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Home  Georgetown Former Hoya Quarterback Bruce Simmons Revisits the Hilltop During Yale Week
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Former Hoya Quarterback Bruce Simmons Revisits the Hilltop During Yale Week |
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Written by Media Relations
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Friday, 14 September 2007 |
Washington, D.C. ─A 5 a.m. alarm is followed by breakfast, film and meetings at 6:15 and then practice at 7:30 a.m. That goes for two hours. There’s a chance to work out for an hour, but then there is a position coaches’ meeting for an hour followed by lunch. After lunch, there is a staff meeting at 1:30 p.m., and then practice plans for the next morning are set and scouting continues for that week’s opponent. The day ends well after dinner as the coaches make recruiting plans for next year’s class.
Bruce Simmons (B’69) is really enjoying this vacation he’s taken.
Seriously.
Since last Sunday and leading up to Georgetown’s game with defending Ivy League Champion Yale – at the Multi-Sport Field on Saturday, September 15 at 1 p.m. – Simmons has been observing Head Coach Kevin Kelly, the coaching staff and the team as they go through their daily practice schedule.
It is what Simmons has called a “fantasy camp for football coaching.”
The idea of Simmons, who played football from 1965-69 on the Hilltop, spending some time with the Hoyas came about last winter. Simmons, who is on the University’s Board of Regents and was a co-chair for the campaign for the Multi-Sport Field, asked Kelly how he got into coaching.
Kelly explained that his father, Dave, was a high school biology teacher and a football coach. Simmons responded that he always wanted to be a coach. With that, Kelly invited Simmons to come and spend time with the team.
“I told him I’d love to,” Simmons recalled. “My wife thinks I’m crazy, but I’m having a great time and learning a lot.” The game of football hasn’t changed much, but Simmons said that football at Georgetown in 1968 and football at Georgetown in 2007 is vastly different.
Probably the most eye-opening aspect is the level of detail that goes into every play,” Simmons said after practice on Thursday. “Every player has an assignment, which is obvious, but every player has options and have to make audibles, including linemen, the backs, and of course, the quarterback.
“There are all these adjustments that have to be made that to the untrained eye, you don’t realize. But when you sit and see the detail of how they plan, coach it and how the players learn and execute it, it’s really phenomenal.”
Simmons has taken the chance to be with the team to heart, eating breakfast with the team in the morning, having lunch with the coaching staff and visiting with players. “It’s a thrill, first of all,” Simmons said. “Being part of the flow and feeling the heartbeat of the University, eating lunch at Leo’s and seeing all of the kids around.
“We practice early in the morning, so they have all day to be students. But they come back. They’ll look at film or talk to their coaches, who are their mentors. It’s really nice to see the commitment that the student-athletes have, as well as the coaches.”
Simmons, who lives in the Atlanta area now, has also had the chance to see first-hand several members of the team from his hometown area. Six members of the Georgetown team – juniors Sidney Baker, Kenny Mitchell and Chris Parker, as well as sophomore Willie Bodrick and freshmen Mychal Harrison and Justin Thomas – come from the Atlanta area.
“I have six adopted sons on this team from Atlanta,” Simmons said. “I had a chance to interview each of them through the AAP program for Admissions. I’ve known them since before they came and I’ve kept in touch with them. Now, being here, I probably know 25 to 30 of the players on a first-name basis. So that’s been fun too.
“It’s wonderful to see them grow. In all honestly, it’s great to see them progressing at Georgetown. They’re difference makers. They can make plays, and they can make a difference.
One freshman – Dan Semler – asked Simmons what years he played here and Simmons found out that he had gone to school with his father.
Another freshman – quarterback Jon Schoen – asked about where the team played when Simmons was a student.
“I told him we played up on Kehoe Field, which is Yates’ roof,” Simmons said.š “I said that was before they dug Yates out, there was a grass field up there. When the wind blew, you couldn’t throw a square-out pass against the wind. It blew so hard, I couldn’t get the ball to the end. It was a different environment, but it was what we had and we had a great time.”
When Simmons came to Georgetown, it was one of the first seasons since football had been discontinued in 1951. He played for Mush Dubofsky and the late Scotty Glacken – who was honored prior to last week’s home opener against Lafayette – was his offensive coordinator as a senior.š During my freshman season, each class had a team that played intramural football.š At the end of the games, we put together an all-star team that played New York University in 1965, a 50-14 Georgetown win.
Having the chance to get an inside look at the inner-workings of the football program was what drew Simmons to take advantage of the opportunity afforded him by Coach Kelly.š Sure, he gets to visit his alma mater again, but to see what the day-to-day life is like for a coach was too much to pass up.
“At 6:15 there’s not a lot of energy,” Simmons said. “By the time they get on the field at 7:30, they’ve awakened, they’ve’ had some breakfast and they’re ready to go play. It is exhilarating to be out on the practice field. With the level of effort and intensity that flies around that field, it’s really fun. I can just feel the adrenaline pumping.”
Simmons does not need much prodding to get excited about his alma mater. A member of the University’s Board of Regents and its Student Affairs and Athletic Committees, Simmons, as they say, bleeds Hoya Blue.
So while he enjoys the football aspect of his week on the Hilltop, he also understands that for Georgetown football players, and all Hoya student-athletes, the opportunities that come with their degree can last a lifetime. “We are very lucky to have the coaches we have,” Simmons said. “I’m sure all of our coaches are the same way, but this has allowed me an unusual insight into how the football coaching staff acts. If you think about it, we have 700 student-athletes on this campus and 100 of them play football.
“As (Director of Athletics) Bernard Muir likes to say, ‘We are the laboratory for leadership building on this campus,’ because we have 700 kids who are learning how to be leaders. Athletes are fortunate to have role models in terms of team captains and upperclassmen. That helps build the leadership potential in people.”
Simmons has also seen how important the day-to-day instruction and mentoring from coaches is during the career of a student.
“It’s been a real thrill, but it’s also been an incredibly steep learning curve,” he said. “I went in understanding that coaching is their profession. The idea that you teach 18-19-20 year olds, and they execute the mission on your behalf, is an interesting career choice.š But at the end of the day, these people are terrific teachers with great patience and great enthusiasm for the students they teach.”
So as Georgetown readies for the defending Ivy League champions this weekend, Simmons has had the chance to see how the coaching staff prepares for a gameday.
“I’m just hanging out with the guys, breaking down film and talking strategy while seeing how they put in offensive and defensive packages,” he explained. “This is all just wonderful. This is beyond my most optimistic hopes.”
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