For 15 minutes before Lehigh men’s soccer faced Army on Sept. 19, the two-time Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin stepped into a familiar role: head coach.
The former New York Giant head coach traded the NFL sidelines for a Mountainhawks locker room pep talk, delivering a fiery pregame speech that energized the team before a 1-0 victory.
Grandson and junior Shea Coughlin said by clapping his hands, getting loud and making eye contact with the players, Tom Coughlin motivated the team in a way no one expected.
Tom Coughlin, Shea Coughlin’s grandfather, lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and travels to see as many of his grandchildren’s games as he can. Shea Coughlin said his grandfather has attended Lehigh’s soccer games before, but this was the first time he addressed the team.
Head Coach Dean Koski said he asked Shea Coughlin if his grandfather would talk to the team. Tom Coughlin was open to it.
“His pregame speech to the guys was incredibly inspiring and motivating, and certainly one of the best pregame speeches I’ve ever heard,” Koski said.
Koski, who hasn’t played competitively in 40 years, said he wanted to get on the field himself after listening to Coach Coughlin speak.
Senior forward Tommy Robertson said the team “was ready to run through a wall.”
“I think the main theme that he was trying to get across is that we’re a collective group rather than a bunch of individuals,” Shea Coughlin said. “So it’s important that we fight for the guy next to us versus being so individualistic.”
Robertson said Tom Coughlin’s ability to command the room and get everyone ready to play was unmatched.
When Tom Coughlin told the team to bring it in, players jumped up with their hands raised for a “1-2-3, Lehigh!” Koski said Tom Coughlin probably enjoyed it as much as the players.
Koski said Tom Coughlin talking to the team during pregame really brought out the coach in Tom Coughlin after being retired for so many years.
Shea Coughlin said Tom Coughlin has always been his “pop-pop” and has always given him advice and motivational tips, but has never seen him get into a coaching mode before.
He said teammates were yelling, hugging and coming up to him afterward.
“I couldn’t believe the way he delivered it,” Shea Coughlin said. “As an 80-year-old grandfather, you don’t really see that every day.”
The Mountain Hawks beat Army 1-0 for their second consecutive Patriot League win.
Shortly after the game, Shea Coughlin said he spoke with his grandfather, and Tom Coughlin jokingly told his grandson not to get used to his coaching mode.
Tom Coughlin’s message about playing like a group echoed Koski’s mindset about the team.
“We’re not going to be, nor have we been, the most talented team when we show up to games,” Koski said. “And so when you’re not the most talented team and you don’t have superstars, then you’re going to have to win as a group.”
Koski said the biggest defensive change was switching to a “double pivot,” using two defensive midfielders in front of the center backs instead of one. This gives the team six defensive players instead of five, increasing stability in front of its own goal.
“We’re really young in the back, and to be able to start as a first year Division 1 soccer player as a defender is hard to do, and so I think it was just a matter of them getting acclimated with each other,” Koski said.
Koski said the next step is to make sure the team is offensively as connected as the defense is now. Robertson said this can be done with more repetition and building team chemistry.
Even as they’re still building chemistry, they went seven games without a loss since their second game of the season. With a 3-3-5 record and 3-0-1 in Patriot League play, the Mountain Hawks are going for a Patriot League Championship.
Losing to Lafayette last year in the Patriot League Championship on penalty kicks motivates Robertson and other upperclassmen.
“We were so close, and we could almost taste it, and just for it to get taken away at the last second by something like penalty kicks, was brutal,” Robertson said.
Robertson said after a couple of weeks, they turned their frustration and sadness from the end of their season into motivation.
“I think the overarching goal is just to win a Patriot League championship. I think we have the pieces to do it this year.” Robertson said.
Comment Policy
Comments posted to The Brown and White website are reviewed by a moderator before being approved. Incendiary speech or harassing language, including comments targeted at individuals, may be deemed unacceptable and not published. Spam and other soliciting will also be declined.
The Brown and White also reserves the right to refuse the publication of entirely anonymous comments.