Column: Coaching stress not unusual

As soon as the news broke that Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio was hospitalized with a heart attack, coaches health issues immediately came to the forefront.

Many writers said a college coach has a more difficult job than any other “average” professional.

John Lindsay of Scripp News suggested coaches live in a more difficult world than other human beings.

Loren Tate of the News-Gazette, based in Champaign, Ill., compared what happened to Dantonio with what happened to late IU coach Terry Hoeppner — who died of cancer and not a heart attack. He said,“Salesmen don’t sit up past midnight studying the idiosyncrasies of the next day’s prospects.”

As if coaches are the only ones who worry about the next day.

As unfortunate as the Dantonio situation is (he was released from the hospital Tuesday), the previously described point of view simply isn’t rational.

The jobs coaches are required to do get tougher each year. They have to watch hours and hours of film, go to practice and then watch more film. On top of that, coaches have to recruit almost year-round if they want to end up with the players who will take their respective programs to the next level.

It’s tough, it’s stressful and it’s time-consuming. I am not debating those facts. It is not, however, any more difficult, stressful or time-consuming than other
professions.

Doctors and lawyers — amongst other professionals — have to study for an extra four years just to earn the degrees they need for their chosen careers. Then, after earning those degrees, they log hours comparable to those of a football coach.

While a coach is studying film of his team’s next opponent, a lawyer is studying the facts of his next case. While a coach is prepping his team for a big game, a doctor is preparing his team for a possibly life-saving surgery.

There are stresses in every person’s life, things that are challenging to overcome. Some individuals are kept awake at night worrying about paying his or her electric bill or putting food on the table for a family.

It’s not only coaches who bring their work home in some capacity – it’s the majority of working Americans.

“I don’t know of anybody who’s really successful that doesn’t work hard,” IU coach Bill Lynch said. “It doesn’t just happen. I think this stuff kind of gets overplayed with how crazy coaches are.”

To take Dantonio’s heart attack as an example why college coaches need to cut back is incredibly unfair. Heart attacks happen every day — we just recognize this one because it happened to a prominent figure at a big-name college football program.

Plus, it is very unlikely that Dantonio’s heart attack was caused by something related to his job coaching the Spartans. Few such incidents are brought on by job-related stress.

“Much of what we describe as ‘job stress’ is as much, or more, a part of the person as it is the job,” said Dennis Organ, a retired IU professor with a background in job-related stress and satisfaction. “Job stress, in my opinion, is never the sole determining factor of a heart attack.”

Some college coaches are overworked and can never seem to escape the pressure associated with their job. Florida’s Urban Meyer would be a good
example.

But, again, this is no different than some professionals in any other line of work. Teachers, salespeople, postal workers, and many others bring their work home from time to time.

Lynch seems to have his priorities in order. He likes to have his staff members work in the morning so they can be home with their families at night. Certain days are undoubtedly tougher than others, but Lynch is spending those days in a career he chose doing something he loves — coaching football.

Let’s not continue to put college coaches up on a pedestal, acting as if they work so much harder than the rest of America, and overreact when a negative health story emerges.

Doing so is unfair to Dantonio, to Lynch and to all of the other hard-working individuals in the country. College coaches work hard, but it is up to them to decide how many extra hours to spend in the office and what to think about once they head home.

Sound familiar? It should — you or someone you know probably has the same discretion in their careers.

WEEKEND PREDICTION
Still trying to figure out how good IU is this season? Don’t plan on using Saturday night’s game as an indicator.

Akron, similar to Western Kentucky, has yet to win a game this season — and that includes a home contest against Gardner-Webb.

IU will jump on the Zips early and cruise, setting up a matchup of unbeatens when Michigan comes to town next week.

Prediction: IU 45, Akron 13


E-mail: jmalbers@indiana.edu