'It all worked out pretty well': UL men's lacrosse coach Steve Koudelka has spent 25 years getting best out of players

Emily Brown 16 hrs ago

Steve Koudelka wants his men’s lacrosse players at the University of Lynchburg to be of the right mindset the moment they step onto campus as freshmen. It might be natural for those student-athletes, the coach explained, to want to test the water of their new environment, or to see what one of the nation’s preeminent Division III programs can do to advance their careers.

But, waiting at the edge of the pool, only dipping a toe in, could mean missing out on the joy that comes with jumping in. ... “It’s like if you go to a friend’s house and you have an hour to swim. … If you only jump in the last 15 minutes, you only got to swim 15 minutes. You’ll realize, ‘I wish I got to swim for an hour,’” Koudelka said recently, as he played out the analogy in describing his program. ... “Swimming in a pool’s a lot of fun. We all have fun swimming in the pool, so jump in.”

In 2½ decades at the Lakeside Drive school, the coach has seen hundreds of players fully immerse themselves in the culture he’s built, a process that started back when Koudelka made a similar leap.

The coach wasn’t much older than the players he now coaches when he jumped into the head coaching world. Then 25 years old, Koudelka chose to move from his post as an assistant coach at his alma mater in Pennsylvania, Gettysburg College, to Lynchburg, the only guarantee a part-time contract with a salary of $10,000 per year, to become head coach of the Hornets.

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