media guide - UWGB Phoenix Athletics

Borseth Back, Happy at Green BayBy: Graham Hays, ESPN.comDecember 20, 2012(cont) it wasn’t until Michigan called twoyears later that the lure proved irresistible.He was a Michigan native, eventhough his hometown in the UpperPeninsula is a much shorter drive fromGreen Bay than from Ann Arbor, and grewup rooting for the Wolverines. He got hisstart as a head coach at Michigan Tech,taking a failing program and turning it intoan immediate winner.He said Michigan and Notre Dame werethe only schools that could have convincedhim to act on it, but the desire tocoach on a bigger stage had always beenthere. In the end, leaving wasn’t a decisionon which he wavered.“My whole lifetime I wanted an opportunityto go and be able to compete at thehighest level,” Borseth said.“I don’t know that many coaches whohave put that much time in don’t desire todo something of that nature.”His departure stirred emotions but littleresentment from those left behind. Thesame players who hadn’t been recruitedby Big Ten schools understood that, forbetter or worse, this was how collegesports worked. Ratka went on to be oneof the instrumental figures on Bollant’steam that played Baylor in the Sweet 16and now works for him on his staff at Illinois,but she was also in the locker roomin those uncertain times, when it wouldhave been easy to be bitter.“When he left, it was really sad; it wasdevastating,” Ratka said. “I think everybodyreally liked Coach Borseth and werehappy for him. They knew this was hisdream job, that he grew up in Michigan.”When he took the job in Ann Arbor, heasked someone about playing golf onthe university course. They told him notto worry about it; he wouldn’t have time.He soon realized why. The actual act ofcoaching was similar enough at Michigan,albeit with and against more athletic playersand in generally much closer games,but that was only one small part of it.There was much more to manage off thecourt, much more to navigate at a schoolthe size of Michigan. And more than missinga few rounds of golf or dealing withdistractions, he worried about his family.His three oldest children attendedparochial schools in Green Bay. He and hiswife grew concerned their two youngestchildren weren’t getting the same kindof experience in their schooling. A manwhose faith is important to him, he regrettedno longer having most Sundays forhis family (the Horizon League follows aThursday-Saturday scheduling structure).Little of that translated to disappointingresults on the court. Michigan went 10-20the year before he arrived and hadn’t hada winning season since 2001-02. His firstteam went 19-14 and reached the WNITquarterfinals. The second season was astruggle, but his final three seasons produceda 58-39 record and three postseasonappearances, capped last season byonly the program’s fifth NCAA tournamentappearance. Suffice to say, nobody waspushing him out.He tries to make it clear he enjoyedindividual components of the experience-- particularly the players he coached, includingthe current seniors who made uphis first recruiting class. But he was not, inhis words, the right person for the chair.That might ring hollow for a coach makinganother move up the ladder. It does lessso from a coach who took a step back.“It’s tough to make time for your family;it’s tough to make time for yourself tobreathe,” Borseth said.“You’re just -- I don’t want to say gaspingfor air, but at times you gasp for air, justwanting to breathe. It was really difficultto do the things I wanted to do. Quality oflife, that was probably the biggest thing.Quality of life is a whole lot different.”Going back to Green Bay means shelvingany thoughts of one day playing for achampionship. It means a lot of recruitingdoors that were open to a coach atMichigan will close in his face. It meanswhispers that he couldn’t cut it in a majorconference. It means a smaller paycheck.It also means the guy who still occasionallylooks as though he’s about to burstsome variety of vital organ during games,the coach whose postgame rant aboutoffensive rebounding went viral early inhis Michigan tenure, can wake up with aclear mind.At 58, Borseth is not yet so old as tomake another move impossible. If GreenBay continues to win beyond its station,and the Phoenix are 7-2 this season withvictories against Missouri and Marquette,Bothof’s phone might yet ring again. ButBorseth doesn’t sound like someone whofeels a need to chase anything anymore.Green Bay doesn’t need to be a stop. Forat least one person, it is a destination.