Barry Miller

While talking to Head Coach Tim Murdoch over the weekend, I was astounded to learn that every McGill lacrosse coach is a volunteer. A successful consultant helping Canadian companies enter American markets, Murdoch still finds the time, between August and November, to lead a group of over 30 McGill students through a gruelling three-month journey, culminating in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) championships.

For the last nine years, Murdoch has put in an average of five hours per day, and up to 50 hours a week during the recruitment and championship periods. He defines his role simply: he’s been here since its second year to build the team up from its humble beginnings. “Personally, I take the lead in recruiting, I keep the relationships with McGill athletics, I work with the parent and alumni groups to create interest in supporting our team financially,” he said. “I guess I’m acting as much a coach as a builder and a leader in terms of taking the program to the next level from scratch 10 years ago.”

And as a father raises his children, Murdoch is a source of guidance for the McGill lacrosse team. From its roots as a team he describes as “more of a fraternity, with a lot of beer drinking,” who held their practices in a parking lot, Murdoch has brought the team to elite status. His most recent achievement is obtaining the best record in the eastern conference this season (9-1-0). Murdoch also led McGill to a national finals appearance, the closest the Redmen have come to winning it all.

Despite his immense role in developing the program, Murdoch is always quick to credit much of his success to his supporting cast of assistant coaches. In 2007, Murdoch and his assistant coaches Brendan Simeson, Sean Steinwald, and Jason Martin won the award for coaching staff of the year, and they should win it again this year after the work they’ve done leading the Redmen to an eastern conference title. He has developed such faith in his assistants over the years that he hardly, if ever, makes a coaching decision without first reaching a consensus amongst the entire staff.

Having attracted such a knowledgeable coaching staff to McGill, Murdoch has been able to devote more time to two extremely important aspects of creating a successful sports team: recruiting and fundraising. “It’s a balancing act between external activities I need to engage in to keep the team at a high level, particularly with the recruiting, and with the financial fundraising. Then on the internal side, motivating the captains to keep the team going is another important role I have. Then working carefully with the volunteer coaches to make sure they have what they need to coach the team,” Murdoch said of his particular role within the organization. Utilizing both the connections he made during his studies at Princeton, where he played varsity lacrosse, and the Harvard School of Business where he was a player coach in 1989, and continued contact with lacrosse alumni, Murdoch has a vast network of financial supporters for the team, allowing him to spend more time recruiting rising stars instead of constantly chasing funding.

It’s easy to say that Murdoch gives this team his all, but the question remains, how does a man with a family and a full-time job devote so much time and energy to volunteer coaching work?

“It’s definitely an inner drive that I have, fuelled by both my passion for the game and by the opportunity that I have to have a direct impact on a group of guys that are at an important time in their lives,” Murdoch said. “Not only on the lacrosse field but going through McGill and thinking about their career opportunities and thinking about the challenges they’re facing personally. So I used to call it being a big brother, but maybe I’m now a young father to these guys. I really enjoy helping these guys out, and we’re lucky to have such a smart group of players, guys who are highly motivated themselves, which gets me motivated to continue to coach.”

It isn’t hard to devote yourself to a cause as powerfully as Murdoch does, especially when that cause becomes another family that you love to take care of.