Keene State College coaches, assistant coaches and athletic staff have many different reasons as to why they chose their careers, which collectively led them all to choose coaching as part of KSC’s athletic faculty.
Photo illustration by Angelique Inchierca / Photo Editor
For the love of the game, a motto which inspired some of KSC’s coaches to become what they are.
Assistant men’s lacrosse coach Brad Bishop said he loves both the game of lacrosse and being around others who share the same passion.
He said, “I love to teach and mold the minds of the student athletes and see how much each player can take in.” Bishop attended Keene State College as a student from 2004-2008 and also played lacrosse as a student athlete.
Bishop said he had a great high school coach that he always looked up to. After college, Bishop said he coached high school and eventually joined the coaching staff at Rivier College, which led to making the choice to work as a coach at KSC. “I made the decision to take the plunge and join Keene State because of Head Coach Mark Theriault and the players I could get to come to Keene. Keene is well known for their talented lacrosse program and I’m proud to be a part of it again, but as a coach this time around,” Bishop said.
Standing on the other side of the field, Bishop said there is a lot he wants to teach student athletes, but the main lessons would be “responsibility, teamwork and doing something that is for the person next to you instead of yourself.”
However, Bishop is not the only one passionate about sports.
KSC head coach of men’s basketball Ryan Cain said, “Coaching in basketball in general has always been a passion of mine and basketball has been a huge part of my life, starting at an early age.”
He added that he played throughout middle school, high school and his college career.
“Then I stepped into the real world and got out of my playing days… The logical step for me, given the passion that I have, [was] to transitioning into coaching,” Cain said.
Cain said the most rewarding part of the job, for him, is seeing his athletes grow, mature and become respectable and successful adults after they graduate.
“It’s been great to see all the players that you coach transition into the workforce and be successful as people after they graduate and that’s why we’re all here. It’s not necessarily just basketball, it’s preparing students to be successful when they graduate,” Cain said.
Cain’s motivation to work hard as a basketball player originally came from competing with his father.
He said, “My father used to tell me how much he played every day, so I used to try to take that to the extreme. I started to make sure I put a minimum of eight hours a day and track the number of hours that I spent working on it… My father said [he] never did that much when [he] was growing up. That motivated me,” Cain said.
Cain said all of the coaches he had in his basketball career, especially in college, were highly successful and influential to him. He added, “You take pieces that you’ve learned from a lot of different coaches. That creates your own coaching philosophy.”
KSC women’s head basketball coach Keith Boucher said he had many people he looked up to that supported him as an athlete. “I was fortunate to have so many role models and all the people I admired and learned from: my parents, teachers and coaches. I spent so much time with coaches and I thought, ‘I love this. This is what I want to do,’” Boucher said.
Boucher said that passion for what you do is important in any career because it makes working seem like it is not a job.
Boucher added, “Your work is a reflection of who you are and if you love what you do, that’s going to show. I guess I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” Boucher said.
As a coach, motivation is a huge factor in not only motivating the players, but also helping the players motivating each other and themselves. Boucher added, “Motivation is key… Also, surrounding yourself with positive people and learning that not everyone can be motivated in the same way, everyone is different.”
KSC’s Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information, Compliance and Operations Abraham Osheyack said he has always been interested in athletics and read about them in newspapers and various news outlets for sports information.
“At 20 years old, I actually wanted to be a sports writer. As a kid, I used to cut out pictures from the sports section of athletes in the New York Times and unfortunately I was growing up at a time when newspapers were on their way out so I knew that wasn’t going to be a real viable career path… financially,” Osheyack said.
Osheyack traveled for sports information jobs in many different states around the country and then ended up circling back to New England in 2010.
After coming back, he worked first at Smith College and has been at KSC since 2014. Osheyack said working at KSC has always been a goal of his.
“When I started working here, there were a lot of people who worked here, and there still are today, just less of them, that I kept in touch with over the years; people who helped me along finding my career path when I was younger.”
Not everyone knows what they want to do after graduating college. “The careers you have are not always the ones you plan for, but I’m certainly happy with what I do and how my career has transpired,” Osheyack said.
As the assistant athletic director, Osheyack is able to work with coaches, student athletes, faculty and other students who intern or work for him.
“You learn how to deal with different types of people and different types of personalities. It’s ever-changing conditions. It’s always a fluid work environment,” Osheyack said. “There’s lots of different people you’re responsible to and responsible for; you have to work to take care of everybody.”
Julia Eichman can be contacted at jeichman@kscequinox.com
