The best accident ever

Ryan Elliott is living his accidental dream – five years into his stint as associate head coach at the University of Richmond in the USA, the Bangor, Co Down native writes exclusively for Southern Fried Hockey about how he expanded his horizons beyond Irish hockey into the rarified atmosphere of NCAA field hockey. My love affair with hockey was to start at a young age. After my older brother had excelled at the sport in primary school, I had a hockey stick thrust into my hands at the age of eight, and the rest is history. The rise from youth player to full time coach, was a steady yet unspectacular climb through the ranks at Bangor HC and Sullivan Upper School. I was to play for two coaches – Ulster U16 coach Glen Stranex and Irish U21 coach George Blackwood – who really formed my understanding of the game in two different ways. Yet it was a Dutch coach, Jos Vermeulen at Northumbria University and Northumberland County, that really changed the way that I looked at coaching. During my time in Ulster, I began coaching the youth teams at Bangor Hockey Club, learning the basic technical concepts and methodologies. This was swiftly followed by attaining coaching awards in England and some time coaching men’s and ladies’ teams at university and eventually on to roles in the Northumberland county setup. During the summers I was able to travel to Holland and New Zealand to pick up a few new tricks, while playing and coaching. Throughout these four years of coaching, I was sure to make every mistake possible as a coach, but they turned out to be a great learning experience as I was thrown in at the deep end. [pullquote]”There are always 10 ‘international males’ who apply for every job that comes up, and why not? It is a brilliant job, working in warm weather, coaching university girls and getting paid to do it – sometimes silly money. However, all of that in the hands of the wrong guy can lead to an adult version of The Inbetweeners.” [/pullquote] I landed in Richmond, Virginia on the 8th of the 8th 2008, which was good for me as my lucky number is 8. Having always been drawn to and fascinated by the American sports system, as well as harbouring plans to copy my older brother and travel the world, it was the Friday Night Lights TV show that really planted the idea of going over to have a closer look. I mean, if a whole town would shut up shop to go watch a high school American football game, there must be a few people that would go watch a college hockey match! I felt that instead of going to work in a bar or hostel in Australia or New Zealand on my year out, I would see if someone would pick me up as a volunteer coach. My requirements were simple: help me get cheap accommodation, give me some ‘stash’ to wear and most importantly, take me on the away trips. I was a backpacker at this stage, and wanted to see as much of America as possible. I began to research the system, spending more hours on that than my actual university work. I knew the rules, the divisions, the scholarships – basically anything NCAA-related. This was all in aid of being able to send an informed email – after all, you only get one chance. During my research, I was ranking the teams I was interested in by a couple of factors.

I really wanted to be in a college town that was totally obsessed with the sports teams, and one that had a good standard of teams and facilities. I wanted to be somewhere that had ridiculous stadiums and arenas. I also wanted to go to a team that had a water-based astroturf, as I didn’t feel that I would be able to coach on a 3G pitch or grass that some teams use. Lastly, I wanted to go to a team that was of a decent standard. It wasn’t vitally important, but the thought of losing all season long wasn’t too appealling. All of this isn’t hard to find; nearly every big team has all of the above, therefore I needed to narrow down my search. To this day I don’t know why, but I made three very important decisions in this process. The first was to ask for no payment, just the experience. The second, was not to send a email to every college. The third, was not to send a email to any team that already had a male coach on staff. The money element was crucial because there are always 10 ‘international males’ who apply for every job that comes up, and why not? It is a brilliant job, working in warm weather, coaching university girls and getting paid to do it – sometimes silly money. However, all of that in the hands of the wrong guy can lead to an adult version of The Inbetweeners. It is a huge risk to hire someone from outside the country, and give them a visa having only met them for a interview. Many teams have had bad experiences, so a lot of coaches steer clear of hiring unless they have worked with a candidate at a summer camp, or are getting a personal recommendation from a trusted friend. But since I had no summer camp experience or references, it was asking for no money, or job security, that lowered the risk for them and made the decision easier.

As like any hockey community, the American collegiate one is small and the coaches speak to each other regularly, often building up good friendships in the process. So if I had emailed everyone, they would have been put off. Everyone likes to feel special. The male coach part might sound strange, but it is a very female-dominated sport for a number of political reasons, which I won’t go into here. The likelihood of a team wanting two males is slim and many of the coaches have incredible CVs – for example, Grant Fulton played 100 times for South Africa and Tjerk van Herwaarden coached the Dutch youth national teams. Therefore, I didn’t think they would feel the same need to have a male perspective. [pullquote align=”right”]”Five years later, I am still here. It was only meant to be a four-month section of my gap year travels. The best accident ever.”[/pullquote] My search pitched one university above another seven. It had everything. So I had to deal with the massive disappointment when a very polite email came through to say that they were not interested. Of the other seven schools I then contacted, 5 replied. Two said thanks but no thanks. The other three were keen to discuss further, which we did until one declared that they were going to be in London visiting a friend. one flight to London and an informal dinner later, I had managed to land myself a job. While it might have been my second choice, I can’t imagine myself being anywhere else after meeting Gina Lucido, head coach of Richmond Spiders. She is also one of the most caring people I have ever had the privilege to meet. Five years later, I am still here and still working for the same team. It was only meant to be a four-month section of my gap year travels. The best accident ever.