Feb. 18, 2008
This feature is one of many that can be read on the Patriot League website throughout the month of February - a month the Patriot League designates to promote and highlight women in sports. The following story appeared in the Patriot League's Women in Sports magazine.
Visit the Patriot League's Celebrating Women in Sports webpage by clicking here. This page was launched last year and has been updated with some new items for 2008. The Celebrating Women in Sports webpage includes eight different links that will allow the user to read about the many accomplishments of the women in the Patriot League, while also serving to promote girls and women in sport. Highlights of this webpage are the Patriot League Celebrating Women in Sports magazine and photo gallery.
Young And In Charge
See them on the bus or at dinner, and you'd think that Heather Bliss, Stephanie Ridolfi and Alma Kovaci are just part of the team. But these young Patriot League head coaches are quickly making a name for themselves on the sidelines.
Bliss is entering her second season as the women's lacrosse coach at Colgate after taking the Raiders to the Patriot League Tournament a year ago. Ridolfi is the "veteran" of the group, as she enters her sixth season at the helm of Holy Cross women's lacrosse, where she has led the Crusaders to back-to-back Patriot League titles. Kovaci just completed her first season as head volleyball coach at Army, and led the Black Knights to the Patriot League Tournament.
While all three coaches have achieved immediate success, they took different paths to reach their destination.
Bliss was thrown into a head coaching role, so to speak. After graduating from Connecticut in 2003, she took an assistant coaching position at Davidson College. But just two games into her inaugural campaign, Bliss took over the head coaching spot on an interim basis. That stint became permanent as she eventually led the school to a record-tying nine wins in the 2006 season.
"I was definitely nervous to take over the program at Davidson, being young and right out of college," Bliss said. "One of the main reasons I did feel prepared was the amount of trust that my team gave to me. Knowing that the players were behind me and wanted me to be there was very reassuring."
Ridolfi is one of Bliss' colleagues in Patriot League women's lacrosse circles, but she's already one of the veterans of the League. Ridolfi got her feet wet in the head coaching ranks when she led Allegheny College in Pennsylvania for two seasons right after graduating from Massachusetts in 2000. She went to Holy Cross in 2003, and has led the Crusaders to Patriot League regular-season and tournament titles in each of the past two campaigns. Ridolfi took Holy Cross to its only two NCAA Tournament appearances, and was selected Patriot League Coach of the Year in 2006.
"While at Holy Cross I have been given the freedom to build a program that I feel can be successful at the Division I level," Ridolfi said. "I have learned over the past five years that every year will bring new sets of challenges and new personalities. I have realized that not everyone will see things the way I did as a player and so I have had to really understand each and every one of the student-athletes."
Kovaci made her first impression on Army's volleyball program as an assistant coach for four seasons, and proved she could handle the top job when she took the Black
Knights to the Patriot League Tournament in her first season as head coach in 2007. Kovaci was the seventh-best digger and among the top 15 hitters when she competed for her native country of Albania in the 2005 FIVB World Championships.
"I had an incredible mentor," Kovaci said of former Army Head Coach Glen Conley, who spent eight years with the Black Knights. "He gave me a lot of freedom and authority to run some of the program. I saw the importance of the relationships between the team and building relationships on and off the court with the student-athletes. I was blessed that he allowed me to see a lot of what head coaches do."
While the coaches have all embraced the responsibility of being in charge of a program at a young age, getting to that point and figuring out how to quickly adapt to a head coaching role was a daunting task.
"I think that my young age is something that some may see as challenging to a program," Bliss said. "I learned to set the boundaries with the team and coaches right from the start. I have found that as the years progress the upperclassman on the team take more control of the rules and teach the younger team members so it becomes more set into your program."
Kovaci said, "The biggest thing is learning how to be a leader and taking matters in your own hands. As an assistant you are there for the team and hear all the stories, yet you are still an assistant. It had to be a gradual transition to a head coach, you can't just press a button and be a head coach."
Though there were obstacles at first, Bliss sees the advantages she has of being a younger head coach.
"I still have very vivid memories of what it was like to be a student-athlete," Bliss said. "I can remember the demands that were placed on me and I have a good understanding of how to help my student-athletes cope with things that I went through just a few years before."
Ridolfi can appreciate the growth and experiences she's had in five seasons at Holy Cross and in the Patriot League.
"I really like the small school atmosphere and also the idea that student comes before athlete," Ridolfi said. "Holy Cross was willing to work with me in order to better the program and the athlete's experience. There was a feeling of family and pride when I first stepped on campus."
As they gain experience and years in the head coaching ranks, expect these three young stars to continue to make an impact in the Patriot League.
