Alycia Kopp
Q: What is your role with the team? Do you let your husband do his thing, or are you hands-on with the team?
A: My most important role is supporting him. I do whatever I can to support him and whatever he needs, and yes, I’m very involved, but in an ‘on the sidelines’ kind of way. He is the leader, and I help out in whatever way he wants me to help out, or I’m just the cheerleader on the side.
Q: What’s a typical Friday night routine for you?
A: Well, last year I kind of took over concessions. So I would get there early to set up everything that needed to be set up for concessions. And then I had volunteers that worked shifts, so once everything was all set up and my volunteers would show up, I would just plant myself in my seat, because once the game starts, I don’t like to get up too much; I don’t want to be distracted. I enjoy football: I always have, and that’s been our life, so basically my Friday night is sitting there in those bleachers screaming with all the other fans.
Q: Are you the loudest one out there?
A: No, not by far.
Q: Some coaches have rituals or superstitions on game days; do you or your husband have any?
A: None that I know of, but he may have a few that he keeps to himself. I think last year, or the year before, he liked to wear the same color shirt or hat no matter what the rest of the team or coaches wore. He’s not the traditional coach, and by that I mean he doesn’t give in to the outside pressures of the wins and losses. Not to say that he doesn’t care about the wins, but he doesn’t give in to the pressures of the media, parents, other coaches, other schools. It’s kind of a process for him, one day at a time, and I think he takes a little bit of a different approach than a traditional coach; whereas a traditional coach would have superstitions, I don’t think he does. I don’t think he buys into that sort of thing.
Q: Do you go to a lot of away games?
A: Oh yeah, oh yeah. I have a daughter who’s going to be a senior in high school and a son who’s going to be an eighth grader, so yeah, we turn it into a road trip. We don’t have to go far, the farthest we probably go is Tallahassee or maybe close to Daytona, but we absolutely go. We don’t ride the bus, we drive ourselves, but yeah, I’m at every game. And I’m close to a lot of the player’s parents, all the parents at Providence. Since my kids go there, I’ve gotten to know a lot of the parents and I’ve gotten to be good friends with quite a few of them.
Q: What about the players? Are you close with any of them?
A: Yeah, my daughter is a senior, so she’s friends with half those guys. So it’s like “oh there’s McKenzie’s mom”, or “there’s Coach Kopp’s wife”; but yeah, I know them all. Matter of fact, the other day, after their workouts on Friday, I was doing my own little workout, and when we were all done, we all hopped in our cars and went to Smoothie King together. They’re great boys, they really are.
Q: I know your husband used to play in the NFL, and for a time for the Jaguars. Tell us a little about that; was the transition from player to coach an easy one?
A: Well, the transition lasted for many, many years because after football, he did a lot of other things before he came back to coaching. So the transition was more of a transition from football to real life. And then the coaching just kind of came, eventually, very easily.
Q: Did he always want to coach football?
A: No; maybe in the back of his mind he thought that might be kind of cool someday, but when he finished playing in the NFL I don’t think he knew what he wanted to do, which is probably a normal thing for most players. But, with the kind of guy he is, the transition for him was very easy because he lived in the real world. He wasn’t a starter or a big-time player thinking he was going to do this forever; he was realistic. So when it was over, he said “well that was a great ride, that was fun, but this is life, and let’s move on”, and I think he did it very well.
Q: How did the two of you meet?
A: We both went to USC, I had already graduated and was working for the athletic department. I did corporate sponsorships for Nike and Pepsi and Gatorade and I would take the sponsors on the football field for practices and stuff, and I guess that’s how we met eyes and connected. So, we’re both Trojans but we’re as far away from Trojan-land as possible, so we’ve kind of adopted an SEC school since we’ve lived here, because that’s what you’ve gotta do, so we’re now Georgia Bulldog fans because that’s where our daughter wants to go. We’ve been married 19 years, we just celebrated in May.
Q: Tell me about your kids. Is it difficult to balance a team and a family at the same time?
A: Yes, my daughter runs track so she’s got the athlete mindset. My son is all about football; as a matter of fact in another year, my husband will be coaching him. Sometimes Jeff will bring him along to some of the offseason workouts to let him work out with the varsity players. And all the guys know my son, Cody. I mean, they love him. So, since both my kids play sports, and my husband is actually the coach at their school, we’re just all in. And life at school and life at home kind of blend.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like people to know about you or about your husband?
A: He is all about leading those young men. Sure, he cares about wins. But it’s not all about the wins and losses. What he’s there for and what he’s passionate about and why he chose high school football- he had the opportunity to go to higher levels- but he wanted to make a difference. He really feels passionate about leading those boys and changing their hearts, and hopefully winning some games along the way! Also, it’s manageable hours and he’s able to balance family, whereas with college coaching, we would never see him. And that suits some people, but it wouldn’t suit him because family is super important to him, and we’re lucky for that, that family is so important. We’re just lucky to be at Providence because it’s just a place we feel like he was meant to be- coaching these boys and doing what he’s doing. I mean, his passion has never been higher, and he’s done a lot of things in his life where he’s had a lot of passion. This is it, I don’t think he’s going anywhere for a long time.
My role is to raise our kids and to support him, and we’re a team.
Funny little side story: Every Saturday, because I couldn’t carry twenty pallets of Gatorade and water on my own, Jeff and I would go to Sam’s Club, head coach and his wife going to Sam’s Club, stocking up the concession stand for next week’s game! And he just would chuckle pushing the cart, saying “look at this, we’re doing all the work!” But he loves it. He’s all about being a servant leader, not taking credit for anything, and leading by example.
