Episode 7: Pat Duquette | UMass-Lowell Men’s Basketball Head Coach

Episode 7 features Pat Duquette, UMASS-Lowell Men’s Basketball Head Coach and we are back this week with another episode. I am your host, Richmond Weaver and glad you’re listening through whatever format that might be and thanks for being an investor by investing your time to listen. This week it’s my pleasure to welcome in a friend from my early days of coaching and that’s Pat Duquette who is currently the head coach for the men’s basketball team at UMass-Lowell. Early on I’ve talked about one of the unique abilities of sports and that’s how it can connect people. No truer than with Pat and me. We met in 1993 when we both were struggling for any big coaching breaks and we met when were both interning for the New Jersey Nets.  This was the same time that I was an assistant at Fairleigh Dickinson University and in all honesty, I was basically interning there as well… Visa was my checking account. How many of you know what I’m talking about?  I eventually started doing some ticket sales for the Nets and that helped make ends meet to a certain degree but we were both just trying to make it.  We really didn’t know how but we didn’t care… just give me a shot.  That was our motto.  And you know what that’s how we connected.  I’m a southern boy and he’s born and raised in the Northeast and we connected and we’re still friends today. We were both basically on the same team as we rooted for each other to make it and we were connected because of one thing… that’s sports. It’s crazy how sports can bring people together like that but it does. Now we stayed in contact for several years after our days in NJ together through the coaching circuit but as in life there’s drift and contact can fade and it did with us but that connection was still there. When I decided to start this crazy thing called Rich Take On Sports, one of the first people I reached out to was Pat.  We hadn’t talked in 10 plus years and do you know one of the first things he said… “How can I help?” That’s just the type of person he is… putting others first and it’s easy to see why guys like playing for him and why parents trust him. He’s now entering his 5th season at UMass-Lowell after spending 3 years as the associate head coach at Northeastern with Bill Coen and before that he spent 13 years at Boston College with Al Skinner climbing his way from administrative assistant to associate head coach during those 13 years. Here’s the interview with Pat Duquette. Had a great childhood with 5 kids in his family. Parents were fully supportive of sports and all played multiple sports and it was the cycle of life. Had older siblings to not only teach you about sports but also to compete with. Older siblings provided support. Played in the neighborhood with other kids playing in the street and the quiet street turned into a sports complex. Played multiple sports through all high school and attended a small high school and the school needed kids to play multiple sports to field the different teams. Attended Williams College, Division III to play basketball. Wasn’t sure what path to go while in college but watched cousin and brother climb the ranks in baseball but wanted to do it in basketball. Great experience with New Jersey Nets but wanted more involvement in basketball operations and jumped to Centenary College. Since there wasn’t a minor league system for basketball he really only wanted to coach and didn’t want athletic administration. Lived with his brother in Port St. Lucie and waited tables while his brother was working for the Mets.  Then got a call from Dave Paulsen who became the head coach at St. Lawrence and it was a great experience because he was given so much responsibility as an assistant. After St. Lawrence, he moved to St. Michael’s a Division II school and was able to get his Master’s and was also a substitute teacher at the local school and he loved it. Was going to stay at St. Michael’s but Al Skinner had one position available at Boston College and was offered the administrative assistant position and took it which became his break into Division I.  He loved being at Boston College. Some of the highlights in the first years was just being on the staff and the team ends up winning the Big East Championship after Troy Bell and few tough players came together. It really took off from there and went to 7 NCAA tournaments. In 2001, Tim O’Shea gets the head coach position at Ohio University and was given a choice to go with Tim at Ohio or stay at Boston College and Pat decided to stay at Boston College. Should have started looking at head coaching jobs at an earlier point in his career but was having a great time at Boston College and he also thought that he would be at Boston College for a long time. Caught another break because of his relationship with the coaches at Boston College. Bill Cohn gave him an associate head coach position at Northeastern.  Stayed in it for 3 years and started getting Division I interviews for head coaching positions. Loved everything about UMASS-Lowell and has been given all the resources and the administration is realistic about the process of moving to Division I.  He’s been given a lot of freedom to build the program the way he wants. UMASS-Lowell has, fortunately, had 44 wins in the past 4 years and beat Boston College and Fordham as signature wins. He doesn’t focus on kids that play multiple sports, however, thinks there are opportunities to get players that are overlooked because they didn’t get invited to the big AAU camps because they played multiple sports. Education piece is very important to him as both of his parents were school teachers.  Giving kids the opportunity to get an education is the most fulfilling aspect of coaching and being involved in sports. And that was my friend Pat Duquette. I’m telling you he’s done it the right way. He paid his dues in the grind but you know what he also got some breaks as he mentioned. The lesson here though is that even though he got some breaks, he took advantage of the opportunity that he was given and worked hard at it. He put it in the long hours and I guarantee there were many times that he probably thought about giving up. The coaching life isn’t easy especially early in your career. Now for the ones that make it to the big time, the grind might be a little easier because of the luxuries that you’re afforded but there’s just another set of challenges and pressures that come with it.  I’m definitely looking forward to watching Pat at the Riverhawks continue to do great things. Ok, Episode 7 is coming to a close so let’s finish this week with the Weekly Words of Wisdom. The Weekly Words of Wisdom come from a voice we just heard in the Rich Spotlight and that’s the words from Pat Duquette head coach for the men’s basketball team at UMASS-Lowell.  No need to search for words of encouragement or words to keep us balanced when Pat did a phenomenal job of giving us those words. As he mentioned in the interview, he’s leaned on these words for a long time and they’ve helped in throughout his life. Once again he said, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” You know we often get so consumed in our life trying to control and change things and the energy spent on these things could be better spent focusing on the things that we can control. I’m no different than anyone of you and I get caught up on trying to control everything as well and this is a great reminder to focus on the things that you can control and hopefully you have the wisdom and maturity to understand what you can and can’t control. Well, that wraps episode 7 everyone.  We’ll be back next week and we just might have another bonus episode early in the week and remember focus forward so we don’t live in the past.  All the best everyone!