Hughes enjoyed a family holiday

Title sinking in for PU football coach

By: Justin Feil
   Roger Hughes was easy to please on Christmas Day.
   The head coach of the Princeton University football team got all that he wanted a month early when the Tigers won a share of the Ivy League championship with a 9-1 season.
   "There’s no doubt," Hughes said, "Christmas came early."
   Nobody gift-wrapped the title. The Tigers pulled out more than half their wins in the second half of games. Busy with recruiting since the end of the season, Hughes hasn’t had time to absorb fully the crowning moment of his seven-year Princeton tenure.
   With the week off surrounding Christmas, he will have the chance to do so while also looking forward to enjoying time with his other blessings, his wife Laura and daughter Maddison.
   "I’m looking forward to spending some time with my family," Hughes said, "and spending time doing some things that Maddison and I don’t have a chance to do. It’s the first pause we’ve had since Aug. 12."
   They too are looking forward to some time with the man that Laura says hasn’t changed in 18 years of marriage, and five years of dating before then after the two met in Nebraska. Hughes may have been chosen seventh in the Division I-AA Eddie Robinson Award for National Coach of the Year, but there’s no doubt he’s No. 1 with his family.
   "Roger is a great dad," said Laura, who works in the office for a non-medical in-home care company. "It’s wonderful to have him around. He likes to spend time with his family. We sit around and do our movies and popcorn."
   As much as he can, Hughes tries to do the traditional jobs around the house. He put up the Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend and strung the lights outside the house.
   "He’s really good," Laura said. "He does quite a bit around here."
   Already this month, Hughes had the chance to do one thing that hadn’t happened due to recruiting obligations in the past. He was able to take Maddison ice skating on her 11th birthday this month.
   "It’s the first time I’ve been able to be home for it," Hughes said. "So it’s been a double good year with the title and spending my daughter’s birthday with her. It was the first time in 10 years I’ve been able to be home."
   Maddison, too, was looking forward to some prolonged time with her father. The family continues a tradition that began when Hughes was still an assistant coach at Dartmouth University.
   "Every Christmas Eve," Maddison said, "me and my family and our friends from Nebraska go to New York to eat dinner and do stuff around the city."
   Maddison is a typical bright 11-year-old girl. All she wanted for Christmas was a Nintendo DS Lite and a "Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Treasure" DVD. She takes tap and jazz dance, rides horses and does gymnastics, her favorite. But on Saturday afternoons, she goes to Princeton University football games and sits with the families of the other Tiger coaches.
   "I like watching the game," she said.
   It’s an experience unique to many of her friends at school. Few of her friends followed Princeton’s success at all, and no one as closely as Maddison did.
   "This year, I’ve seen a difference in her," Laura said. "She’ll sit with me and ask questions. It just started happening this year. It’s nice. It’s kind of a bonding for us."
   It made it more special this year that they could bond over a championship. The title was something that Hughes and his wife hadn’t experienced since he was an assistant with Dartmouth in 1996.
   "This year was much better," Laura said. "This year, because Roger was the head coach, it made a big difference. This was a lot better."
   Maybe it was women’s intuition, but Laura knew early on that this season was different. She understood this team had a special makeup.
   "This year, things just went right," she said. "I knew they would get there just because of the way he was talking about the kids. It was a different group of kids. Their talent wasn’t huge. But together as a team, they were really good. I had a feeling something good would happen."
   Week after week, it did until it added up to an Ivy title. It made for a more enjoyable Hughes around the house and definitely beat the alternative.
   "He’s a sulker," Laura said. "In his mind, he’s replaying every play. Until he can go watch the film, he can’t get over it. And sometimes the film takes a little while to get there. He’s quiet and moody until then."
   Added Maddison, a fifth grader at Pond Road Middle School, "He’s more excited when he wins."
   Hughes was happy to win this season without compromising character or values. He has tried to run his team the same way he has his family.
   "You can’t be someone different in front of your team than you are in front of your family," he said. "How you react, the pattern you react to has to be similar. Kids will see the phonies. Of course, trying to do the right thing all the time is an easy philosophy, but hard to do. It’s what I try to do."
   The Tigers reflect a culture of which Hughes is proud.
   "The kids are exactly the kind you want your daughter to marry," Hughes said. "Jeff Terrell is like that. And there are a number of kids on the team like that."
   Added Laura: "They are so nice. When we were in Cameron (where Hughes was offensive coordinator before going to Dartmouth), it was a totally different kid. They’re so polite here, so thoughtful. They’re nice to be around."
   It isn’t just that Terrell, who was named the Bushnell Cup winner as the Ivy League’s top player, is good on the field. It’s the way he acts off it. Hughes credits Terrell and fellow co-captain Luke Steckel, whose father Les is president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, with helping draw the Tigers closer.
   "The other thing is I think the spirituality of the team grew," said Hughes, who along with Laura has become good friends with Les Steckel and his wife Chris. "Back at Dartmouth, when we were undefeated in 1996, there were more Bible studies on that team than any team I’ve been around. With Luke and Jeff, both are very devout spiritually. They started a Bible study with five freshmen. Now it has 70 people. Everyone talks about the character and resolve of this team. I think that has a lot to do with it."
   The Tigers took their cue from their head coach. Hughes, who has always worn his emotions on his sleeve, does not hide his own faith.
   "My faith is very important to me," he said. "When you have good times and bad times, you can fall back on it for two reasons. One, it keeps you centered, and it gives core values for me and my family, like treating people the right way and doing the right things.
   "When you lose six games in the last minute in the last two years, you better have faith. You question everything else. When you win, you give a lot of thanks, and you try to maintain the same type of devotion."
   Hughes has always been mindful to give thanks for the Tiger wins. He saw Hall of Fame coach Tom Osborne provide that presence as an assistant with the Nebraska Cornhuskers as they went to the 1984 Sugar Bowl and the 1985 Fiesta Bowl.
   "If God’s going to honor you with success," Hughes said, "you better be ready to step up and honor him."
   Hughes has much honor to give as he recognizes the blessings he is surrounded by this Christmas season. None of his greatest blessings fit under a tree. But with his health as good as ever, happiness after winning his first Ivy title with the Orange and the Black, and a family to celebrate it with, it’s been a favorite Christmas for Roger Hughes.