A week in the life of an assistant coach
No glory.
No recognition.
Long hours.
Lots of work.
Such is the life of an assistant coach.
Randy Rahe, an assistant coach for the Utah State men’s basketball team, has been living that life for 16 years.
Before Utah State, he made stops at Colorado College, Colorado University, Denver University and Colorado State University, where he met Stew Morrill.
“Each situation was different,” Rahe said. “Every one was a good experience.”
His first assistant coaching job was under his friend Al Walker at Colorado College in 1989.
“I had no idea how to be a college assistant,” he said. “He taught me how to be an assistant coach.”
Rahe’s specialty at Utah State is defense, which he works very closely with. He also helps with recruiting, scouting, scheduling, summer camps and individual workouts.
“Your main job as an assistant is to take care of your head coach and relieve a lot of his stress,” he said.
Rahe isn’t like most other assistant coaches, however. He stands only 5-foot-7.
“I don’t really fit the image,” he said. “It’s never been anything I’ve really worried about. I just try to do the best I can where I’m at.”
He said his height is only an issue if he’s trying to get hired by someone who doesn’t know him. Most importantly, he said, the players just want to be able to trust the coaches.
“If what you tell them works, then you get instant credibility,” he said.
Rahe goes through a rigorous weekly schedule.
He said the coaching staff usually arrives in the office at 8 am.
On Sundays, the staff will watch film from their previous games and make a “good” and a “bad” tape to show the players. Then they will watch film for the next week’s opponent.
Monday, he will watch even more film.
“It’s a lot of film work,” he said. “It takes a long time to do that.”
Tuesday and Wednesday, Rahe will put together a 20- to 30-minute long highlight tape of the opposing team to show the players. Then he writes scouting reports of the next opponent, both team reports and reports on individuals. Most of that information goes on the team whiteboard so the players can see it.
Rahe says road games are always tougher, because you have less time to get the work done.
“It all has to be done by the time you leave Wednesday [if it is a road game],” he said. “[Monday] night, I left the office at quarter to one.”
When game day rolls around, the staff will watch more highlight tapes and scout out their opponents out-of-bounds plays. Then the whole team will watch the film before its final practice.
Then it’s showtime.
After the game, the staff will watch the game film and talk about what they did and did not do well.
During conference play, the team plays games on Thursday and Saturday, which leaves very little spare time.
Rahe says he loves working under Stew Morrill.
“He has no ego,” he said. “He’s in college basketball because he loves to coach college basketball. He’s absolutely terrific.”
Rahe praises the day that Morrill hired him.
“He took a chance on me,” he said. “That was the break of my career.”
Rahe and assistant Don Verlin have both been under Stew Morrill for at least 10 years, which includes his entire tenure at Utah State. Assistant Tim Duryea has also been on staff for the last three years.
“I think it’s a great advantage [to have experience with the rest of the staff],” Rahe said. “It’s comforting knowing each person. We have a lot of respect for each other. We’re also friends.”
Rahe doesn’t want to see himself leaving Stew Morrill’s staff anytime soon.
“I don’t know that coach will ever leave, but if he does, I hope he takes me,” he said.
Rahe would not pass up the opportunity to be a head coach someday.
“I’d like to [be a head coach] someday,” he said. Any assistant would want to know if they’re capable of it. But it’s not something I dwell on every day. When the time comes, it will come.” With all the success the men’s basketball team is having this year, a lot of credit has been given to Morrill. But it could not have happened without his assistants.
“We work together,” Rahe said. “We all share in wins and we all share in losses. We’re all in it together. That’s the way our staff is.”
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu