While many senior athletes struggle to find their place after hanging up their cleats, Western Washington University graduates often find themselves back on campus after their playing time is done. Of the 61 staff members working for WWU Athletics, 21 are listed as alumni on the staff directory or on their individual rosters. Players who return to the programs are a valuable asset to Western, keeping programs consistent with people who know their history and traditions, as Co-Director of Athletics Steve Brummel indicated in an email interview.
“It is very important, particularly with successful programs,” Brummel said. “This is a people business, and being able to connect with student-athletes, the community, the campus, and alumni and share the success of the past and the vision for the future is important.”
One graduate who returned to the program after her playing time was up was Lexi Barcomb, a graduate assistant for Western softball, who spent four years patrolling left field.
At the beginning of her senior season, Barcomb knew she wanted to stay involved, so she approached the coaching staff and asked if she could stick around in a graduate assistant position. Barcomb found that this role helped her transition out of her role as a player and find who she is now that she isn’t playing.
“I'm in this position where I'm learning a lot about myself,” Barcomb said. “I'm learning what it means to not be a player, but also realizing that my identity wasn't tied to just softball.”
Barcomb’s duties as a graduate assistant include helping with scouting and working on defense with the outfielders, since that was the position she played.
One player she both played with and now coaches is Rachel Traxler, who’s playing the same position Barcomb played: left field. Traxler finds Barcomb’s off-the-field energy to be one of the biggest ways that she helps lead the team.
“(She’s always) hyping everybody up,” Traxler said. “Doesn't matter who you are. She's the first one on her feet, yelling at you when you're balling out.”
Another alumnus who returned to become a coach is Tony Dominguez, head coach of Western men’s basketball. Dominguez was never a player on the team, but was involved in a graduate assistant-type role while he was a student here.
On his way to becoming an assistant coach and later the head coach of Western men’s basketball, Dominguez worked at camps, attended clinics and coached for Nooksack Valley High School’s junior varsity and varsity teams.
“I was volunteering and working for free,” Dominguez said. “All six of those years prepared me to become the head assistant coach and move forward with the team.”
Dominguez found that his time as a student at Western was one of the biggest helps he’s had in his coaching career. Dominguez graduated from Western in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in public relations and a minor in psychology. He went on to get his master's degree in business marketing and found that each of those stops has informed how he coaches.
Another alumna who has been involved at multiple levels of their sport is Courtney Moeller, head coach of Western women’s rowing. Moeller graduated from Western in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in sociology and was on the rowing team all four of her years as a student. In 2005, Moeller was on Western’s first national championship-winning team as the stroke of the varsity four and was a four-year letter winner.
Moeller started as a rower for the team, returned after graduation to serve for 10 years as an assistant coach and is now wrapping up her second year as head coach. Each step has taught her something new she can apply to her coaching, and her time as a rower under former Head Coach John Fuchs has taught her lessons she uses now.
“I think the thing that John really instilled in us as athletes, and then even as an assistant coach, was that while rowing takes up a lot of our time and is a big part of our lives, it's not the only thing,” said Moeller. “And so you know, the athletes on our team, they're more than just rowers, they are friends and siblings, and they have jobs, and they have other interests around campus … you have time to do other things and be the people that you want to be.”
Chayton Engelson (he/him) is a sports and recreation senior reporter for The Front. He is in his second year at Western and is majoring in news/editorial journalism with a minor in film studies. When he isn’t covering stories, he is usually doing community theater or watching movies. You can reach him at chaytonengelson.thefront@gmail.com.
