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Butler men's basketball coach Brad Stevens is living the dream
"That's the only time I ever questioned it," she said. "It was so obvious to me that this was his passion and this was going to make him happy. And then that was the end of it. I loved him."
Three years later, she was Tracy Stevens. Another four, and her husband was the Butler men's coach. Three more years,hogan, and she's the First Lady of the Final Four.
View full sizeCourtesy of Butler UniversityThe story of Brad and Tracy Stevens, a 1995 Rocky River High graduate, is an ode to youthful exuberance. Cancer Final Four fundraiser, partner of the underdog coach who looks as young as a player,basket nike pas cher, and the inspiration for maybe the only Butler basketball hangout in the Cleveland area, Tracy Stevens should find tonight's college basketball national semifinal between Butler and Michigan State a bit more exciting than a pharmaceutical conference.
The story of Brad and Tracy Stevens, a 1995 Rocky River High graduate, is an ode to youthful exuberance.
Chuck the money and follow your dreams. It wasn't quite touring with your band in the back of a van, but when Brad gave up a good paying job with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly 10 years ago to take a volunteer basketball coaching job in Indianapolis on Thad Matta's Butler staff,sac longchamps, while Tracy went back to Cleveland to law school at Case Western to pursue a law career that could support them, well . . .
"His parents were a little nervous,air max pas cher homme," Tracy, 33, said. "My parents were a little nervous. They thought we were crazy."
"I was probably pretty selfish at the time," Brad Stevens, also 33,air jordan, said Friday, as he walked toward his locker room at Lucas Oil Stadium. "But one thing we both decided was,jordan shoes for sale, hey, we're going to be a lot happier if we're both really passionate about what we're both doing. I'm the most blessed person in the world because she is the best, we've got a great family and we're just really lucky."
With 25,000 fans turning out for Butler's Final Four practice Friday, just six miles from the Butler campus, it's obvious that passion is there. In three seasons as the head coach, Stevens is a remarkable 88 14 and the Bulldogs' run from the Horizon League to the brink of a national title surprises only those fans who have never seen them play.
"What he gave up, you have to really love to coach. He has the bug," said Ohio State assistant Brandon Miller, who played at Butler when Stevens was an assistant, then worked under him before coming back to work for Matta at Ohio State. "And the year he's had,air jordan 1, with the tournament success,chaussure tn requin, is unprecedented."
Tracy could have changed their path before they ever took that first step 10 years ago toward this weekend. Stevens' rejection of the corporate life to stay with the game he played at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.,air jordan shoes, where Tracy played soccer and they started dating, has evolved into another hardwood fairy tale in basketball mad Indiana.
View full sizeMichael Conroy / APStevens was an assistant on Ohio State coach Thad Matta's staff when Matta was the head coach at Butler. "You just knew there was something about him," Matta says.
Head coach, Butler (2007 present).
Record: 2007 08, 30 4 (NCAA second round); 2008 09, 26 6 (NCAA first round); 2009 10,christian louboutin sale, 32 4 (NCAA Final Four).
Doug LesmerisesTo Tracy, they merely embraced the uncertainties and opportunities of life.
"We were 23 and realized this was our chance," she said. "Five years down the road, we were probably not going to be in a position to do that. The more success you had at Lilly, the harder it would be to leave."
So Brad volunteered at a Butler camp, planned to live in a friend's basement and then caught on as Matta's coordinator of basketball operations when a spot on the staff opened up. That happened only after he missed the wedding of Tracy's brother, Albert, when joining at the last minute a team trip to Finland, one that finished with a scheduling problem.
"It was not his fault,cheap louboutin shoes, but we always give him a hard time that he screwed up the trip," Matta said. "He was hungry to get into coaching, he was inquisitive, he was doing whatever we needed him to do and a little bit more, and you just knew there was something about him."
That trip caused the couple's first basketball fight, but it also made Tracy aware of the sacrifices the game would require, which she was prepared to make. She chose to attend CWRU when her mother, Mary Kay, was diagnosed with cancer, and over the next two years, Tracy made the five hour drive to Indianapolis in her Jeep Cherokee on weekends to see Brad, listening to law books on tape, while spending invaluable time during the week with her mother in her final years.
Hard choices,Louboutin chaussures, and some hard times. Tracy finished her third year of law school in Indianapolis and married Brad in August 2003. Her mother died in June 2004. The time apart, both doing what needed to be done, strengthened their bond and laid the groundwork for the good times ahead.
Stevens caught a break when he was elevated to a full time assistant after one season when Matta left for Xavier and Todd Lickliter took over, then positioned himself to take advantage of another move, earning the head job when Lickliter left for Iowa in 2007. He has more wins in his first three seasons than any coach in Division I history.
"We're just in awe of his accomplishments," Albert Wilhelmy said of his son in law's success.
Along with some Butler grads, Albert has helped create a pocket of Butler blue at the Harry Buffalo in Lakewood when the Bulldogs are on TV. The win that sent them to the Final Four last weekend led General Manager Mike Potraffke to break out champagne while Albert proposed a toast before the roughly 200 people in the restaurant then sang "Who Let the Dogs Out?"????????
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'Coaching' in labor makes little difference When a woman is giving birth, having a "coach" tell her to push during contractions makes almost no difference in shortening labor, and may actually increase her risk of subsequent problems with her bladder, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
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