Coaches’ wives run themselves ragged
There is nothing more exhilarating — or exhausting — than being a coach’s wife. Especially when it’s the state basketball tournament.
Being a coach’s wife isn’t just about going to games and cheering on her significant other’s teams. There are the off-court and out-of-season team functions, the fans and parents who are in her ear (or within earshot) offering criticism or pointers about how the coach can improve the team and a June in which the coach’s wife sees the mail carrier more than she sees her husband.
And if kids are involved, well, that just adds another layer to the whole process. But the stories they tell … Adrienne Cole can tell you about racing to Santa Fe and back to The Pit to get Santa Fe High head boys coach Zack Cole’s suit for the Class 5A championship game Saturday — and then he asks her for the vest that goes with it, which is at the team hotel.
Oh, and she was tending to two of four children who were sick, as well as her husband.
“So, I’m driving and you keep telling yourself, ‘Don’t cry, it’s going to be OK,’ ” Adrienne Cole said.
Lisa Lujan-Harge had to balance her duties as the mother of Las Vegas Robertson star forward Alianza Darley and husband to Pecos head boys coach Ira Harge Jr. So on Friday, she bounced back and forth from wearing the green and gold of the Panthers to the Cardinal red and white of the Lady Cardinals.
After supporting the boys team as it beat Texico in overtime in a Class 2A semifinal that morning, she had to turn around and do the same for Robertson, which won its 3A championship over Santa Fe Indian School.
“I was racing out of The Pit to get to her hotel because the parents are gathering to cheer them on as they were exiting the hotel,” Lujan-Harge said. “I had to switch shirts while I’m in the parking lot.”
Meanwhile, Lujan-Harge and Cole also have to balance their jobs — Lujan Harge works at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, while Cole is a teacher in Santa Fe Public Schools. With so many balls in the air, it can make the juggling act any coach’s wife has to perform become almost impossible.
Cole said she broke down Wednesday night as she dealt with a pair of cranky daughters at the team hotel, and she told her husband she was going home — for good.
“I said, ‘I cannot physically and mentally handle this stress,’ ” Cole said. “‘I’ll watch the game at home and that’s it. I’m not coming.’ ”
Her husband, Zack Cole, though, talked her out of it, and she received some help from a couple of team parents in helping take care of the kids. Cole said she would have regretted leaving because she would have missed the fifth-seeded Demons upsetting the Hawks. She admitted that moment eased the disappointment of the loss to Albuquerque Atrisco Heritage Academy in the championship.
“That’s why I tweeted, ‘You have no idea what we have gone through just to get here,’ ” Cole said. “I mean, it was insane, but it was so worth it.”
Lujan-Harge can empathize with her. She didn’t tell Harge about the back fence that partially collapsed thanks to fierce winds that hit the state earlier last week and that the TV reception was out until after Pecos won its third state title.
That night, though, she went from supportive wife to equal partner.
“I said, ‘By the way, the TV is not working again and the wind did considerable damage to the backyard,’ ” Lujan-Harge said.
And Harge went from championship coach to a husband with a “honey-do” list.