Peluso Puts Family First
by Jac Coyne |
Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Coyne
Archive
As his camps were winding down in mid-July at the Rochester
Institute of Technology, the institution he had coached since 2002,
Gene Peluso finally found the catalyst to do something he had been
contemplating for some time.
Absurd as it might be viewed from those peering in from the
outside, he needed to resign as head coach of the Tigers.
It wasn't because he was sick, or a family member was sick. It
wasn't because he was being forced out. It wasn't because he was
hunting another job - he applied to only one other coaching gig
this summer (Drexel) in order to test the Division I waters.
No, his decision came about because of a strictly family
reason.
Milling about Peluso's house when he came to his
epiphany were his two young kids, his wife, Beth, along with
his parents, brothers and their kids, all of whom were visiting
from the family's epicenter on Long Island. Seeing his kids sitting
on their grandparents lap and buzzing around the yard with their
cousins while he reconnected, however briefly, with his extended
family reinforced what was missing.
"I just decided that at that point it was time to look at other
options," said Peluso, who figured he'd have to hang up the whistle
and become a nine-to-fiver. "I was trying to get back down to my
roots - a grandparent, my parents and my brothers are all on Long
Island - and that was the goal. We had long conversations about it.
I have a great wife and two young kids and we were excited about
the opportunity."
Excited, yes, but the prospect of leaving a good job in this
economy, pulling up stakes, and heading back to the Island was
somewhat unnerving. Peluso's a family man first, however, so the
decision had to be made.
Unbeknownst to Peluso, down in Hoboken, N.J., at the same time, the
Stevens Institute of Technology was ready to re-open its search for
a head coach that began in early June after Byron Collins took an
assistant AD gig. Just when Peluso was about to leave lacrosse
coaching for the foreseeable future, he received a call from
Stevens athletic director Russ Rogers inviting him to dinner the
Monday after his RIT resignation.
Two weeks later, he was named the Stevens next head coach.
"A lot of people still don't understand it," said Peluso. "I had
resigned from RIT without Stevens on my radar at the time. I wanted
to make a change; I wanted to get closer to my roots. I was going
to be in the private sector for a little bit and do my own thing.
Then Stevens presented itself to me and I had a great conversation
with Russ Rogers.
"I realized that I still wanted to be coaching at a high level and
still wanted to be coaching college lacrosse. This kind of gave me
an opportunity to reach a couple of my goals. Be closer to my
family - they're pretty much right over the Hudson [from Stevens] -
and continue to coach at a place that puts a lot into not only the
academic experience, but the athletic experience. It really
unfolded into being a great situation and it was a few weeks later
that they offered me the position."
When offered the spot, Peluso sat down with Beth, who he calls the
"head coach of the family," and they decided to give it a shot.
There were a couple of issues.
While Peluso was comfortable with how things played out, he
understood how this transition could be perceived, especially from
two key constituents.
The first was RIT. Leaving, ostensibly to spend more time with the
family, and then popping up as the head coach of a conference rival
had the potential to not play real well with his former team and
employer. Fortunately, both sides are comfortable with the
decision.
Peluso talks fondly of his time at RIT and has nothing bad to say
about the school, program or administration. Similarly, the school
is making a relatively seamless transition to a new era. Lou
Spiotti, the RIT athletic director, said that all of the returning
players and incoming recruits have been notified and are still
eager to play for the Tigers.
Spiotti also holds no ill will toward his former lacrosse
coach.
"Gene needed to make a move for his family and these things happen
sometimes," he said. "He ended up finding a position closer to his
home and everything worked out well for him."
The second concern was Byron Collins.
Peluso considers Collins a friend, so filling the position Collins
vacated while moving to the assistant athletic director's chair had
the potential for awkwardness. Collins has handled the move with
professionalism, walking Peluso through a lot of the finer points
of the Stevens athletic department.
In deference to Collins, Peluso makes it clear he's not accepting
the position to push the program to the proverbial "next
level."
"I'm coming in to do a job for Stevens lacrosse. I'm not coming in
because the last guy didn't get them over the hump or anything
along those lines," said Peluso. "I remember Stevens 15 years ago
and they were near the bottom of Division III lacrosse and Byron
has got them to the top. I'm not saying that because he's my
friend; it's because I have respect for him and I want to people to
know that. I'm not coming in on any kind of white horse. I'm not
any savior. I'm here to do a job as the lacrosse coach at
Stevens."
Ironically, Peluso's goal of spending more time with the family
will be tabled for a couple of months while he gets squared away.
But when everything lines back up, Peluso will have the best of
both worlds.
"It will be a crazy few months," he said. "My original plan - to be
with my family more often - may have just been put on the back
burner until I get them down here and situated. But once that
happens, I've got my immediate family right there and my extended
family an hour away. My kids can then be around their cousins,
their grandparents and their great grandparent. It's just an
awesome situation."
When you put family first, things have a way of working out.
Slides & Rides
I've been in the wilds of Central Maine for the past three weeks
catching fish and doing a lot of painting, so I'll try to relay
some of the pertinent information from the past fortnight or
so.
- When I spoke with Lou Spiotti, the RIT AD, he said he was pleased
with the depth of the candidate pool he received for the men's
lacrosse opening. He said the school conducted a national search (I
know, every school says that) and has 35 to 40 applications in his
folder. He estimated that RIT would be announcing the next coach
within a month, which would mean around mid-September.
Interestingly, Spiotti said the search committee will be keeping in
mind the institution's move to the Liberty League when making the
hire. I'm not sure exactly what that means (I've been out of the
game for a month and was a little slow on the follow-up
questions...) but we'll see who gets the gig. I have no idea who is
in the mix, but gauging the school and the tradition (ever heard of
Bill Tierney, Ray Rostan, or Guy Van Arsdale?), you can bet there
are current D-I assistant and D-III head coaches looking at the
Tigers.
- Babson has been asleep at the switch for a decade now, but the
Beavers have finally realized it's a full-time world and landed
Brendan Gorman as its new coach. Gorman, who was an assistant under
Peluso at RIT for the past four seasons, will try to resurrect a
program that has plenty of potential and a spot in a relatively
weak conference (the Pilgrim, which is owned by Springfield). The
Beavers went 5-11 last spring, which included a 22-5 loss to Conn.
College.
- Speaking of the Pilgrim, Clark has also made a bid for relevance
by hiring Jeff Cohen to take over the program. A Clark grad, Cohen
has been an assistant at Colgate for the past five seasons. The
former two-time captain for the Cougars might have a harder climb
than Gorman: Clark finished 2-13 last year.
- Count me as among the surprised that Colorado College was able to
lure Guy Van Arsdale to the Mountain West. Not so much because of
the program - CC has a lot of potential as a lacrosse school and
will be the dominant team in the SCAC when it finally forms - but
rather because of the terms.
Colorado College works off one-year contracts for its non-D-I
coaches (everything but men's hockey and women's soccer), and I
didn't think they would be able to snag someone with the track
record of Van Arsdale. Not to say the Tigers wouldn't get
a very good coach, but I thought they would hire someone who was a
bit younger and more willing to travel west without a contractual
safety net. Obviously, Van Arsdale and the administration were able
to find amenable terms. And CC will certainly reap the rewards.
- Haverford is looking for a head coach after the departure of Mike
Murphy to Penn. Murphy did a brilliant job for the Black Squirrels
and will be leaving a strong program for whoever inherits that
gig...Murphy decided to keep Chris Wojcik on at Penn as the top
assistant. Wojcik had been an assistant at Harvard and Bowdoin
before catching on with the Quakers last year...happy to see La
Roche College in Pittsburgh adding on the men's D-III
side...Chesnut Hill, a new D-II program this year, is showing the
geographical diversity of the sport. It initial class of 38 players
has representatives from eight states, including Texas and Oregon,
and two countries. CHC is located in Philly...things are pretty
quiet on the women's side of the coaching carousel. Certainly
nothing like last year.
