The player-coach relationship is unique, to say the least. The closest semblance to it is the relationship between parents and their children. It’s a relationship of trust, and a relationship with a clear hierarchy: coach has the final say.
When a player becomes a coach on the staff of his former coach, the status quo goes out the window.
That was the case for Steve Bode, who’s now in his fourth year as Marquette’s men’s soccer assistant coach.
Bode was a standout defender for current Marquette coach Louis Bennett and associate head coach Stan Anderson at Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 2003-2007. Bode was a captain his sophomore through senior year at Milwaukee.
When Bode played under Bennett and Anderson he helped Milwaukee to the Horizon League tournament title and the NCAA Tournament both years.
In his Milwaukee career he was twice named Milwaukee’s most valuable player. And afterwards he was drafted by the Chicago Fire of the MLS. He played in three reserve matches before calling it a career as he struggled with knee problems.
After all that, he became a colleague of Bennett and Anderson.
Bennett never had any hesitation about hiring a former player coming right out of college. But with all hires, there is never a guarantee it will work out.
“The only concern you have sometimes is that they’re going to be ‘yes men’ when they really should say, ‘no.’ And he’s not like that,” Bennett said. “I knew he wouldn’t be like that because as a captain (at Milwaukee), when there were issues or there were things that had to be said, he said them.”
Bode said there was no hesitation to work with his former coaches.
“To get an opportunity to coach with the coaches that you were recruited by, that you played for, that you won championships with, those types of things, not everyone gets an opportunity to do that,” Bode said. “I think for me, I just had a ton of respect — and still do have a ton of respect — for Lou (Bennett) and Stan (Anderson) at that time. So to get offered an opportunity like that, it was almost like a no-brainer for me.”
Bennett and Anderson did not recall any awkwardness during Bode’s first year as he fought through the player-coach relationship barrier, but Bode acknowledged difficulties adjusting to the peer relationship.
“I think Lou (Bennett) mentioned something that there maybe was a concern that I would be a ‘yes man,’” Bode said, “and I think I probably was a ‘yes man’ for the first year because I was just getting my bearings with Lou (Bennett) and Stan (Anderson) and how much experience they have and how much I respected them.
“Why is my opinion going to be valuable to them?” Bode continued. “It was valuable to them because it was a different opinion, and it was from a younger generation closer to the players. I didn’t quite understand that at first because I was thinking, ‘I don’t know what this coaching thing is all about.’ I was just trying to get my feet on the ground.”
That was a big reason why Bennett hired Bode, to serve as a bridge between Anderson and him and the players.
“He was close enough to the players’ age but far enough from the players’ age to be able to resonate reality with them. This is how you can do it. This is what you can get done,” Bennett said. “Sometimes I think a coach can be older than the students (and) sometimes the student might say, ‘well that was then, but what about now?’ He was a very ‘now’ person.”
Now that Bode has three full seasons under his belt, he hopes the ‘yes man’ perception of him has changed.
“I was probably a ‘yes man’ for that first year, but I would like to think that they haven’t considered me a ‘yes man’ for the last two years,” Bode said.
But Anderson said if Bode considered himself a ‘yes man’ that he never saw it.
“We’ve sat in (our office) as we’re in our office now and we’ve had battles,” Anderson said. “Whether those battles are professionally about selection or whatever they may be, issues that come up within a team or withtin a staff. There’s never been a hesitation or an issue.”
And now that Bode’s in his fourth year, Bennett said he’s seen Bode improve his “timing” as a coach.
“I’m sure there’s a lot more that he would like to do or like to say sometimes but because of my personality he’s been able to mesh,” Bennett said. “We both get fired up about the same things, we all do, and if I’m fired up those two (Anderson and Bode) can’t get fired up. Or if I’m not, and he is, then that’s OK.”
