Coaching Zags a Family Affair for Bennetts

Gonzaga baseball Assistant Coach Steve Bennett. Photo by Jennifer Raudebaugh.

Gonzaga University News Feature
Dateline: 11/17/2009
By Autumn Jones
Class of 2010

Abby Bennett (’04) is used to demanding schedules as Gonzaga’s first assistant volleyball coach. Her husband Steve (’99), knows the coaching lifestyle, too. He’s a Gonzaga assistant baseball coach. These busy Bulldogs have nearly 20 years of Gonzaga experience, first as student-athletes and now as coaches.

Their baby Cullen Michael Bennett, a future Zag born July 3, has forced the Bennetts to focus their priorities even further. How are the Bennetts handling the challenges so far?

Gonzaga volleyball Assistant Coach Abby Bennett with baby Cullen. Photo courtesy of the Bennetts.

“I know I will have to figure out my priorities with this hectic life Steve and I are living,” Abby said. “But if anyone knows that family is the first priority, it is Gonzaga.”

With the birth of their son, coaching has taken a new perspective for Abby and Steve. “We understand that every kid we coach is someone else’s child and those parents are looking at us to lead and nurture their kids in their absence,” Abby said. “We always think, ‘Would I be happy if my son’s coach was doing this?’ or ‘Would I make my own son do this?’”

The hardest part of parenting, says Steve, is time management with family and baseball. “I want to be able to put as much as I can into baseball, but having a newborn child at home makes me want to spend as much time with him as I can,” he said. 

Abby concurs. 

“The most difficult part of being a new coach and mom was getting use to how much time coaching takes up,” she said.

In the coming months, with both baseball and volleyball in off-peak season, the Bennetts hope to spend more time together as a family.

“We now understand that people truly do live for their kids,” Abby said.