James Ward never thought he could be a coach, much less make a career out of it.
When he was a senior defensive back at University of Puget Sound in Washington, his positional coach told Ward that he should look into coaching.
But Ward, now Ohio’s cornerback’s coach that hopes to someday become a head coach, wasn’t interested in coaching after graduating in 1996 and wanted to either play football professionally or pursue a career with his business degree.
After a failed tryout with a Canadian Football League team, Ward was lured back to Puget Sound, where he began coaching many of the players that he had previously played with.
“I happened to fall into (coaching), I don’t want to say reluctantly,” Ward said. “I’ve always respected coaches, and they were always positive male role models in my life. It just happened that, once I started coaching, I actually saw the impact that I could have on young men, so that’s why I’ve been doing it for so long.”
Ward’s career began at Puget Sound, but since then, he’s moved around the country, spending most of his career on the western side of the country with jobs at Washington State, Idaho State, Colorado State and Nevada.
For five years, Ward coached the cornerbacks in Reno, Nev. until longtime Wolfpack coach Chris Ault stepped down after the 2012 season.
With the new coach at Nevada came a new coaching staff and Ward had connections with many of the coaches at Ohio, knowing defensive coordinator Jimmy Burrow, defensive line coach Jesse Williams and linebackers coach Ron Collins from his previous coaching stints.
“It was like any job search,” Ward said. “You put in your resume and hopefully you have a connection with people and I did.”
Coach Frank Solich, when looking to replace former cornerbacks coach Fred Reed, who accepted the same position at Syracuse, said that finding positional coaches is often about “having contacts and knowing who is out there.”
With coach Ward, Solich drew on the experiences the coaches on his staff had with him. He was very impressed with Ward after the initial interview and continues to be impressed.
Similarly, the cornerbacks have enjoyed playing under Ward, citing his laid-back attitude and ability to relate to each player individually as major positives, redshirt senior Travis Carrie said.
Carrie also noted that the fact Ward never had a set depth chart helped instill confidence and motivation among the cornerbacks.
“When you don’t have a set depth chart, each player feels like they have the chance to play each week, they have a chance to start,” Carrie said. “So practices will continue to be about striving to be better than the next person behind, in front of me or who may think they’re better than me.”
The adjustment in coming to Ohio hasn’t been difficult for Ward, who instilled his expectations in his first meeting with players and wants to know every player personally in order to get the most out of them.
“At the first meeting, I said, ‘If you give me your best, I’ll give you my best,’” Ward said. “I had to spend a lot of time listening to those guys, getting to know who they were, what motivated them, what things are important to them.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
@c_hoppens
