How SLU Grad Assistants Build Coaching Futures: An Inside Look at the Benefits of Working as a Grad Assistant for SLU Football
The graduate assistant coaching program at St. Lawrence University is the first step an aspiring coach must take to climb the ladder in this competitive profession. While $800 every two weeks is not a slam dunk salary, the master’s program offered and the additional benefits coach Dan Puckhaber and the football team provide make the position doable.
“The ability to get your master’s for no cost is really nice, and Coach Puck (Head Football Coach Dan Puckhaber) threw donations to the football program to provide our GAs some meals and team gear, so for the football department, we are taken care of,” said Max Warden, a graduate of SLU entering his second year as a graduate assistant. “What Puckhaber does for us makes it doable and affordable.”
With a nine-month stipend ending in May, Warden believes another beneficiary of being a GA is the ability to recruit as well as work at camps throughout the summer. He mentioned the opportunity to work at least one camp a weekend in June and July, along with having the ability to kill two birds with one stone when it comes to getting paid to teach football and recruit talent to join the program.
“You’re basically getting a free master’s degree in leadership to keep refining your skills as a coach, and ultimately, I want to end up as a head coach one day, so being able to refine my skills in leadership while getting a free degree makes this worth it,” said Mason Leto, a SLU graduate who is now coaching inside linebackers at his alma mater.
Leto considers a graduate assistant role a prime opportunity to get a good understanding of individual positions and put the pieces together schematically on offense and defense as time passes. “The logical steps for me has always been graduate assistant, full-time position coach, get a chance to learn how to manage a game in a coordinator role, then the head coach opportunities will come down the road,” he said.
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