Lehigh alumni find new purpose on the sidelines

For many Lehigh athletes, graduation marks the end of their playing career. 

But for some members of Lehigh’s coaching staff, their goodbye turned into a transition from players to mentors on the sidelines.

Colleen McQuillen, ’25, a former women’s basketball player, now serves as the team’s director of operations. 

McQuillen was a co-captain for the 2024-25 Patriot League winning team last year and graduated in May with a dual degree in Sociology and English. 

Now, she’s pursuing her master’s degree in secondary education concentrated in English and works as a graduate assistant on campus. 

McQuillen said she primarily manages the team’s travel logistics and assists the coaching staff with the recruiting process.

She said this new role has shown her how much work the coaching staff completes outside of practice. 

“As a player, you show up, work out and leave,” McQuillen said. “As a coach, you are preparing, adapting and breaking everything down afterward. There’s so much that happens before and after that one hour on the court.” 

Similar to McQuillen, Brooke Astor, the associate head coach and director of operations for the men’s and women’s track and field teams, returned to Lehigh after graduating in 2014 as a seven-time Patriot League champion. 

Following her graduation, she was immediately offered a position to join the team’s coaching staff. 

Astor said she was surprised by the difficulty of coaching, having previously seen her sport from the athlete’s point of view. 

“I thought, as an athlete, ‘I am doing the most demanding thing, the most demanding event, mentally, emotionally, physically,’ and then I got to coach and I was like, ‘Wow, this is tough,’” Astor said. “That was kind of a funny shock to me.”

She said the player to coaching shift is a distinct experience, especially given that many coaches work alongside former teammates. 

McQuillen said she sees that familiarity and connection as a strength, not a weakness. She said she hopes the team knows she has their back and that she wants to continue to show up for them as a coach. 

Another Lehigh alumnus who made the transition from a student-athlete to coach is former baseball player Justin Butler, ’24.

Butler is now a graduate student working for Lehigh’s Sports Performance department and is a volunteer assistant coach for the baseball team. 

Similar to McQuillen, Butler said his return to Lehigh was both exciting and challenging, but he said the transition to coaching was smoother than expected.

“The seniors now were some of my best friends, we played together for three years,” Butler said. “They know how I work, and they’ve helped me communicate with the younger guys. Honestly, they have made it a lot easier than I thought it would be.” 

Butler said while the team wants to win a championship and work hard, the bigger picture for him as a coach is that the athletes make long lasting friendships and create relationships with people on any team. 

Astor said she understands her athletes’ mindsets after having been one herself and uses that while coaching to better the team’s performance. 

She said she tells her players she knows what they’re going through and reiterates that she has been in the same position.

Along with this mentorship, Astor said her experience allows her to know what works and what doesn’t. 

“As an alum, I think what has worked with me at Lehigh is I know the good and the bad,” Astor said. “I can say, ‘Hey, these are the things we don’t exactly do well in, and we have to get better in those elements.’”