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Hirschinger, who no longer plays volleyball herself because of bad knees but is wild about jet-skiing, is still every bit the disciplinarian. Her players continue to line up at the start of every practice and before water breaks.

But she's not screaming and yelling quite as much as before. Of course, she doesn't have nearly as much to scream and yell about. Two years ago, UNH brought home a 23-10 season. Last year, the Wildcats were 24-11 with a tougher schedule, and then won the America East conference championship and went on to one round of the NCAA tournament. This year, the goals are again realistic: merely to win the America East and go at least one round further than last year.

And now when Jessica Houle coaches at volleyball camps and clinics, she, of course, has her kids line up, toes on the line. By height. Shirts tucked in.

It's doubtful that Sean McDonnell '78 possesses the doodling skill of Bill Bowes, master doodler. And it's unlikely that McDonnell will strike the commanding presence on a football practice field that Bowes, a bear of a man, conveyed for years out behind Mooradian Field at Cowell Stadium.

But count on this: Sean McDonnell plans to carry on the UNH tradition of tough, hard-nosed, winning football—21 winning seasons in 27 years and four conference championships—established under Bill Bowes.

Bowes has passed on the coaching whistle that he twirled and then twirled some more. Now 55, he plans to make up for some of the fishing, golfing and family time he missed these nearly three decades. McDonnell, who first came to play for Bowes in the mid-'70s and then came back to coach under him in 1991, picks up the whistle.

It's an old cliche, Bowes knows, but one he believes in: practice hard, play hard. "I wanted practice to be harder than a game, tougher," he says. "Games are supposed to be fun. Practice is never fun. It was never meant to be fun. Practices should be tough and grueling." Thus Bowes, never shy about yelling at a player during practice, tried to avoid that during games.

"To be yelled at or chided or belittled in front of fans or other people is not good," Bowes says. "I always felt you tried to make the games fun and you have the kids play a little looser."

If players are making mistakes in games, McDonnell has learned, the blame may lie in the coaching. "If a quarterback throws five interceptions in a game, it may be, one, that he doesn't understand what we're doing, or, two, we may be a poor judge of talent."

By sheer numbers, football calls for more organization than any other sport. Good assistants—for the hugely important recruiting chores as well as teaching and coaching once players are on the team—are essential. There is offense to worry about. Defense. Punting. Kicking. Returning. There are scout squads that need to play hard and to give the top units an idea of exactly what they will face on Saturday. There are off-season weight programs and spring football.

McDonnell, 43, stresses accountability for each of the nearly 100 players in the program. "What can they do better?" he says. "They better be able to say everything they do is the right thing. They're accountable for how they prepare. For how hard they practice. For working in the weight room. For concentrating in key situations."

Bowes was long the heavy in the UNH football program, commanding respect. When "the Big Guy" talked, players and coaches listened. Bowes was the dealer of discipline. That was the way it had to be, says Bowes. Players could dislike him if they wanted, but it wouldn't do if they didn't get along with their assistant coach, with whom they spent most of their time. It was UNH football's own good cop, bad cop routine.

"I'm the ogre, if you want to call it that," Bowes says. "I'm the bad guy. I've gotten letters from kids I've kicked off the team, thanking me and saying that it's probably the best thing that ever happened to them. They never thought it would happen, and it made a difference in their lives."

Which is why he, and many coaches, got into the business in the first place. A native of Pennsylvania, Bowes was a tight end at Penn State. After a coaching stint at UNH from 1966-68, and four seasons at Boston College, he returned to UNH as head coach in 1972.

"You have to have a burning desire to be a coach, and part of that is you have to be someone who feels they can make a difference, perhaps, in the lives of kids," Bowes said. "In some cases remold, or restructure their lives. We get kids, not all of them, but a lot who have been stars in high school, and they come in somewhat arrogant and big-headed. They think they have all the answers." Most quickly find out on the practice field that they don't. They get knocked down. They need to be built up again.

"I think the thing I'm going to miss the most is the day-to-day interaction with the kids," Bowes said. "I got a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of watching them mature and grow during their college careers."

Tapes and trophies fill the office of Jim Boulanger '75. Cut glass trophies for the four straight America East outdoor track titles, three indoor titles and a cross-country championship that Boulanger's teams have won.

And tapes. Lots of videotapes, part of the tools of Boulanger's trade. Tapes to study, to help in teaching.

Boulanger, who loves to golf and spend time with his family on Milton Three Ponds, works the track like a politician works a crowd. He huddles with hurdlers, jokes with javelin throwers, verbally jousts with a pack of women runners each time they pass by.

As director of cross-country and track and field, Boulanger oversees both the men's and women's teams. "I feel so at home when I'm on the field teaching and coaching," he says. "After a while it seems so natural. You just get on a roll, and the kids listen and you throw in the odd joke or two—politically correct, of course. It's a different classroom for me and it's my style. I feel unbelievably comfortable out there. I talk about what they have to do. It's probably no different than any other manager of any other business. I know my product and I feel great with it."

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