Copyright Charleston Post and Courier
COLUMBIA — It’s 217 miles on I-20 from Atlanta’s Center Parc Stadium to A.C. Flora High School, and Shawn Elliott knows every bump, pothole, bridge and Waffle House on it. “I knew I was going to be back to see whatever event they had. It was that important,” South Carolina’s offensive line coach said. “I’d leave and drive home to watch a two-minute-and-30-second routine, then get in the car and go back. Same with his ballgames. I was going to be there, regardless.” The in-season life of a college football coach is one of routine, every day set to the minute. They all know what they sign up for, and their wives and children do, too. But it’s still so, so important for those coaches to find time to be at their children’s games, events and competitions. Elliott and his wife, Summer, didn’t want to pull their kids out of their Columbia comfort zones when Elliott was hired as Georgia State’s head coach in 2017, and decided that they wouldn’t move to Atlanta as a family. Elliott had a condo near the Panthers’ stadium and he’d get home as often as he could. But with daughter Maddyn a cheerleader and son Max playing football and then lacrosse, he didn’t want to miss their journeys to their dreams, even as he was chasing his. Thus the memorization of the highway past Lexington, Vaucluse and Augusta, close to Ansley Mill and Camak before the lights of Conyers let him know to start tapping those brakes: The 285 interchange was just ahead. “Honestly, it was very trying. A more difficult issue for me because I was so far away,” said Elliott, who never received an insurance-hiking speeding ticket despite getting blue-lighted five times in seven seasons, but could put upwards of 25,000 miles per year on the truck. “But I chose to get back. Those are good times. I wouldn’t trade it for a minute for any other thing.” Who had the latte? Clayton White has it down. “They don’t really want to go to McDonald’s or anything. It’s more about going to the QT for those slushies,” the Gamecocks’ defensive coordinator said. “Her carpool is always having to go through the Starbucks drive-thru. “But everybody loves Chick-fil-A.” Chase is in ninth grade and plays football, basketball and lacrosse. Macy is in the seventh grade and already a five-time South Carolina state gymnastics champion. White, his wife Kelly and neighbors, friends and teammates’ parents rotate the carpools. That means when it’s his turn, he has to know the most efficient way to get to the gym, the field, the event and where the snacks are without having to stop for gas. “The cool thing is I love doing it, being the carpool dad. Bringing the kids home, they ask me about Dylan (Stewart) and LaNorris (Sellers),” White said. “They ask me about the game, ask about recruiting.” It’s pretty easy for White during this football season, because Chase is on the JV team and plays on Thursday nights, typically the Gamecocks’ easiest night of the week. It will get harder when Chase is elevated to the varsity and playing under the Friday night lights, but White is already preparing for it. Basketball is beginning soon and that’s multiple games per week, when White is with the team or recruiting. He figures it out as early as possible. “I get his schedule and then try to plan my recruiting schedule so I can at least get to two games a week. So if he’s at Augusta Christian on a Thursday night or Friday afternoon, maybe I can plan that game with a recruit in the area,” White said. Lacrosse is in the spring, so it’s much easier to plan, but Macy’s gymnastics sessions begin in January. She trains in town, but the weekend competitions have the Whites going to Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Greensboro, Charlotte … Those last until April/May. With Chase’s lacrosse schedule thrown in, White again sits down and tries to work those around spring practice. But every bit of it is what he wants to do. “The ultimate thing you can have is support. Yeah, they may say they’re cool if you have to miss a game or two but when you are there, they’re always looking into the stands to find Mom and Dad,” White said. “My son broke his wrist during a game when he was in seventh grade, and I was right there to pick him up and take him to the hospital. “Kids play ball and get dirty, and sometimes they cry when they lose, and you need to be there to comfort them.” Make a lane He was head coach at Limestone on two separate occasions from 2016-23, but in between, Mike Furrey was the receivers coach for the Chicago Bears. His wife, Koren, and their three children lived in Vernon Hills, about 90 minutes northwest of the city with no traffic. Daughter Makayla’s volleyball games all seemed like they were played to the west of Chicago, which meant he was fighting Midway gridlock and then tooling down toll roads in the hope of getting there by the end of the first set. With his two boys, Stone and Kanon, on the football team at powerhouse Dutch Fork High these days, it isn’t Chicago but he’s still had his share of traffic nightmares trying to get to Catawba Ridge or Summerville on Friday nights. “My boys knew, my daughter knew that I would have to miss some. It’s part of the career that we have chosen,” Furrey said. “My kids understood and weren’t always happy. “When I was growing up, my grandparents and my parents never missed one of my games, home or away. I always planned that when I became a dad, that’s what my parents did, and that’s what I’m going to do.” Reality checked the plan, but Furrey has only had a few misses. Makayla’s games fortunately fell on a lot of Thursdays and Fridays, and he spent many weekends in the football offseasons at two-day tournaments, “watching the little white ball bounce three times and then go over the net.” Both sons are in the same grade at Dutch Fork, Stone a wide receiver and Kanon helping out with the team after each grew up playing football, basketball and wrestling. The Silver Foxes play on Fridays. If the Gamecocks have a home game, that’s no problem. But they’ve already twice been out of state and have two more road games this season. Go All three coaches praised and credited the man who makes it possible for them to get to as many of their children’s games as possible. Head coach Shane Beamer makes it a mission to accommodate his assistants’ families. “I was told right when I got here that I would not miss any of my son’s football games on Friday nights if we had a home game. He demanded that I was at every one of these games,” Furrey said. “I don’t go to the hotels. I go to Stone and Kanon’s game.” If USC is in Baton Rouge or College Station, it’s the sacrifice that coaches try to avoid but have to accept with their family lives. But even in Columbia, where the Gamecocks are sequestered in a hotel the night before home games, Beamer tells his assistants to go to their kids’ games and be back in the morning. “You got to have a great head coach, who has kids your kids’ age, because he wants to go to their stuff, too,” White said. “Not once have I asked him, ‘Hey Chase has this,’ or ‘Macy has this,’ because he’s already asking, ‘Why aren’t you there?’” Elliott got the same treatment when he rejoined USC’s staff last year after seven years at Georgia State, with Max a junior and Maddyn a senior. This year, it’s lightened; Maddyn is in college and Max had a shoulder injury that prevented him playing football this season (he’s still in for lacrosse this spring). “My mom, she never missed anything. It was tough for my dad once I got to high school because he was traveling on Friday nights and wasn’t able to get to the games,” said Beamer, a father of three. “Fortunately, we made it to the state semifinals my junior year and senior year of high school after his season so he was able to see some playoff games.” Elliott is so appreciative for Beamer’s edict because he was trying to juggle being a college head coach and still being there for his children when he was at Georgia State. He could schedule practices so he could be back for his kids’ events but then run into the same problem he would have at USC — you’re on the road with the team, there’s nothing you can do about it. Maddyn and her teammates won a cheerleading state championship. Elliott couldn’t be there. “It really just kind of broke me. They ended up winning it, and here I was coaching,” he said. “I missed one of the most important moments in my daughter’s life. It just hurt me.” USC made it a lot easier. “Even on Friday nights when the team was locked down, me and Furrey would both go to the games. When you work for someone like that, it’s an honor,” Elliott said. “There are a lot of coaches that don’t allow that. He pretty much tells us, ‘You better be there. Leave early and go be there.’” Beamer recalled that his dad, Hall-of-Famer Frank Beamer, always scheduled a golf trip in Myrtle Beach with his friends every spring. Shane was playing baseball as a high-school senior and they upset a top seed in the playoffs. “He left his golf trip early to come back for the district championship. I still remember that, so that made an impact on me, what, 30 years later?,” Beamer said. “Something I try and do now with my kids. We’ve got other coaches on this staff who have kids and I want them to be able to see their sons or daughters play. If somebody’s got to leave the office for an hour on a Tuesday afternoon to go watch somebody play, I want them to be able to do it, then get back and get your work done.” It can also bleed into the daily job, too. “I love the opportunity to give them teachable moments in sports. ‘You didn’t score, but you took the charge,’” White said. “She wants to get a perfect score and he wants to hit Steph Curry 3s but I like to let them know there’s other parts of the team winning.”
