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BEHIND THE DESK BY BARRY ALVAREZ // UW DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Stability among head coaches is an asset W 14 hen you see coaches get fired so early in the season, the thinking can often be, "Let's get it done and have the first shot at the best coach available. Let's be the first ones out there shopping.'' Some ADs want to start the process and the search immediately rather than waiting because when the season ends there's going to be a bunch of job openings, that's the way it always is. Most football coaches have agents, so you can do some behindthe-scenes work to see who the best one is out there and if there's any interest. It can give you a running start. That's the thinking behind it. I don't particularly like it; I don't believe in it. I don't think a midseason change is fair to the kids, especially the seniors. It's very difficult to have an interim coach walk in and be effective. I look at some places where they're paying a lot of money, millions of dollars, for guys who aren't even coaching and they've been forced to get private donations to pay off people's buyouts. We've been very fortunate. I see how many coaches that other schools have gone through since // VARSITY October 3, 2013 I got here in 1990, and I think sometimes we take our stability for granted. I love our head coaching group. We have good people in place ― people who understand what Wisconsin is all about ― and they've really sold our program. I feel positive about that. You look at both of our soccer programs and where they came from; they were both rock bottom. Right now, they're both very, very good. Paula Wilkins and John Trask have done a nice job. Just look at the job that Kelly Sheffield has been doing in volleyball in a short amount of time. He got their attention right away. He's 24/7. Man, he's intense. He has had so many injuries, but he has really coached up those women and they're really playing with confidence. I could go on and on about our head coaches. Look at softball and what Yvette Healy has done after taking over a program that was rock bottom. Last spring, she won the Big Ten tournament and got her team into the NCAA tournament. I really like the people that we've brought in. We have good coaches. The point I always try to get across to them is about taking pride in our program, how we want our teams to represent us and make our alums proud. Wear the "W'' proudly. That never changes. I also remind them every year to keep their heads up. I go through all the ways the bottom can fall out of a program if you let things slide or stick your head in the sand and don't pay attention. I make it perfectly clear when I hire people that we're going to do things the right way; we're not going to cut any corners. We have plenty to sell here. Our coaches have the wherewithal to go out and recruit the right people who want to go to school and want an education; people who get can get in front of a microphone and you'll be proud of. I always tell our coaches to treat the student-athletes right, develop them, support them in the classroom and on the field, and help them grow as people. When they walk out of here four and five years later, I want them in their exit interviews to say, "You know what? If I had to do it all over again, I'd come right back to Wisconsin.'' All of our head coaches are on the same page with that.