Whether they are receiving praise or blame, head coaches in the world of athletics are almost always the sole focus of critics. The spotlight shines brightly on the head coaches and deservedly so, but all too often assistant coaches are left in the shadows, and their roles in a given team’s success is forgotten altogether.
Assistant coaches recruit, scout opponents and take care of the less glamorous work that is involved with helping a team function properly, yet they rarely receive their fair share of the credit for how much they truly contribute to a program. And coincidentally, the true measure of the quality of an assistant coach is not seen when they are coaching at a program, but after they leave.
This process has come into play with the Wisconsin women’s basketball team this year, as valuable assistant coach Kyle Rechlicz left for the head coaching position at UW-Milwaukee, leaving head coach Bobbie Kelsey with a void to fill.
But the departure of one coach has allowed an opportunity for another assistant to step in and prove herself, in the form of St. Louis native Jayme Callahan.
Only a few months in, tri-captain Taylor Wurtz and the rest of her teammates are adapting well to their new assistant coach.
“She’s great for us,” Wurtz said. “She really knows her X’s and O’s. I think coming in and being a new coach is hard … but she made the extra effort to take us all out to lunch and get to know us. It’s exciting and it brings a lot of new energy.”
Before Callahan’s coaching days began, she had a great deal of experience playing, which helps contribute to her knowledge. Her start in basketball came when she was in third grade, playing for a St. Louis AAU team. Callahan continued playing AAU through high school, and after her high school days she went on to play at Missouri Southern State. It was her college playing days that led to Callahan’s start in coaching, albeit an unconventional one.
“My coaches kept telling me I was going to coach, and we had a coaching change my junior year of college, and I said I would never coach because I saw it was a little rough,” Callahan said. “But my coaches kept pushing me and then finally I got a couple of offers, and I turned them down to be a high school head coach, and I finally found [a coaching position] that fit.”
Callahan’s first coaching job was at Putnam County High School in Unionville, Mo., right out of college at 22 years old. Although she stayed at Putnam for only one year, she led her team to a 25-3 record and she was named conference and district coach of the year. Since coaching at Putnam, Callahan has been assistant or head coach at five other programs at both the college and high school levels, most recently as an assistant last year at Clemson.
Callahan was content as an assistant coach at Clemson, but after some encouragement, she was drawn to coach at Wisconsin when the opportunity arose.
“[Assistant coach Alysiah Bond] just called me out of the blue and asked me if I would be interested, and I said no because I was happy at Clemson, and I thought Wisconsin was just cows and cheese. She said do a little research and get back to me, and something kept pulling me, wanting to come see it,” Callahan said. “So I came on the interview, and I loved it; I was hooked.”
Kelsey did not know about Callahan before she came on the interview, as it was Bond who had the connections with Callahan, not Kelsey, so Kelsey had to do some research. After that research and Callahan’s interview, Kelsey was impressed with what she saw and offered Callahan the position on her staff.
Only a few months in with Callahan as assistant coach, Kelsey is already assured she made the right decision for her team and the rest of her coaching staff.
“She’s crazy, funny, fits right in,” Kelsey said. “She’s just a wonderful person to be around, and she’s knowledgeable about the game. She helps me a lot in game because she has a lot of suggestions and ideas on the fly and you need that in an assistant, in addition to Alysiah and Stacy [Cantley], so it’s been a good fit.”
After observing Callahan’s interactions with the other coaches and players, one would think she is a seasoned veteran of the staff and not a rookie of less than half a year. But Callahan has meshed well with the other coaches and has adapted to her role working with guards – a role she played as a kid all the way through college – to quickly develop a close bond with those around her.
“I feel like I’ve been here over five years, in a good way,” Callahan said. “Our staff is really well placed as far as personalities, as far as everything. We all work really hard, but we all have a lot of fun together too, and they’ve welcomed me with open arms.”
