• Followed current JMU Head Coach Matt Brady to
Harrisonburg after previously serving as Brady's top assistant at
Marist College.
• O'Driscoll cut his teeth in the coaching ranks in the New
York City Metropolitan area, serving as an assistant at both
Manhattan and Iona prior to joing Brady at Marist. While at
Marist, O'Driscoll served as recruiting coordinator, helping to
infuse talent into the Red Foxes program, laying the platform for
highly successful seasons in Poughkeepsie.
• Was a three-time letterwinner in tennis while a student at
Villanova.
NCDS: Rob O'Driscoll, Assoc. Head Coach - James Madison ("Team Bonding")
With a fairly warm fall already on record, I really didn’t think twice when I came to work without a coat on a cold day in early December. We had a road game the following night at Marshall, a four hour ride away, and I didn’t think I would need my coat even if it did get colder. I was going to be on a bus, and the only time I would need a coat would be getting off the bus and entering the hotel, and getting off the bus to enter the arena. Surely I could brave the elements for 15 seconds at a time. We ended practice at 6:00PM, and we were set to leave at 6:45PM. Being that I live only eight minutes from campus, I don’t know what made me decide to go back home and get my winter coat, a hat, and gloves, but it turned out to be one of the better decisions I have made in my lifetime.
As we got on the bus, everyone was excited that we had the satellite working, and we were looking forward to watching the Monday Night Football showdown between the Jets and the Patriots. As we pulled out of the lot, everyone settled in to get comfortable for the four hour trip. About an hour into the trip, I was awakened by the sound of the bus driving over the rumble strips on the side of the highway. The bus was making a beeping noise, and when we asked the bus driver what the noise was, she told us that it was the fire alarm. As the bus came to a stop, the bus driver screamed “Everyone evacuate…EVACUATE!”
Everyone grabbed their coats and filed out quickly onto the side of the highway. As we ran away from the bus, we looked back and could see smoke shooting out of the back of the bus. Assistant Coach Corey Stitzel quickly called 911, and rescue was on its way. What happened next will always be etched in my mind.
To drive from JMU to Marshall, one has to drive through the mountains of West Virginia. We were on Interstate 64, and with the temperature being 14 degrees outside, the wind chill was close to 0. I was now happy I brought my coat and gloves, but my attention was focused on our players. All 12 of the team members who made the trip were huddled in a circle on the shoulder of the highway, trying to shield the wind and stay as warm as possible. Many times a team goes through ups and downs together, and many times we talk about being a family, but nothing brought us closer, literally and figuratively, than all 12 team members being huddled in a close circle on a 0 degree night in early December on a lonely highway in West Virginia. The image of all the guys huddled together like a football team about to call a play is something that will always stay in my mind.
After about 45 minutes, a yellow school bus came and picked us up and took us to a local hotel, where we waited for another charter bus to come and pick us up and take us to Marshall. We eventually got there, safe and sound, at 3AM, instead of the 11PM timed we had planned on. The important thing was that everyone got there safely, and no one was injured during the process.
The only thing we missed was the football game, which wasn’t a big deal anyway. The Patriots blew out the Jets, 45-3.
* * *
