Podcast: Coach Corey Bulken on mentors, methods and Maryland

Former University of Hartford assistant Corey Bulken now coaches at the Severn School in Maryland.

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli talk with former University of Hartford assistant coach Corey Bulken.

Bulken reached three NCAA Division 2 championship games during his playing career at Le Moyne before transitioning into coaching. Stints at Washington College, Belmont Abbey, Virginia and Ohio State preceded his four years on the staff at Hartford.

A native of Baldwinsville, N.Y., he played four professional seasons in Major League Lacrosse and is currently a coach at the Severn School in Maryland.

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: Talk about some of the things you’ve learned from (former UVA coach) Dom (Starsia) and some of the other coaches that you’ve worked with. Are there some things you didn’t know and apply to your coaching now?

Corey Bulken: Dom Starsia would carry the ball bag out to practice every single day. You don’t see coaches do that, really. And it was something that was really important to him. It was his way of showing, ‘Hey, we’re all in this together. This is what we do. He would always make sure the best players carried the ball bag in.

Coaching is so much less about the X’s and O’s, but it’s more about how you galvanize a group and kind of work towards a common goal. And that was something that I learned from Dom, making sure that kids are all bought into working towards something and moving in the same direction.

Kyle Devitte: Do you like coaching high school more than college?

Corey Bulken: It’s a lot more. The time you spend on your team, the percentage of actually being on a field is way higher. But there are obviously different headaches. With college coaching, there’s so much that comes along with it that, when I got into it, I was not prepared for, in the least. I was lucky to be at some places where some of those (administrative duties) got taken off our plates as assistant coaches. But then, when you’re an assistant at smaller schools, you’re booking travel, you’re making sure hotels remember you’re coming and all that stuff. You forget that you’re actually a lacrosse coach at times.

So high school coaching … the MIAA is one of the top leagues in the country at the high school level. So it kind of scratches that itch to still be in a really competitive environment.

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