Bucknell University Athletics
Winning is the Only Option for McBride
10/5/2011 8:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
Oct. 5, 2011
By Todd Merriett, Bucknell Athletic Communications
"I am a self-proclaimed workaholic. This morning I was up at 5 a.m., have been here in the office all day and will be here tonight until at least 8 o'clock."
First-year Bucknell head men's and women's water polo coach John McBride listed what many would consider very long hours so matter-of-factly that it is impossible not to think that is the norm for him.
A determined and competitive person, McBride came to Bucknell in May and is living apart from his family -- wife, Sam, and two daughters, Grace, 11, and Lily, 9 -- who remain back in Rhode Island this year until the family can sell their old house. While he is living solo in downtown Lewisburg, McBride is laying the foundation he thinks will lead to the Bison water polo programs becoming regular NCAA Championship participants. The long days and sacrifices he is willing to endure are the first steps to achieving the success he envisions.
The son of a military father, McBride's family was heavily into swimming as he was growing up. At the age of 10, his younger brother started beating him, so the cutthroat McBride had to find a new sport where he could guarantee victory. The Little Rhody Aquatic Club, to which both McBride boys belonged, also sponsored water polo. The coach of the team was the Brown University head coach and the Pan-Am National Team coach, meaning McBride received top-notch instruction.
"Having that kind of coaching made me fall in love with the sport," remarks McBride, who has led the Bison men to an impressive 7-2 mark so far this fall with wins over a pair of nationally ranked opponents. "I never saw myself not doing it. I gave up so much just to be at the pool every day."
All that work paid off as McBride was a three-time First Team All-New England selection and was twice a First Team All-East honoree at the University of Rhode Island. He continued playing after his 1992 graduation as the goalie on the U.S. National "B" Team.
Despite his love for the sport, McBride took a decade-long break from water polo. He attended the Rhode Island Department of Corrections Academy and the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility Corrections Academy and eventually graduated from the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy in 1996. He then served as a patrolman and SWAT officer for the North Providence Police from 1996 to 2004.
"You could say that leadership and being able to vocalize the things you need to get done, but it's two different kinds of pressure," says McBride as he tries to compare his experience as a SWAT officer with his current coaching duties. "You have one kind of pressure where you don't want to die (SWAT). You have another kind of pressure where you don't want to lose (coaching). In the SWAT team, losing was never an option. You trained every day for hours upon hours to make sure you never lost. And in water polo that is what I am trying to do every day. Prepare, prepare, prepare so we never lose. In sports, somebody always loses. The SWAT team never lost. Losing can be difficult when you come back to coaching."
McBride was injured in the line of duty and was forced out of service, which led him back to water polo.
"It came full circle," says McBride. "I left water polo in 1993 thinking I would never get back into it again. I had completely changed who I was as a person. When I got back into the sport, it had completely changed as well."
McBride returned to the sport he loves in 2004 when a former water polo opponent informed him of an open assistant coaching position at Brown. McBride threw his hat in the mix and was hired. He spent the next seven years of his life making the 35-minute drive from his house on the beach to the downtown Providence campus of Brown.
While at Brown, McBride helped guide the Bears to unprecedented success. The men's squad captured the 2009 Collegiate Water Polo Association Northern Division title, its first conference crown in nearly 25 years. Additionally, the team went undefeated in regular-season conference play in 2008 and finished as high as fourth at the Eastern Championship.
On the women's side, McBride led the Bears to back-to-back ECAC Championship titles in 2009 and 2010 and a fourth-place finish at the Eastern Championship, the best showing at Brown since 2001.
Both the men's and women's squads appeared regularly in the national top-20 rankings during McBride's tenure, which also featured 43 All-Northern Division selections and 22 All-East players. Additionally, three Bears earned CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.
This past December, former Bison head coach John Abdou departed for a coaching job in his native California and McBride was immediately interested in the open position.
"The facilities are state of the art, some of the best on the East Coast," raves McBride about Bucknell's impressive Kinney Natatorium when asked what attracted him to the Bison head coaching position. "Secondly, the student-athlete is identical to where I came from at Brown - high-level students and high-level athletes in a Division I program. Third, the opportunity to coach both men and women was a big positive. It's great to be competitive all year 'round. If I was coaching one sport I would be waiting nine months to have any kind of competition, which would be miserable.
"Finally, the program has a long history and it's endowed by Dan '78 and Chris (Peterjohn '76) Richards. The program is stable and isn't going anywhere. Lewisburg is a great community. It's great to be a part of and is really supportive of Bucknell. All those things together made it a no-brainer for me."
McBride was not the only one excited he landed the job and was heading to Bucknell. Water polo is an extremely tight-knit community and many of the Bison players had been familiar with him from their recruiting days, including senior co-captain Beau Caillouette.
"He's a really good recruiter," explains Caillouette about his new coach. "He is a really strong part of the Olympic Development Program and is a big figure in our sport. All the young players coming up know him. It was really exciting for our program because he can bring in top-level guys that will be very important to the future of Bucknell Water Polo."
If anyone would have had the right to not believe in McBride it is Caillouette and his four senior classmates who have had to adjust to a new coaching style for their final year in Orange and Blue. But they have all been on board with the new leadership since day one.
"It was a little sad at first because we all loved John Abdou," reflects Caillouette, who is fourth on the Bison in goals (12) and points (19) this season. "It would have been my senior year with a coach I had known for a really long time. I was nervous because a new coach could come in and change the system and get rid of what's been going on for a long time, but it has been nothing but excellent and positive. McBride has come in and worked really well with me and (co-captain) Spencer (Richley). (Assistant coach) Marty (Matthies) is great. Both have played at the highest levels on the National Team. They come from tons and tons of experience. They are no nonsense kind of guys. It couldn't have been more seamless."
Caillouette and his Bison teammates have made the transition much easier by buying into some of the new systems McBride has installed. Bucknell, in the past, had traditionally run a motion offense, but McBride believes in the Olympic style, which focuses on pressure defense and getting the ball to the center position on offense.
"Our offense is playing at a higher level of strategy, but it's a lot harder to execute," explains Caillouette, a native of Newport Beach, Calif. "Defensively, we have changed from relying on a help structure to an all-out press, which takes a lot more skill, but also a lot more energy and physicality."
The new style of play paid dividends on the opening weekend of the men's season last month when the Bison, who were ranked No. 19 in the nation at the time, defeated then-No. 11 St. Francis (N.Y.) by a whopping six goals, ended a 22-game losing streak to the Terriers that stretched back 13 years.
"I had beaten St. Francis before," says a confident McBride, who was disappointed in the team's 5-1 start because he fully expected to be 6-0 despite some formidable opponents. "I never thought it was impossible to do. I think our guys felt intimidated by the aura of St. Francis because they are all from Eastern Europe, where water polo is king. Now that our guys know they can beat a St. Francis, they think they can beat anybody. The sky is the limit."
Caillouette agrees that the sky is the limit. In fact, he thinks if the Bison can accomplish their goal and win Easterns for the first time since 1980 that a three-peat might be in order. He is basing that bold prediction on the talent behind him in the program as well as his confidence in McBride's recruiting ability.
If Bucknell does not meet Caillouette's positive outlook, it certainly won't be because someone else out-worked McBride. In fact, he is probably in his office or on the pool deck right now.
Note: This story appeared in a recent edition of the Bucknell Football Gameday Program.
