Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Following loss of his father, Swan makes home debut
3/5/2021 10:08:00 AM | Women's Soccer, Word on the Herd
Marshall women's soccer head coach was hired in December of 2019
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Michael Swan makes his home debut tonight as the head coach of the Marshall women's soccer program. Swan knows he wouldn't be here without his father, but he can't quite reconcile with the reality that he won't receive his old man's critique after the match.
Laurence Swan, born in 1943, died January 14 from complications of the coronavirus – also known as COVID-19. Michael Swan found out days after Christmas that his father, mother and brother had all contracted the virus in his hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne in England, and his father and brother had to be hospitalized as they battled. Michael's brother recovered; his father did not. That has left a hole in Michael's heart before his home debut against FAU on Friday night at 7 at Hoops Family Field.
Michael wouldn't have made it to this moment without his father. Laurence worked hard for his family, and he sacrificed so his sons would have opportunities to succeed.
"We were a working class family," Michael Swan said. "Whatever opportunity me and my brother got, if he could pick up a shift, if he could spend two weeks away and get double pay, he would do that for the opportunity for me and my brother to play for teams and to get opportunities and do different things with soccer.
"Ultimately those extra shifts and all of the work he put in with his life gave me the opportunity to start a career for myself. That's because of him."
Michael Swan, who won his head coaching debut with the Thundering Herd at ETSU on Feb. 13, played at Gateshead College near his hometown of Newcastle, and then embarked on a professional coaching journey in the United States. He was the head coach at Catawba for five years, and then assisted at Charlotte. He was hired as Marshall's new women's coach on Dec. 18, 2019, but because of the ongoing pandemic, he has never coached a match on the home pitch at Hoops Family Field.
That makes tonight all the more special, especially given the circumstances of the past 15 months.
Every new coach encounters the substantial project of overhauling and implementing a culture for a program, but Swan's efforts were complicated when the coronavirus pandemic shut down college athletics a year ago this month.
"That was difficult, especially at the end of the spring semester in 2020 because we were kind of rushed off campus given the state of the world and the pandemic," he said. "We were putting in a lot of pieces of our culture and establishing what we wanted to do for the fall. We didn't get the chance to do more in the fall because we were a stop-and-start program.
"Now we're seeing the fruits of what we're trying to work on. Now you're molding the culture with games where in the fall we were molding the culture with nothing to work toward."
The competition provides Swan respite from a heavy heart. He has navigated the pandemic without his family, who have yet to move to Huntington. Evenings are spent helping his daughter with homework from a distance. He knows his wife is shouldering a huge burden, too, as he focuses on building a soccer program here.
"Being away from your family is very, very tough," he said. "It's a challenge."
Those challenges were amplified by the pandemic, and nothing prepared him for the call that his family back home had contracted the virus. He spent time on the phone with his mother, who was sick but not hospitalized, helping her cope with what was happening. He worried about his father and brother as they fought the illness. He struggled with how to provide support from afar.
"I remember reflecting and praying on it," he said. "My mom was at home and we were trying to understand how we're going to move forward. That took weeks to get my head around."
Swan seldom heard praise from his father, but Laurence had his own way of conveying his message. The opponent the last time Laurence watched one of the matches of his son's teams in person was also FAU. Laurence watched as Charlotte, where Michael was an assistant then, advanced through the Conference USA women's soccer tournament in 2016. In the championship game, Charlotte defeated FAU, 4-0.
In the first two rounds, Laurence had his critiques ready for his son – even though both were victories.
"My dad was a critic of every team he watches," Michael Swan said. "I think he loved critiquing, especially with my performances as a kid because he wants his kid to do well. He never really said 'I'm proud of you.' It was more like, 'That's more like it.'
"The first two rounds of that tournament, I got lectured. And then when we beat FAU in the final … we beat them 4-nil and my dad's first words that came out of his mouth – the only words he said that day – was 'That's more like it,' and he had a tear.
"So, yeah, tonight means a lot."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and a nine-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
