Podcast: Thayer coach Bill Daye on the challenges of the ISL

Former college and pro great Bill Daye is in his second season as the head coach at Thayer Academy. (David Lavallee)

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli talk with Thayer Academy head coach Bill Daye.

A native of Huntington, N.Y., Daye played goalie at the University of North Carolina, reaching four NCAA final fours and winning the national championship in 1991.

He was named to the ACC All-Tournament team in 1992; that season he made 172 saves with a .591 save percentage, which ranks among the top 25 single-season performances in UNC history.

Daye continued his playing career for the Boston Cannons in the first few seasons of Major League Lacrosse. He went on to coach the Cannons, first as an assistant coach in 2005 and then as the head coach from 2006-2011. In his final season, the Cannons won their first MLL title.

Since leaving the Cannons, Daye went on to work as a coach with Laxachusetts and works full time at Nike. He was named the head coach of Thayer Academy last February after the previous coach, Ben Rubeor, left the program.

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 podcast.

Kyle Devitte: So you’re going into your second season at Thayer. I think expectations are pretty high given the amount of talent that you have on the team (including) three kids going to Army. You’ve got a number of other kids committed to Division 1 schools as well. You kind of inherited a really good program and I think there are a lot of expectations. How have you dealt with that? 

Bill Daye: Well, this is my second season at Thayer, but really my first full year. So having came in last year at the end of January, early February, it was like drinking from a fire hose. Not just from a lacrosse perspective, but also everything behind the (Independent School League). Now it’s recruiting, being on campus more, and really planning out based on everything we know about our team and what we’re going to try to do. And, obviously, I feel good about where we are. One thing I learned last year is that the ISL, from top to bottom, is a super-competitive league.

Jack Piatelli: Guys like Billy, it’s very rare that he’ll come and coach a high school team. The reason guys like Billy and some of these other players — good friends like Dave Desko, let’s say — never got into coaching is because there’s no money in coaching, unfortunately. But we have got to find a way to get guys like that more involved in coaching at the high school level and, and the youth level. So it’s nice that you’re coaching the high school kids where you can make more of a difference from the freshman year to the senior year Would you agree with that? 

Bill Daye: Totally, and that’s probably the biggest thing to learn. It’s not just about the varsity team. It’s about our JV team and even our middle school team. How do we, as coaches, create the same culture we’re creating up at the varsity level? How do we bring that up all the way through and make them a part of it?

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