to be entrusted to your skill and leadership."

"It's really the essence of why we do what we do. It kind of pulls together everything for me," said Meade, head coach at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis for the last 10 seasons and the 2004 National Lacrosse Coach of the Year. Having spent time coaching at both West Point and now heading up Navy, he represents a relatively small group of men and women entrusted with drilling and training the battlefield leaders of tomorrow on myriad playing fields of today.

The coaches who mentor and motivate the student athletes at Army, Navy and the Air Force Academy are all very aware that their objectives involve more than winning and losing athletic contests. In fact, they're responsible for part of the very learning process that forms young men and women into battle ready commanders.

"Unlike a lot of places, academics and athletics coincide here - they're all part of the educational process," said Jack Emmer, who just concluded his 21st season as head coach of the Army lacrosse team. "At a lot of places, athletics and academics are butting heads. Here, it's part of the mission."

That mission, to create the best leaders possible, has become a lot more intense in today's post 9/11 environment. And that intensity level skyrocketed immediately.

Penny Lucas-White, the women's head volleyball coach at Air Force the last nine seasons was in New York City for that terrible moment. Her group of cadets flew in the day before to play Army on September 11, 2001. After the second plane struck the World Trade Center that morning, she was forced to call a team meeting in her room.

"That was a defining moment for the team, for me and where we were and who we were and who we represent," Lucas-White said. "A lot of the girls wanted to be able to put on their uniforms right then and there."

With U.S. military personnel now perilously engaged in active war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, none of the coaches are immune to the bigger world picture nor do they keep their charges insulated from it.

Bobby Ross, a veteran football coach with a national championship at Georgia Tech to his credit as well as a trip to the Super Bowl with the San Diego Chargers, takes charge of the Army football team this season -- becoming the program's 34th head coach. No stranger to the ways of the military as a former Citadel head coach and a 1959 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, Ross was quick to address the subject of troops in dangerous situations in his first team meeting. He openly cited the experience of Curt Daniels, a senior defensive back whose brother Clay, a 2000 West Point grad who lettered three times with Army football, had just finished a tour of duty in Iraq.

"Drawing attention to the fact and recognizing it exists is important," Ross said. "But at the same time, we have to be disciplined enough and smart enough to let it not become a total and complete distraction to us in what we're trying to get done in the framework of our football program. It's kind of a fine line and you try to keep the balance to it. But it's here. It's here every day."

Of course, at some points in U.S. history the "it" Ross speaks about - Americans being put in harm's way -- inevitably infiltrates a team and threatens to undermine the fine balance academy coaches try to maintain.

James "Ace" Adams was the Army lacrosse coach from 1958-69. The fourth all-time winningest coach in college lacrosse history with 286 notches in his stick, Adams helmed the cadets squad during the beginning of the Vietnam War and well into it. With a sobering dignity in his voice, the now retired lacrosse commander recalled the day he and his team were informed that Lt. Ray Enners was killed in combat while saving a fellow soldier in Vietnam. Enners was the 1967 cadet team captain and his brother Richard was playing for Adams when word came in.

"It was difficult," Adams said. "A minister had called our home and talked to my wife. She came to practice to give me the news just as we were sort of ending. It was quite a shock to all of us."

After dinner that night, a colonel came to chat with the younger Enners.

"He took Richard for a walk around and around and explained to him about the Army and what it meant." Adams recalled, "Those were things Richard probably knew, but the Colonel reinforced it. I think it was a great tonic for Richard.... It was a very tough time."

Unfortunately, Ray Enners wasn't the first or the last casualty of the Vietnam War with whom the cadets had to come to terms. Faced with constant anxiety and sadness, Adams was forced to delve within himself to provide guidance for the team.

"I tried to do the best I could and not get overly emotional," he said. "It was just a very sad thing for us... But it's something that you learn to accept. I didn't give any talks or anything like that about it. If we did anything, we maybe said a prayer. And then we went on, you know... You get through it."

Rob Riley just completed his 19th year coaching Army's hockey team (18 as head coach) - continuing an historic Riley run that began in 1951, his father Jack's first season. Riley explains it this way, "Nothing can prepare you as a coach to help the families and players through these times."

And Riley would know. Though he has not yet had to deal with a combat fatality, two people close to the program - an assistant coach and a freshman player - passed away during his tenure.

Ross also had players pass away during his many years coaching - forcing him to confront the issue head on.

"The way we dealt with it was to go through the period of mourning and then kind of move on - not forgetting that person, but putting it aside and knowing that person would want us to do that as well," Ross said. "Here, if we're dealing with a lot of them, that's going to be a difficult time to even have a period of mourning. It's a matter of recognition, a prayer of some nature, talking about it and trying to move on. It's probably a little easier for [the cadets] because that's a part of their life. They understand that and they're ready to accept that. It goes with the territory."

For students at the military academies, matters of life and death are added on top of one of the most challenging collegiate academic workloads any student must face. And for student athletes, they have the added pressure of training to compete in major sporting events while all of the world swirls on around them. Yet, the coach must somehow ground his athletes and get that person to perform through these most trying times.

"You have to figure out how to get around the obstacles and get the job done. No excuses just results," said Bruce Burnett, Navy's head wrestling coach for the last four years and the U.S. Olympic Freestyle coach at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. "That is what I love about coaching at the Academy, the individuals I work with -- they know the difference between dreams and getting the job done."

For cadets and midshipmen, that job includes why they initially chose to attend a service academy in the first place - to serve and protect the United States of America as a military leader. And the coaches are well aware of that.

As Emmer explained, "The institution firmly believes, like I do, that athletics contributes to that leadership development. Practices are like leadership laboratories."

But how does a coach lead a pack of leaders?

"You bring a lot of leaders here and all of a sudden they don't become leaders," said Lucas-White of her Air Force charges. "They're no longer the big fish in a little pond. Now all of a sudden, they're small fish in a big pond and they have to shine above the best of the rest. So in order to lead these people, I think we do what we've always done, which is to boost they're self esteem or to challenge them to do better."

Or as Meade said, "As a coach, you have a pretty significant impact on kids, especially here. They have a passion for their sport. It's where they'll listen to you... The military guys might not want to hear this, but they know that the coaches have a tremendous amount of influence on the players."

That influence is easily manipulated and awesomely powerful in the hands of the right individual. But it is ultimately what these coaches are after - not only to win on the chosen field of play - but to ready their students for the time when decisions have to be made on the field of battle - an all too real situation in today's world.

After 21 years of doing the same thing, that's probably why Emmer still regards his position with such respect, "You feel like you're getting these guys ready for something that's a hell of a lot more important than what you're doing."