Even in a fluid sport like soccer, there are plays to draw up, tapes to analyze and referees to challenge.
The life of a Duke assistant coach is dynamic, but the first thing any of them will tell you is they are still involved with the sport they love.
“A desk job is probably the furthest from it,” assistant coach Lane Davis said. “I will probably have struck about 150 crosses in about 45 minutes. So from a physical standpoint, it’s almost like still being able to play.”
Every morning, there is the same routine—head coach Robbie Church and his assistant coaches, Davis, Erwin van Bennekom and Carla Overbeck, plan out strategies and discuss games.
From there, teamwork is on full display.
Davis takes care of the film. Van Bennekom draws up offensive sets as Overbeck maps out defensive strategy. Church handles much of the housekeeping work like equipment orders, and if you enter into his office, you’ll find him with a pair of reading glasses on.
‘500 new followers’
Before the 2015 season, Duke lost its long-time assistant coach Billy Lesesne, who left to become Georgia’s head coach. After his departure, Church decided to look for a younger group of coaches.
Van Bennekom joined the staff and brought with him an international flair as a former player originally from the Netherlands.
He posts a video of practice formations almost every day on his Twitter account, generating tens of retweets and shares.
“It showcases our players, it showcases our university and our team,” van Bennekom said. “A lot of coaches give me feedback... and like 500 new followers within a week.”
Davis, who is in his first year with Duke, manages game film and works with the team’s goalkeepers. In his first year, van Bennekom had to edit game footage, which cut into his time for focusing on tactics.
But now the ACC edits most of the games, and Davis handles the rest of the responsibilities, freeing up time for van Bennekom and Overbeck.
That is a good thing, because Overbeck—a captain of the memorable 1999 U.S. World Cup team that won the tournament in a defining moment for women’s soccer—will be the first one to admit she struggles using a computer.
“When [Lane] has a computer problem, he comes to me,” she quipped. “Just kidding.”
During a game, the coaches each play their different parts. Davis stands near the midfield line, giving incoming Blue Devils last-moment instructions before they check in. Van Bennekom can be found with a clipboard by his side, reviewing formations with the players.
And then there is Overbeck, who exhibits a combination of sarcasm, frustration and enjoyment that make her a sight to behold on the sidelines.
During the team’s 1-0 win against then-No. 5 Virginia, she momentarily dabbed with junior Morgan Reid. Later in the game, she yelled to the referees, “Just give them the game [while you’re at it]!”
Futsal fanatics
It would be quite difficult to focus one’s energies on a sport yet not get a chance to play it frequently. Last year, van Bennekom came up with a solution.
He recruited a few former Blue Devils still around Durham to compete in a new league of futsal called Durham Atlético.
Futsal is like soccer but occupies a much smaller playing area—sometimes a basketball court—involves fewer players at a time and has a smaller, denser ball.
A former professional futsal player in the Netherlands, van Bennekom entered the team into Division II last year, but they won the league and moved up to Division I this year.
There was a moment of high drama a few weeks ago when van Bennekom did not have enough players that day and was in danger of forfeiting.
Enter Robbie Church.
“An hour before the game, I said, ‘Hey, you want to come?’” van Bennekom said. “What head coach would say, ‘Yeah, yeah. I’ll come’?”
“I was with my family,” Davis said. [But] he’s like, ‘I’ve got Robbie to come, you’ve got to come watch…. And I was like, ‘Baby, I’ve got to go to the game.’”
“He knows better than to call me,” Overbeck, a mother of two, said.
The new acquisition paid dividends with the team’s first goal in a 9-1 first-half explosion against what van Bennekom said was the league’s worst team.
“I had bruised ribs, that stayed with me for a while,” Church said. “The problem is, I haven’t gotten a call back.”
‘Indiana Jones’
The futsal and last-minute recruiting give a sense of the team’s warm and even goofy culture—both with the players and the assistant coaches.
During the interview with the assistant coaches, just as Overbeck was describing Church as fun-loving, he walked by and made the kind of funny face your younger sibling might in a silly family photo.
“That’s goofy right there,” Overbeck said. “Robbie’s the most well-liked coach out there.”
The tone helps the assistant coaches with otherwise mundane tasks, like when they had to retrieve the team balls that went over the fence at the practice fields across N.C. Highway 751 near the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club.
“It used to be a dump. There was an old truck back there, tons of dumpsters, but it’s just straight-down forest, vines,” Overbeck said. “The balls are like $140 [each]… and we were down a couple.”
“Carla went full-out Indiana Jones down there,” van Bennekom said.
“We put on all of our gear, our boots, our hats, our everything,” she said.
They’ve been put in other tough spots, like when they forgot to take the balls for practice off the team bus before a game at Wake Forest. They were fortunate enough to call the driver in time and get them back.
“[Church] found out, and he wasn’t too happy,” van Bennekom said.
Smaller fish, bigger pond
Overbeck could very well be a head coach at other programs around the country. Aside from her national team experience—which included appearances in one Olympics and three World Cups as a pioneer in American women’s soccer—she went undefeated in her four championship seasons at North Carolina from 1986 to 1989 and has been an assistant coach at Duke since 1992.
But the Dallas native says she has everything she needs. Overbeck has been in charge of one of the nation’s best defenses year in and year out and also has more time to be a mother in her current role.
“I was the full-time assistant from [1992-1997] when I had my first child,” she said. “[It was hard] trying to play on the national team and being a mom and being a full-time assistant.”
For van Bennekom and Davis, there is still plenty to learn at Duke before perhaps taking command of one of their own programs later on. Van Bennekom has numerous coaching degrees from FIFA and was already an assistant coach at the professional level with Sky Blue FC of the National Women’s Soccer League.
“Erwin could be a head coach and will be a head coach and will be really, really special,” Church said. “He is very good tactically and teaching-wise and breaking things down. He sees things different than we do.”
But van Bennekom said he would also be perfectly happy staying with the Blue Devils in his current role for the rest of his career. He cited those “Aha!” moments when players implement in-game adjustments they have been working on with the coaching staff.
Then there’s the winning, which van Bennekom experienced in his first year as the team went to the national championship game before losing to Penn State 1-0.
With Duke preparing for its NCAA tournament opener Saturday at home against Charlotte, the Blue Devil coaching staff is working to get back to the College Cup.
Fans might even enjoy watching their sideline antics as the postseason unfolds.
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