From the podcast: UNC coach Joe Breschi on the importance of family

North Carolina head coach Joe Breschi joined the guys on the "Chasing The Goal" podcast this week.

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli talk with University of North Carolina head coach Joe Breschi.

Breschi, a 1990 Carolina alumnus and former assistant coach for the Tar Heels, became the 12th head lacrosse coach in Carolina history on June 18, 2008. UNC has advanced to the NCAA tournament 10 times since then.

Breschi was an assistant coach at UNC and Brown for seven seasons before an 11-year stint as head coach at Ohio State. He has more than 30 seasons of collegiate coaching experience and, in 2018, he earned his 200th overall win.

Last year, the Tar Heels went 7-7 and 1-5 in the ACC. In response, the rest of the coaching staff was overhauled and legendary defensive mind Dave Pietramala came in to coach the defense. Former Amherst head coach Jon Thompson also signed on to coach the offense after a three-season stint at Air Force.

With a group of highly-rated recruits and key returners on both sides of the ball, this spring should see a reinvigorated UNC squad take the field.

Watch the full podcast below on YouTube. It’s also available on all major podcast platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review. Watch more episodes on the Chasing the Goal podcast channel.

Here are some excerpts from the pod.

Jack Piatelli: You talk about family. Obviously, the alumni at North Carolina is by far one of the most supportive and celebrated alumni associations in the country. Obviously for basketball, but lacrosse as well. I mean, you run into North Carolina grads everywhere and the support for the program is immense. You probably wouldn’t have all the success if it wasn’t for the alumni support you have for the program. But you learned a great lesson at Ohio State, being yourself right now, being a player for so many years. Do you find that being a parent, you become a better coach as well?

Joe Breschi: Oh, man, you hit the nail on the head. I think you learn a lot from being a coach because you’re around so many kids and you’re around so many parents, and I’ve been fortunate to be around a lot of great parents. Seeing how they interact with their kids, and in some good ways and some tough ways. I think, ultimately, I use that term all the time with my assistant coaches who were just starting families.

I said, “Really take a good hard look at the families and the student-athletes that come through here. None of the kids that we ever coach are not trying 100 percent. And if they try and still fail, that’s OK, as long as they’re putting everything they have into every play or every game, every practice, etc. How you respond to that is ultimately the No. 1 thing.”

We practice in the morning so the coaches can be home at night with their kids. That’s one thing I’m so glad I did over the 11 years that at Ohio State and certainly, the 16 years now here at Carolina. I never missed a dinner, never missed a game of my kids playing in high school or middle school that was during the week, unless we had a road game. But you certainly learn a lot as a parent to have patience. Patience, because these kids are putting everything they have on the field for you. And understanding that patience piece helped me become a better parent.

Kyle Devitte: Coach, the ACC is generally regarded as the athlete’s league, right? We don’t have a lot of ACC action up here. Obviously, there is one school, though, that’s in the ACC that doesn’t have a men’s lacrosse team and that’s Boston College. Do you think if Boston College came back into the fold it would be beneficial to the rest of the teams? 

Joe Breschi: I mean we’re looking for a sixth team without a doubt; we need at least six (for an automatic qualifier). And it would be so great for it to be BC. I played against Boston College when I was playing at Carolina. Chestnut Hill is incredible up there. And they have great facilities. I mean, the kids wouldn’t leave New England. It is a great, great school academically. I think it would be terrific for our league. It would be terrific for the sport. And not only Boston College, I think everybody’s kind of like, “Well, who’s next?”

Wake Forest would be awesome. It’s a great school. It’s similar to Duke in that sense. And Florida State has been talked about over over time as well. And now Stanford added to the ACC, if you can believe that. There’s Cal and SMU. So I just think we need a sixth team.

A friend of mine, Heather Light, whom I met at Ohio State when I was working there, she’s the athletic director at Pitt and she added women’s lacrosse. And before COVID, she came in and kind of checked out what our budget was and how we ran things for the men’s side of things. So she was certainly intrigued by it. But when COVID hit, it kind of changed things financially for a lot of programs and so forth.

So, ultimately, we’d love to have a (sixth) team … the ACC tournament this year is for the top four teams, so every game is going to be magnified. I think ultimately … to have six teams would be fantastic. And Boston College is just that: the dream team.

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