Casey Campbell/Corvallis Gazette-Times Beth Buglione walks across the Philomath HIgh practice field as the players stretch before practice on Sept. 28. Buglione is an assistant coach for the Warriors after coaching the Corvallis Pride women’s football team.

Learning experience for all

By Kevin Hampton
Corvallis Gazette-Times

PHILOMATH — Philomath High quarterback Jack Vaughn and his teammates had their questions when they found out that Beth Buglione had joined the staff as an assistant football coach.

Would she know the sport well enough to teach them?

Could she take charge on the practice field?

“We were wondering what it was going to be like because you don’t hear of a woman coaching football very often,” Vaughn said. “Right off the bat she gained everybody’s respect right away. She’s very, very knowledgeable about the game of football.”

The addition might have surprised some fans, but it was a logical step for Buglione, who spent the past spring and summer as the head coach of the Corvallis Pride women’s football team.

Buglione spotted a newspaper notice about football staff openings at PHS and immediately applied for the assistant coach position.

She knew one season as the Pride coach and some experience with youth football did not give her anywhere near the background for a head coaching spot.

A shot at the assistant coaching spot was not out of the question. She wanted to join a staff where she could develop coaching skills while making a contribution.

“I just wanted to get into a program and learn more,” Buglione said.

Philomath athletic director Jon Bartlow hired Gerald McEldowney as the head coach and they quickly set out to put together the staff.

Even though they thought enough of her resume to bring her in for an interview, Buglione knew she had to make an impression.

“So I came in with newspaper articles and clippings and anything I could show them that I had football experience and coaching experience, and I just was anxious and hungry to learn more about the game,” she said.

McEldowney liked what he saw and asked her to join the staff as a volunteer assistant.

“When she came in, I wouldn’t say she knocked my socks off, but she impressed me a lot with her passion for the game and with her knowledge,” McEldowney said. “I’ve been around coaching for a while and I’ve seen coaches that have not had the knowledge that she has or the passion for the game that she has.”

The addition of a female football coach has not sparked a controversy in town. The parents and players seem to have accepted Buglione from the first day.

Buglione was worried about the questions she thought McEldowney might face in his first meeting with the boosters.

She told him that they might have concerns about where she could be as a coach when the players were in the locker room.

“I just started cracking up and said, ‘Beth, that’s not going to happen,’ ” McEldowney said.

No questions about Buglione’s ability have been raised to McEldowney. Not that he would have an ear for most of them.

He is pleased with her coaching skills and work ethic and dismissed any issue about her gender.

“At the very get-go, I kind of kept my eye on her a little bit during practice,” he said. “I look down there and I see a coach who’s (conducting) running back drills that have meaning, that are very realistic, and I was very impressed.”

Buglione said she wasn’t nervous when she arrived for her first sessions as an assistant because she has confidence in her coaching ability.

It didn’t make much difference to her whether she was talking to adult women or teenage boys.

“I’ve never coached high school-age teenage boys before,” she said. “(But) they’re kids and they want to know that they’re valued, they want to know that their questions are important, they want you to listen and they want to be heard.”

Buglione knew football terminology and had the Pride’s offense down pat, but she had to learn a new offense when she joined the Warriors.

That meant learning new terms in addition to different plays.

“(The Pride) runs a specific type of offense and that’s all I’ve ever known and so coming into a program like this gives me an opportunity to see a whole ’nother type of offense, a whole ’nother set of plays (and) philosophies.”

She works with running backs in practice and helps out in whatever capacity she is needed during the games.

The job has gone so well that Buglione decided she enjoys it as much as coaching the Pride and is determined to stick with high school work in the future.

She is considering going back to college so she can take on teaching and coaching as a career.

“Originally I pursued this job to make me a better coach for the women’s team, but as I’ve been out here, I’ve realized that maybe coaching is what I should be doing full time,” she said. “I’ve come to realize that I enjoy this just as much as being a head coach. Holding a clipboard, helping out where I’m needed. Just being a part of this program. There’s nothing like Friday night lights with high school football.”