With one look at Bill Tierney's office, it's obvious what matters most to him. Since he became head coach in 1987, Tierney has revitalized the Princeton men's lacrosse program, and surrounding his desk are photos of the dozens of students who have benefited from his coaching. "Our kids," as he calls them, take center stage on the walls of his office, at the top of Dillon Gym's tower.
Team photos of Tierney's six NCAA championship teams hang on one side. Another side has a framed article from The New York Times highlighting the successes of Tierney and sons Brendan and Trevor, who both won championships under their father. Also on the wall is an enlargement of a Christmas card the family received, featuring the young son of a former player holding two lacrosse sticks and wearing an oversized Princeton jersey. A smaller black-and-white photo shows the seniors of the 1992 NCAA championship team. They are the first group Tierney recruited and coached throughout their college careers and include John Schroeder, who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Schroeder's former teammates recently endowed a fund in his honor.
For Tierney, his players are both students and athletes, and he takes pride in their accomplishments on and off the field. He also bears the occasional defeat well, as I witnessed while shadowing him only two days after a narrow defeat by Johns Hopkins.
8:45 a.m.: Tierney's day starts with a phone call from UVA lacrosse coach Dom Starsia. The Tigers face off against UVA, one of the top teams in the country, this weekend.
9:15 a.m.: Junior attack Bob Schneider stops by to discuss his play in last Saturday's game. Tierney sends Schneider to work on his shooting.
9: a.m.: Tierney, who spends much of the summer traveling to recruit high school juniors, receives an email from a player in Orlando, detailing his spring break playing schedule. Shaking his head and laughing, Tierney "wishes" he could travel down to Florida in April, when his team will be gearing up for the NCAA tournament.
9:42 a.m.: Assistant coach David Metzbower steps into Tierney's office. They discuss the weather — after springlike conditions for Saturday's game the temperature will dip into the 20s this week — and the possibility of needing to hold practice indoors later in the week.
10:00 a.m.: Looking at Inside Lacrosse magazine, Tierney finds an article on goalies that includes interviews with his son Trevor and with current star junior goalie Alex Hewit.
10:08 a.m.: The team's other assistant coach, Greg Raymond, comes in with a scouting report on Hopkins to discuss the game. The scouting report includes detailed information on the strengths and weaknesses of the other team's players and common play patterns. The report is given to the whole team to read. To confirm that they read it, Tierney and Raymond included a note on the last page asking players to tell them "tsetse fly" as they traveled to the Hopkins game. Only a few players did.
10:45 a.m.: Reading a Daily Princetonian article on precepts, Tierney stops at a quote from a graduate student questioning the intelligence of the "bottom 20 percent" at Princeton. "There's so much good here," Tierney says. "I wish people would realize that every kid is really something special." He adds that some members of the community view athletes in particular as less academic. "You can't pigeonhole these guys into just being lacrosse players. Just because they're athletes doesn't mean they're not students."
10:57 a.m.: Tierney confirms dinner reservations for the team's road trip with the lacrosse receptionist, Sandy.
11:05 a.m.: Opening the daily mail, Tierney reviews the disappointing SAT scores of a top junior recruit. "That's too bad," he says as he puts the letter away.
11:12 a.m.: Hewit, the goalie referred to as "The Brick Wall" in Inside Lacrosse, pops in to discuss the goals scored against him during Saturday's game. He TiVoed the game and has already watched it once, but he goes to the larger room to watch the tape with Raymond.
11:18 a.m.: A sick team member calls to check in with Tierney, who is recovering from an illness himself.
11:30 a.m.: Tierney speaks with John Danowski, the new head coach at Duke and a close friend, over the phone. Speaking of the Hopkins game, he says, "It was a great event, with 20,000 people. People's expectations were May-like, but the teams aren't yet May-like." Discussing Duke's win last week and the team's return to the field following last year's controversy, Tierney tells Danowski that he's excited for him and his players.
11:00 a.m.: As Tierney prepares to leave for Mass — he tries to go every day, he says — Raymond, Hewit and members of the team's defense watch the final moments of the Hopkins game. Another player comes in and starts to watch on another screen. Though the group jokes around at first, discussing the invitation junior defense player Dan Cocoziello received to read Dr. Seuss at a local elementary school, they grow quiet for the final minute of the second overtime. Watching the final, game-ending Hopkins goal, Cocoziello mutters, "Oh, God, that is painful!"
12:00 p.m.: Tierney goes to Mass and then has lunch.
3:30 p.m.: The coaches prepare to go to practice, held at Princeton Stadium Mondays and Tuesdays.
4:00 p.m.: As the players stretch, Tierney and his fellow coaches discuss the day's practice.
4:08 p.m.: The team huddles, and Tierney discusses last week's game. "If we had made just one more goal or switched one play, we'd all be out here happy," he says. The team warms up with passing drills. "The worse you feel, the worse you're going to play," Tierney says. "By Tuesday or Wednesday they'll be out of their funk."
4:45 p.m.: Following more basic drills, Tierney leads the team into small-scale game-situation drills. "Everything changes this week!" he instructs. "We go from a mid[fielder] team to an attack team."
5:20 p.m.: The team lines up on the side of the field after each drill as Tierney discusses the players' efforts. It begins to snow.
5:47 p.m.: Tierney calls the team together, and they start a full-field scrimmage.
6:25 p.m.: With the scrimmage over, players gather balls as Tierney meets with his staff. The practice ends with Tierney's voice echoing through the stadium as the players do sprints.
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