From the blackboard to the backboard

Faculty guest coach program bridges academics and athletics

Jessica Burda

Sometimes there is a gap in understanding between the worlds of academics and athletics on a campus.

Under a new program to bring those worlds closer together, student athletes can nominate a full-time faculty member to be a guest coach for a sporting event.

David Harris, the athletic department’s new director of academic affairs, started the program at UW–Madison after experiencing success with it at the University of Mississippi.

“From time to time … faculty members and administrators on campus don’t always understand what’s happening in athletics, what student athletes are doing and the coaches’ role in trying to educate the student-athletes. So I thought it would be a good idea to try to bridge that gap and make that connection,” Harris says.

These professors-turned-coaches don’t just show up for game time and sideline seating. Like the student athletes enrolled in their classes, faculty guest coaches participate in preparation activities and practice before games to gain an understanding of what it takes to wear red and white for the Badgers come game time.

“I think one of the misperceptions sometimes is that student-athletes just show up on game day and play,” Harris notes. “Not everyone understands the tremendous amount of preparation that goes along with each game.

“I wanted to make sure that we put a big emphasis on some of the things that actually happen during the week: how much time is spent in preparation, what are the student athletes being exposed to and how the coaches interact with the student-athletes. I think that is as important — if not more important — than what actually happens during the game. I feel like we wouldn’t really be doing justice to the program if we didn’t expose our faculty guest coaches to the whole process.”

Both the football and women’s basketball teams have participated in the Faculty Guest Coach Program this year, while the men’s hockey team plans to nominate a guest coach for late-season home games. Harris believes all of Wisconsin’s varsity team sports could benefit from the program.

Prior to the women’s basketball games, the professors watch film with the team, attend the team shoot-around and witness head coach Jane Albright’s pregame and postgame pep talks with the team.

For Albright, the Faculty Guest Coach Program allows the women’s basketball student athletes to connect with their instructors.

“It has been wonderful because it has given all three parties — students, coaches and athletes — the chance to learn more of each other’s worlds and some informal time to share with one another too,” Albright says. “It speaks volumes to the student athletes that these professors care enough to come and spend this much time in their world. It really shows the professors care.”