These coaches are married to Rider U. field hockey
By: Paul Franklin
Taking your job home with you is sometimes unavoidable.
For Lori and Dan Hussong, it's darn near impossible. Especially this time of year. She is the head coach of the Rider University field hockey team. He is her assistant. He is also her husband.
Honey would you pass the game plan please?
The couple have been on the Broncs sideline 17 years now. But there's more.
Before West Windsor-Plainsboro High School split into North and South, he was her assistant field hockey coach. And then she was his assistant coach for the girls' high school basketball team.
Eventually, and neither can recall exactly when, the coaching relationship gave new meaning to Xs and Os.
She is now at North, where she teaches physical education. He is now at South, and he teaches physical education.
Her high school field hockey teams won three state sectional championships, one Mercer County championship and nine conference championships. He also coached boys' basketball, football and ice hockey, and three times was Mercer County Basketball Coach of the Year.
He grew up in the Buffalo area, playing basketball at Division 3 Brockport State. She played field hockey and softball at Cinnaminson High School, and would be an All-America at The College of New Jersey when the Lions won two national championships.
They have also been successful parents.
Son Michael played basketball at Hopewell Valley High School, went on to Westchester State University and now coaches boys and girls volleyball at WW-P South. He is also the new girls' basketball coach there. He is a physical education teacher at an elementary school. Last year he was a volunteer coach with his parents.
Colby is a senior on the Hofstra field hockey team, is a two-time captain and her team has beaten her parent's team three straight years. She will move on to a job with an accounting firm in Manhattan.
Tom was a 1,000-point scorer in basketball at WW-P South and is a freshman at TCNJ.
At Rider, the husband concentrates on coaching goalies.
"I bother her at times when I probably shouldn't. 'Let's do this, let's do that.' But Lori's really good in that she listens,'' he said earlier this week on a lounge chair in the Student Recreation Center. "If you have an assistant who understands the thread of the program and what makes it work, that makes it easier to be a head coach. But in the end she's the boss.''
She smiled, saying, "In the beginning it was a little bit easier to control him, but now he's been doing it for so long and gotten more experience I think he's much more vocal with what he thinks we should be doing. I'm more calm on the sidelines. He's good at trying to get the kids motivated.''
The combination has certainly worked.
They took a 226-105 record into Friday's game at Fairfield, having won three straight before losing in overtime.
They have never had a losing record in conference play, have won seven conference titles, six conference tournament championships and had a winning record 15 straight years.
"He's just as passionate as I am,'' she said. "We don't coach for the money. We coach because we enjoy working with kids. Kids are our number one emphasis. We don't really concentrate on wins and losses, we really concentrate on making them better people. It's been, 'Give us your best effort, be better when you leave this program, treat each other with respect and everything will take of itself.'
"It's good to have that commonality as coaches when kids see no difference between the top person and the assistant coaches.''
Like most coaches, they play good cop-bad cop. However the assistant noted, with a laugh, that, "They don't really have that outlet because we're going home together and we're going to talk about it. But we often say, because we have kids and we have a daughter playing Division I field hockey, we know there are challenges and challenging days. And we try and express to them, 'We understand your side of it.'
"If you can help somebody get to a better place or to see a better way, it actually makes you feel better than it probably makes them feel. I think that's the most fun part of coaching.''
Interrupting the head coach, not so much.
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