Thinking About Grad School?
When I decided to return to grad school in 1989, I tapped into my lacrosse network. I knew that graduate assistant positions (GAs) existed that would pay for tuition provide a living stipend in exchange for work. I let be known that was looking for GA position where I could coach. I soon received an offer from Head Coach B.J Ohara (West Genesee, Hobart) at Dartmouth College in Hanover, Vermont. I just earned a spot on the 90 National Team and thought Dartmouth was at the time just too isolated from opportunities to play club ball and have a social life. Chuck Winters, the former head coach at Cortland State when I played at SU, had just started G-burg as the school’s new athletic director that summer. He and coach Hank Janzyck (hereafter Coach J) created an attractive GA offer and I took it. At the time coach J was building the G-burg lacrosse program. I took the job because I liked Coach J and the location of the school in south central Pennsylvania allowed me to play for Maryland Lacrosse Club in nearby Baltimore. I rented a mother in laws apartment from coach who I would live with from 1989 to 1992. I really had a great gig with access to the weight room and the campus library and I made the most out of it. I could return to grad school because I was single and accept for a couple of students loans and small car loan, financially independent. That's key if you want to return to school. I was also a big fish in a small pond as new US National Team player. That celebrity status and a good reputation off the field helped me negotiate a good GA position that worked for me.
