Mark Brode and Louis Clark are part of the Syracuse coaching staff, but don’t really coach.

They aren’t there to make any managerial decisions, and they aren’t there for their tactical insights.

Basically, they’re around for fun.

“It’s been a real pain in the back side,” head coach Ian McIntyre said, before quickly recanting. “No, it’s been great. It’s nice to keep some of the guys involved in the program. The guys relate to them, they fit in great, and they’re part of our soccer family.”

Brode and Clark wrapped up their playing careers with Syracuse after last season — the most successful in program history. While neither takes on a decision-making role as SU’s two undergraduate student assistant coaches, they bring character and experience to a relatively young Orange team.

When Syracuse (9-5-1, 2-5-1 Atlantic Coast) hosts No. 12 Maryland (7-3-5, 4-1-3) at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Brode and Clark will, as usual, be watching from the sidelines at SU Soccer Stadium.

“It’s weird not playing, but I still get my fix. We still get out there and play a little bit in practice,” Brode said, pointing to his taped-up right ankle. “But not being able to play on game day, it sucks.”

When the Orange is shorthanded on the practice field, Brode and Clark readily step onto the pitch and fill in numbers. And if they score, they’re sure to let the whole field know.

Yet when the team hits the road, the two are left behind to watch online as SU plays its away games, because the team bus doesn’t have enough room.

Brode and Clark list the less-than-glamorous aspects of running a Division I soccer program as the responsibilities they have undertaken.

They set up the team’s equipment, laying out cones and sticks for the team’s drills. They help out with drills, but not with the authority of leading them, and chase after the balls that sail out of bounds.

“A lot of the stuff that the coaching staff doesn’t really want to do, we gladly do,” Brode said.

“We get the balls as well,” McIntyre responded. “Don’t let Brode convince you. He’s a bit lazy when it comes to that. And Louis never shows up, anyway.”

They try to attend every practice. For Brode, that’s feasible. He’s taking nine credits this semester — four on campus, five online — as he works toward his degree in child and family studies.

But Clark is drowned with a workload of 19 credits this semester to finish his marketing degree from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, and appears less frequently for practice — about half as often, Brode estimated.

“I work around my school schedule, really,” Clark said by phone. His heavy schedule prevented him from attending Monday’s media availability. “Mac has been great with it. He knows I have to do a lot to graduate, so he’s been really good to me.”

Clark and Brode have been emailing other schools in search of graduate assistant coaching jobs for next fall, Brode said.

But the way McIntyre views the current situation, the assistance that Clark and Brode offer at practice isn’t everything. It’s what the two experienced leaders do for SU’s locker room that really counts.

“For a young squad, they provide us instant maturity — maturity is probably the wrong word to use with Louis Clark,” McIntyre said. “But they’ve got personality.”

The jokes between Clark and Brode go back and forth, and the best friends don’t hold back. They have no fear of offending the other, because that never happens.

When the chiding is appropriate, it often stems from each other’s background — Clark is from England, and Brode was born and raised in the United States. Inevitably, Revolutionary War references come into play.

“He’ll fight for England until he dies, but I don’t know. I think he’s turning into an American,” Brode said.

Clark rips Brode for being “so American, it’s frightening.” Brode responds by badmouthing Clark’s teeth, and adds Clark wears a blue bathing suit “everywhere.” Brode said that Clark thinks it’s a regular pair of shorts — and there’s no denying it’s a bathing suit, he said.

But Brode has the “worst” sense of dress at Syracuse University, Clark said.

“His haircut was cool in 1999,” Clark said, referring to Brode’s long locks. “The outfits he wears around campus and in the locker room are absurd. I swear, he looks like he gets dressed every morning in the dark.”

And the wisecracking extends to the rest of the team. Brode and Clark especially enjoy picking on goalkeeper Alex Bono and midfielder Juuso Pasanen, but the sophomores get their former teammates right back with a joke.

“A lot of them are pretty inappropriate, to be honest,” Brode said.

In addition to the entertainment that Clark and Brode offer the program, McIntyre pointed to the fact that undergraduate student assistant coaches can simply relate to the players better than he can.

“I’m getting old,” McIntyre said. “It’s tough sometimes to relate to 18-to-20-year-olds when some of my jokes are no longer funny or relevant. It’s good to have guys that actually own iPhones and things like that as part of the coaching staff.”

In 2011, Clark’s first season at Syracuse, the team won just three games and lost 12. A year later, Clark and Brode enjoyed the program’s leap to a 14-win season and Sweet 16 appearance.

“There’s no better salesman of a program than someone who’s actually been through it,” McIntyre said. “Both Mark and Louis have enjoyed good times and they’ve experienced some of the darker moments. So they’re a good reference for the younger guys.”

Freshman Alex Halis was having a nightmare game against Binghamton on Oct. 1. After a poor first half, McIntyre benched the forward until three minutes remained in regulation — Halis’ 45 minutes of playing time that night is still the least he’s recorded in one match this year.

But before Halis took the field in overtime, Brode pulled him aside.

“You’re going to win this game,” he told him. “You’re going to be the one to win it.”

And in the 105th minute, Brode’s words of advice proved true.

He and Clark don’t address the entire team all at once, and leave the on-field strategies to McIntyre. But someone has to handle the little things.

“I think our biggest contributions so far have been just going up to players, and giving them little tips and stuff,” Brode said. “And hopefully they use them and we can win some more games.”

Published on October 24, 2013 at 1:10 am

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