Being young, wild and free is what every young person dreams of. However, that freedom when it comes to dating in college can present some difficulties for the young men of the Slippery Rock football team in their efforts to enter the dating fray.
“These guys gotta understand they either want to have a girlfriend, or they don’t. They can’t have the best of both worlds,” Slippery Rock head coach Shawn Lutz said with a smile on his face. “If they need some advice, I can help them, but a lot of these guys just don’t know how to talk.”
Being in the office and the locker room, Lutz hears plenty about his players dating habits, but he remains unimpressed.
“It’s the pretty guys [bragging], the wide receivers and the defensive backs that think they got all this swag, but they really don’t know how to talk to a young lady,” Lutz said.
Besides just overhearing chatter, Lutz has had some more direct involvement with his players’ dating lives as well. Before the senior day game on November 12th, 2016, Senior defensive end Cody Conway proposed to Slippery Rock alumna Alissa Kelty, and Lutz was one of the only people to know about it before Conway went down on one knee. Besides substantial support for his players, Lutz also likes to have fun with them as well.
“I like to tease our guys about their girlfriends all the time,” Lutz said. “I like to establish a relationship with our guys, so I know what their girlfriends’ first names are. One time, the kid’s phone rang, I picked up the phone and said ‘Hey this is coach Lutz, do you need anything specifically?’ She was so embarrassed.”
As a married man with three children, Lutz has plenty of experience in the department of love, so he was willing to offer some succinct advice to his players, besides just the teasing.
“The college experience is so fun and precious, enjoy every moment of it,” Lutz said. “You have your whole life to be tied down, I’m not against it by any means, but college is such a unique experience.”
When Lutz attended West Virginia University, dorm floors were not yet co-ed, and there was an enforced curfew for when students had to have their dates back.
“To me, I’m old fashioned. When you know you have to have a girl back by 10 p.m., it makes you appreciate everything a bit more,” Lutz said. “Back when there was that challenge, you really wanted to see that girl even more, because your time was limited.”
