Barnes Arico, Klein, Leonardi Discuss Coaching in the 'New Norm'
4/16/2020 1:00:00 PM | General, Women's Basketball, Women's Soccer, Water Polo, Features
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Coaches are hands-on people, taking part in practices and sitting down one-on-one with their players. But now, their playing and practice facilities are closed, and the University of Michigan student-athletes have, for the most part, returned to their homes.
MGoBlue.com wanted to learn how they are coping with coaching teams in a sort of virtual reality realm, and coaches from the three athletic seasons were contacted. I spoke with women's soccer coach Jennifer Klein (fall), women's basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico (winter) and water polo coach Dr. Marcelo Leonardi (spring).
Here are their stories:
KBA Stays Connected, Finds Time to Dance
The Michigan women's basketball coach has her three children writing daily journals to capture their thoughts.
"It was kind of cute," said Barnes Arico. "The little one, Cece (11), would be writing at the end of every day's entry, 'And my mom's home.' Then it was, 'My mom's home again!' Then, 'She's never been home this much. She's working from home, but she's still home.'"
Mom laughed while telling that, adding that she reads their journals daily.
"One day, my son wrote, 'It's my senior year of high school, and I just want to see my friends again, and I'm not going to have my senior prom or graduation. My mom's saying, 'Just think how fortunate you are to have your health with our family getting to spend this time together before you go to college.' And then my dad is trying to make jokes about it, she said. "All I want them to say is, 'Trevor, I'm sorry. It's going to be OK.'
"I was like, 'Ohh, man!' Yeah, it's tough for an 18-year-old senior to not have any of those things."
Insights provided by her children have helped the coach better understand the depths of what her players are experiencing. She also heard Cece and her oldest daughter, Emma, 14, recording TikTok dance videos and decided to get into one with them. Then she put the daughter-mother TikTok challenge to her team with great results.
"That was really cool," said Barnes Arico. "That was fun. Naz Hillmon and her mom, NaSheema, of course, they were outstanding. Maddie Nolan and her mom had a great one, and Michelle Sidor and her mom did a really good one. It puts smiles on our faces and is a good distraction."
Barnes Arico's children (from left): Cece, Trevor and Emma
Which really comes in handy right now.
"Life has drastically changed," said Barnes Arico, the winningest coach in school women's basketball history with eight consecutive 20-win seasons and two straight NCAA Tournament berths. "I'm trying to figure out, as the leader of my team, how to manage being at home and how to work from home. This is a big recruiting time for us, and my assistant coaches have been on the phones nonstop with our recruits.
"So, I'd try to go for a run around the neighborhood and there would be recruits calling. Then I start walking and talk to them. You don't want to miss the call and you can't miss the call. And, obviously, I have three kids at home. They've never been out of school for this long a period of time. So, trying to figure out the balance of that and what to do with them as well, and trying to keep a routine with them."
Between talking with a recruit and doing our interview, Barnes Arico "was putting up shots" on their Saline home's backyard outdoor court with Emma. She had the children taking 1 p.m. runs together, and tries scheduling Zoom conferences with her players for about that time.
"I'm a professional Zoomer now," she said, chuckling. "I'm trying to make sure everyone's OK. I've also learned a lot of Google documents and have my calendar all up on Google. I'm getting computer savvy from this. No, not really. But kind of."
She'd only recently created an office, placing a desk and a comfy ottoman to rest her feet upon.
"It's worked out perfectly -- as if I knew I was going to be working from home," said Barnes Arico. "I brought my monitor home from the office and now I have a couple of screens. I have one open screen while I'm on a Zoom screen."
She's also tried to FaceTime with each player every week, asking about things such as their favorite meal back home. Many of them are cooking, and Nolan has a pierogi casserole that's quite good. They've watched game videotape in groups on Zoom, and have developed themes such as 'Wisdom Wednesdays' and 'Funny Fridays' to share thoughts and humor.
Her husband, Larry Arico, also is very involved with the children.
"He's the one going to get groceries and the only one out of the house," said Barnes Arico. "This is the longest period of time in my life that I've been in only one place. I really feel for our players. Whether you're a player or a coach, you're constantly driven and on the go, and this has really caused us to settle down, given us some time to reflect.
"We're just trying to stay healthy and flatten the curve as much as we can. We talk about that with our team all the time. It was so emotional and you were upset in the moment (when the remainder of the season was canceled on the brink of the NCAA Tournament), but we all have a responsibility to do our part, and it's taught us that this is so much bigger than basketball, so much bigger than sports. It's, 'What can we do to help the world? What can we do to help our country?' We have such great kids in our program, and they've all bought into that. But it's still tough."
Her entire team has departed Ann Arbor. They're staying in touch with the coaching staff, team trainer Melissa Pohorence and strength and conditioning coach Jamie Preiss. Barnes Arico said the majority were planning to come back to take courses in the summer semester, but she added that those classes already have been determined to be online.
"But if they are able to move back for workouts," she said, "we'd have them move back. They'll probably be itching to get back on campus and back in the gym."
Trevor has decided to attend Emerson College, a small liberal arts school in Boston, to pursue creative writing and play basketball. Emma will be a freshman in high school in September and Cece will move onto seventh grade.
Time marches on, with or without restrictions.
Klein Continues Building Team Culture
How is Klein approaching coaching a team scheduled to begin playing regular season games in late August?
She said: "I'm using the mentality of taking it day by day -- positive and optimistic that if everyone plays their part and does what we all can do, that hopefully we're able to impact that curve and in the fall we're able to get back to fall as we know it. It would be naïve thinking it isn't going to have some kind of impact on the fall. What that will look like, I think there's a lot of speculation. But we're just trying to deal with what we know for sure, and making adjustments with what we're given."
Klein is working out of her home office in Saline.
"It's a great space and has got great windows," she said. "I look out and see all the neighbors on their daily walks, and it's nice to see everyone staying active in these times. I realize there are a lot more kids in the neighborhood because when I used to get home they were generally in their houses.
"It feels good, it feels comfortable. It doesn't have the space of the Athletics (South Campus) Performance Center, but it works in providing me a space to do what I still need to do."
Klein bought the house in December, and is entering her third season at Michigan after coming from USC, where she was the associate head coach and helped coach the 2016 NCAA championship team. She's gotten great results with the Wolverines, going 17-6-1 last season and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years while advancing to the third round.
"We've been happy with the pace of the turnaround and what we've been able to do in a short time," said Klein. "The group is excited and we're looking forward to next year and the years after.
"We took a week to let the student-athletes travel home (after Michigan's facilities and school were closed in mid-March) and get settled, figure out their online class situations. That gave us as a coaching staff one week to brainstorm and figure out how we were going to continue to carry on. I feel terrible for all of the spring and winter sports that ended their seasons. I can't even imagine having that feeling, and having those conversations. I definitely feel for them."
Klein's team has been able to make progress from a distance, and they all seem to be enjoying the video-conferencing aspects. While every single player on the rosters coached by Barnes Arico and Leonardi have left Ann Arbor, Klein still has seven in the area. But the need for social distancing does not allow her to operate differently than her counterparts.
"We're trying to accomplish some things even though we're not all together. We have 'Motivation Mondays,' when we send a recorded video to the team. One of them had to do with gratitude, and we asked them to have a gratitude reflection about the things they are most grateful for right now. We've asked them to take a gratitude walk and write things down.
"Every morning, they get a voluntary workout with a motivational quote from our strength and conditioning coach, Katlyn Haycock, and she's been really creative thinking about the environments they are in, who can get outside, who has to stay inside, and what they can use within their homes to help maintain their fitness during this time."
They're also focusing on being a team even though they are apart.
"One of the things we've been really happy to do without skipping a beat is our culture class," said Klein. "We do a leadership class with our leadership development director, Brian Townsend, and we've been able to do that virtually through Zoom meetings. We all log in and continue to build our culture with leadership activities. It's been great. Our players say those are one of their highlights of the week. It's an opportunity when we get to see everybody's face, and it reminds them that we still have a space to continue to work on team. And it's a nice reminder of what we're working toward once we all get back together to start our fall season.
"We also created a Google database for them. They can work on their individual skills on their own, in their backyard, on their driveway. And every week, we as coaches have a group of players that we do one-on-one FaceTimes with, making sure that school is going OK, and how their environments at home are doing. We're so thankful we have this technology."
Klein has particularly enjoyed those FaceTime talks.
"You're kind of always talking about sport," she said. "But these conversations have been about their lives. 'What hobbies are you getting into? What space are you occupying for homework?' It's provided a great space to get to know them more as people. That's been the highlight every week for me."
How is Klein doing?
"One day, it's great," she said. "You get to do some things you don't typically have time to do. So, in that sense, it's nice to take a pause and do that. But other days, you really miss and are thankful for the job that I have and the work that we get to do.
"So, each day is different as far as my mood. But I try to keep a good routine and stay active. I like to cook, and so I have plenty of time right now to cook, which leads to more dishes, but that part's been enjoyable."
Klein said spring preparation time ends Friday (April 18), and team members will be on their own for the summer when NCAA limitations on contact begin. They are scheduled to report Aug. 3 for preseason practices.
Leonardi Believes Good Things Can Come From Opportunity to Reflect
"We've kept our team together with Zoom meetings every Sunday," said Leonardi. "We have international (players from Australia, England and Canada) and domestic players, and we have 100 percent attendance. We time it at 6 p.m., which is 8 a.m. in Australia. It's a time that aligned for everyone. We begin with three quotes from a book I'm reading that's applicable to our team. We then have a specific question that could be about the past, present or future.
"I feel there are still a lot of kids that don't have closure. They are creatures of habit. They live on structure, schedules and high-performance habits."
He's stressing the need to find new routines that work for them, while offering a good example in his own daily regimen.
"My wife (Kendra) and I are doing well," said Leonardi. "We've developed a routine together to be productive and functional. Week one was pretty hard, especially after March 12, and our last practice. But we've created what I call this 'new norm' in order to hopefully get to a point where we're back to the norm."
Leonardi still rises early, before 7 a.m., makes coffee and spends one hour reading from both "Ego is the Enemy" by Ryan Holiday and a prayer book.
"Then I either watch the sunrise or watch nature outside," said Leonardi, who lives out in the country on the far west side of Ann Arbor. "It's important to spend time alone and reflect. I get to overlook a body of water and see the geese and swans landing in the morning. It's just peaceful and serene. It provides clarity. Even when I was practicing at 7:30 (a.m.) with my team, I would get up at 5:30. I start my day out positive that way. I feel alive and energized.
"Then my wife gets up and we make breakfast together. She'll do some work she has and I'll get on my computer for a Zoom meeting at 10 (a.m.). Then, from 2 to 5 (p.m.), I Zoom, Skype with recruits, work on next year's schedule on day-to-day stuff. Mondays and Wednesdays, I try to do a Zoom for professional water polo coach development, that my assistant, Josh (Hower), gave me the link to.
"About 4 o'clock, my wife and I will go out and ride our bikes, do a little bit of physical exercise outside. I get on the grill when it's warmer and cook some food. In the evenings, we'll watch a show or I might make a late recruit call. Remember, most of our recruits are from California or Australia. We have staff meetings on Wednesdays (with Hower and assistant Sydney Sonoda)."
He also has more time for hobbies. Leonardi builds model ships and looks forward to landscaping projects on their property.
But his main focus remains his team.
"What's nice is Ashley Jackson, our strength and conditioning coach, has been with me since day one and does a fantastic job," said Leonardi. "She emails them workouts and gets in on our Zoom meetings on Sundays. Just recently she put out a snippet on Twitter on how to do things at home without facilities.
"Right now, the student-athletes have to create their own training and norm at home. They don't need pressure from us. They do miss the schedule and structure, but what I'm trying to do with Ashley and our nutritionist Kayla (Lawson) is offer some type of structure. But it's not rigorous or monitored because, one, we can't do it (per NCAA rules) and, two, I don't know what their environments are. They have to create their own schedules.
"And it's tough, because they don't have access to pools. So, they've got to get creative. Even though we want them to be physically fit, it's also nice to take a break. We grind so much all year in our season, which goes into May. Bodies can heal and minds can pause and reflect. Any kids who are struggling have access to our mental health counselors, which is important."
He noted that Abigail Eiler, the Michigan athletic counselor who works with his team, was a member of the program's first three teams (2001-03) and was instrumental in helping players through the initial shock of losing the rest of their season.
"Our schedule was front-loaded with top competition," said Leonardi, whose team was 11-8 but hoping to at least reach the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals for a fourth consecutive year. "We were starting to hit our stride, and were building toward Indiana (March 21).
"I was on the pool deck talking to one of my captains, Skyler Pyle, and she said, 'This could be our last practice, but we'll still go hard.' Then, the next day, I found out we were done. Telling the team that was the hardest thing. I just told them the truth: 'Our season had been canceled and there was still a lot unknown.' There was a plethora of emotions: shock, surprise, tears, confusion, upset, you name it -- scared. 'What is tomorrow going to look like?'"
Senior captain Heidi Ritner asked if there was any way to come together for breakfast "one more time for closure" and they met that Sunday "while respecting social distancing."
Leonardi said each of his four seniors are graduating on time, but Ritner was the only one deciding to come back for another senior year, and is applying at the Ross School of Business and graduate school. "She's still hungry and feels she has unfinished business," said Leonardi, adding that the others decided to accept job offers or attend graduate school. Ritner is putting her offer to accept a sales position with the Miami Dolphins on hold.
And with recruits feeling pressure to make school choices, Leonardi asks them to reflect: "In the big picture, I'm telling these kids to take a breath. It's a blessing."
He said some very good things can come out of this break.
Leonardi said: "The time that we get to slow down, be with the ones we love, figure out what's important, and maybe kids come back hungrier and more motivated. Or they get a chance to try something new. Even though we are not progressing as a water polo unit in the water, the kids can still read, watch videos and films, address other interests. As long as they're getting a little bit better each day at something, that's the most important thing.
"I feel blessed in spite of what's happening to our world. I'm just glad my family's healthy and I have my wife. That's really important. We have to remain hopeful and positive, and we will pull through this together."
