Joe Donnelly is an Instructor in the Science department, Head Coach of Boys Soccer, Coach of Girls JV1 Squash, and a complimentary house counselor in Bishop House. Before he started his career as a teacher, he worked as a research scientist manufacturing pharmaceuticals. In his free time, he likes to watch soccer, spend time with his puppy, and hike.
Could you elaborate on your experience with New York for the Cosmos of the North American Soccer League (NASL)? How is that local team formative to your passion for soccer?
When I was a little kid, Pelé was playing for the Cosmos, and I was very fortunate because I went and saw him play. My favorite player was Giorgio Chinaglia; he was an Italian player and he played for the Cosmos. When I was eight years old, I was able to go to a practice and I actually got to meet him. I just loved the game ever since the minute I kicked a ball. I come from an immigrant town, half-Irish, half-Italian. My father was Irish, my mother’s Italian, and so I just grew up with the game all the time, and just learned to continue to love it, and passed that onto my children.
You described the soccer team as a family. What does this word mean to you in terms of coaching soccer?
Family means everything. You’re always there for people when they need you, good times and bad, and you support each other. Even in soccer, we can have disagreements. I can be angry that a kid didn’t make a pass to me or something like that, but in the end, we’re still teammates, and we still have to help each other to get through things. A rising tide raises all ships, so we have to just find ways to support each other and encourage each other to be competitive with each other as well as compassionate with each other.
You have a master’s degree in organizational leadership. How does this fit into your soccer coaching techniques?
I use that degree to consider how organizations learn and how to keep things motivated. A thing that I use is an equation where performance equals motivation times ability. I use that equation to explain to the players that you can have all the motivation in the world and no ability, and you’re not going to perform well. On the opposite side, you can have all the ability in the world and have poor motivation, and still not perform well. It’s a good way to look at how you get out what you put in.
We heard that you try to make practices entertaining. What goes into this and what’s the reason for it?
If players come with ability, they still want to be motivated to train hard every day. Training hard doesn’t have to be miserable. You want to train to get better, you have to play on your edge in order to be competitive. The way we do that is internal competitions, internal challenges, and finding a way so that the guys are still having fun. It’s still a game that you’re supposed to love. You shouldn’t hate going to training.
We heard you worked as a bioreactor operator. Could you tell us more about this?
I worked for a company called Stryker Biotech, where I manufactured pharmaceuticals in the bioreactors. We would go through a couple of airlocks, and we would manufacture chemicals. My job was to make sure that the cells were living and monitor the pH of the chemical reactions that were occurring inside the vessel.
While you were getting your master’s degree, what helped you stay motivated and stay disciplined enough to obtain this degree?
The thing about getting an advanced degree in anything is to enjoy it. I enjoyed every minute of it, I enjoyed learning about how to use it, and I enjoyed looking at organizations. When I was getting that master’s, I was at St. Paul’s School, and I liked looking at how that school did things. I ultimately went to Boys’ Latin School and I helped design a boarding school. I used that master’s degree to help me do that. It was very rewarding. I use it to help build my sports programs in the different schools and the different soccer clubs that I coached at.
In what ways do athletics at Andover push students and how has the varsity soccer team deepened your connection with students?
The nice thing about athletics here at Andover, regardless of the level, is it’s a time to go out and get some exercise and get some fresh air and to take a break from the classroom. Whether you’re playing club or all the way down to dog-walking, anything that you’re doing after school that’s not in a book creates a different way of looking at things. In terms of soccer, it’s a great way for me to interact with students who aren’t in the classroom. I was also the Girls JV1 squash coach, and I loved every minute of that training. It was great, it was a lot of fun, the girls were amazing. It’s always good to see kids from a different view, instead of just the classroom.
In what ways have students taught you in the classroom or on the soccer field?
I learn every day from kids. In the classroom, we have so many talented students. They ask so many really good questions, and sometimes I don’t know the answer because I haven’t even thought of it that way. I love that. It’s the same with soccer; we have kids from all around the world, and they bring stuff from their countries and their heritage. We blend all of those cultures into one big giant melting pot in our programs. It’s nice to see how a kid from one side of the planet and a kid from the other side of the planet play the same game, but have different aspects to looking at it. It’s just nice to be a blended family in terms of football here. And I call it football, it’s the proper name for the sport, not soccer.
We heard that you’re a Carlo Ancelotti fan. How does he influence your coaching techniques?
I love Carlo Ancelotti, I appreciate what he does at Real Madrid. He was a Milan player, and my favorite team is AC Milan. Carlo Ancelotti is a really talented coach who stays understated. I actually just recently finished his book, “Leading Quietly.” I appreciate the way he handles all the players, with all the talent that they’ve had and all the success, because he just listens to players. As a coach, I feel like you need to listen to players, you need to let them be themselves, and just guide them in the process. Our system that we currently play is modeled after the Milan of the 2000s.
You mentioned that you liked ’70s rock as a music genre. What’s your favorite song and does it bring any memories for you?
I have a lot of songs that bring a lot of good memories. I was born in New Jersey, so you have to like Springsteen by default, or you lose your Jersey citizenship. There was one Springsteen song that was really connected to a soccer team that I coached. I took a team to the state championships in New Hampshire, and that song was “Glory Days.” That song has a special memory for me because we used to sing it on the bus after we would win as we made that run to the state championship.
