Football is a time-consuming game, both for the players who play it and the coaches who lead them.
And it has been well documented over the years how much the families of players and coaches have to sacrifice their time with their fathers and husbands and brothers and uncles during the season.
No part illustrates that quite like preseason camp, when the grind is relentless and the need to get up to speed and ready for Week 1 is one that makes it feel like 24 hours isn’t enough time in a day to get everything done.
For KU defensive ends coach Joe Dineen Jr., a former All-American linebacker for the Jayhawks who is now in his ninth year of coaching, this camp has been unlike any other simply because Dineen has another title these days.
Dad.
Dineen became a father when his son, Joe Dineen III was born on May 8 of this year. At a little more than 3 months old, Dineen’s son, who they call “Trace,” has started to be a little more alert and a little more aware of his surroundings.
And that’s made this camp one of the hardest to date for Dineen. But in the best way possible. See, at the end of every 12- or 15-hour day, Dineen has something magical to look forward to, an interaction — however brief — that immediately helps him forget however tired he might be.
“It’s awesome, man,” Dineen said recently of mixing fatherhood with football. “My wife is a trooper. She does a good job of keeping him awake so that when I get home I can have a little bit of time, I’ll read him a bedtime story.”
One day, not long ago, Dineen was reading Trace the book, “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” before bed and his thoughts began to wander in and out, from Page 1 to football, Page 6 back to camp, and on and on like that.
Page 1 If you give a mouse a cookie…
“Our guys really gave it all they had out there today,” Dineen may have thought to himself while reading the words on the page. “I like our group, man.”
Pages 2-4 …he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. But when you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask for a straw…
“Does Leroy (Harris) know he’s supposed to spill here?”
Pages 5-7 … When he’s finished, he’ll ask for a napkin. Then, he’ll want to look in the mirror to make sure he doesn’t have a milk mustache. When he looks into the mirror, he might notice his hair needs a trim. So, he’ll probably ask for a pair of nail scissors…
“I think the big thing with Leroy is focusing on his technique. With great technique and great violence, the sky’s going to be the limit.”
Pages 23-29 … He’ll hang up his drawing and stand back to look at it. Looking at the refrigerator will remind him that he’s thirsty. So, he’ll ask for a glass of milk. And chances are, if he asks for a glass of milk, he’s going to want a cookie to go with it.
“I do think he realizes what he could potentially be. But what he also realizes is that it’s not going to come just by waking up and showing up every day.”
While Harris wasn’t there for the bedtime story, he did hear about Dineen’s thoughts drifting to him and his play while he read a couple of pages.
So, how did Harris react when Dineen jokingly told him that he had ruined story time?
“Dang, coach. I’m sorry I let you down,” Harris told R1S1 Sports. “I told him I can’t hurt the team, man. I’m messing up, mental errors and things of that nature. But it’s all love at the end of the day. He knows what the ceiling can be and he sacrifices a lot to be with us.”
They all do. Throughout the program and throughout programs across the country. Whether their kids are in elementary school, just learning to drive or newborns like Trace, several KU coaches all have figured out ways to make both the dual roles of fatherhood and football coach work for their families.
Sometimes that means the kids pop into the facility for a quick hi and a hug. Other times, they meet them out front to sit in the car for a quick lunch. And still other times, they make sure they drop their kids off at school everyday — something KU coach Lance Leipold has been big on and encouraged — or spend a few quality moments together at the end of the day.
Leipold’s daughter, Lindsey, turned 26 last Friday and he still remembers the day she was born and having to mix that milestone with his chosen profession.
“I had to get paged off the practice field to go (to the hospital),” Leiopld recalled. “It’s hard because I’ve missed a lot of birthdays and a lot of things, but we try. My biggest thing is (to tell the coaches), ‘Hey, try to make sure that you carve the time out because it goes fast.”
He calls the juggling act an “occupational hazard” and notes that it’s part of it.
“But we’ve got to try to be there,” he added. “We spend a lot of time on everyone else’s kids, we gotta make sure that we’re there for our own when we can because it does fly by.”
As for how Harris might try to make it up to his position coach for being on his brain while Dineen was reading the cookie story to Trace?
Maybe Uncle Leroy will stop by some night to read Trace a bedtime story himself.
“In the offseason maybe,” Harris said with a smile.
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