Once a Golden Eagle, Always A Golden Eagle

In honor of National Marquette Day, I had the opportunity to sit down with four former Marquette student-athletes to reflect on what it means to coach at their alma mater.

Calum Mallace (Marquette Men’s Soccer, 2011) returned to Marquette last year after playing professionally in the MLS and holding coaching positions at Northwestern and Loyola-Chicago.

Jake Richard (Marquette Men’s Lacrosse, 2016) has been an integral part of every game of the men’s lacrosse program since its inception as not only a player, but as an assistant and now head coach.

Mason Woodward (Marquette Men’s Lacrosse, 2024) played under Richard during his five seasons at Marquette and was drafted in the first round of the 2024 Premier Lacrosse League draft by the Utah Archers after a storied collegiate career.

Jack Hackett (Marquette Men’s Cross Country and Track, 2013) took over as the head of the distance program at Marquette this past fall after an impactful career as a student-athlete, holding multiple top-10 marks.

As a student-athlete, what drew you to Marquette University in the first place?

Calum:
I had a previous relationship with the coaching staff that was here, but I think their biggest selling point to me was the university itself. I had aspirations to play professionally, and I knew that Marquette being in the Big East was a huge selling point to me as a student-athlete.

I wanted to showcase the skills that I had and the skills I had to be a good teammate on a team that played in such a good conference, and that ended up paying off for me. My senior year, I won Big East midfielder of the year, and that was something that definitely got me invited to the MLS Combine.

Jake:
For me, it was the opportunity to play a major role in a new program. My first season of competition would be the first season of competition for the program, and so I knew there’d be a great opportunity to make an impact on the field early and hopefully four years later, leave a legacy for a program to build off of moving forward.

On a simpler level, nobody else really wanted me to play lacrosse. [The coaching staff] believed in me and painted a vision for me that was really exciting to hear for someone that didn’t really have people in their corner at the next level.

Marquette was a school that seemed to really align with my values being a Jesuit institution and faith-based [university]. Everyone talked about the mission, the larger mission here as a community, and that’s something you learn more as you go along here.

Mason:
Marquette being a new lacrosse program when I was coming up was something that really interested me. The year before they won the Big East championship. It was pretty cool to have such a new program win so early and still be looking at me, but I think the coaches and the culture was the main thing that drew me here.

Jack:
My mom worked there, and I was, at the time, the 16th [person] in my family to end up going to Marquette. I’ve got a second grade project where I said that I was going to go to Marquette to become a lawyer, and that obviously didn’t happen, but I had a long family history at Marquette.

What role has your experience at Marquette played in shaping you into the person you are today? The coach you are today?

Calum:
I tell the recruits that I bring on campus all the time that a huge part of the reason I became a college coach was because of my experience as a player here at Marquette. My four years as a student-athlete here were the time of my life and really shaped me into who I was going to be as a man.

I had such an amazing experience here as a student athlete that I wanted to get into the [coaching] field, so when I was done playing professionally, the first thing that I wanted to do was get into college coaching. Now I’m fortunate enough to be back where it all started and for things to come full circle.

Jake:
Marquette provides you a platform as a student-athlete and as a lacrosse player to make an impact on the community and to take on leadership roles. While that can be initially uncomfortable as a young kid in a new area, that discomfort challenges you to grow in it.

You look at yourself, your junior [and] senior year, and you’re not just participating in things, you’re spearheading things. You see it time and time again, different student athletes from different teams constantly spearheading initiatives they believe in, taking charge, and having visions. The community at Marquette really supports and encourages [us] to do that.

Mason:
I committed here pretty early on in my high school experience, which was awesome. So for three years of high school, I knew I was coming to Marquette, and I was able to come out here every year and kind of just get a feel for what the program was like, but also what the university was like. I think before I even got to campus I was able to shape who I wanted to be and who I felt like I needed to be at Marquette early on, so that when I got here, I was already in that process of trying to be the man that Marquette could make me into.

Coming here, the Marquette family was super loving and super hard working, but also cared for the community and cared for everyone around them. So I think it shaped me into the person I ended up as a whole lot because of those values from the lacrosse program and the university.

Jack:
There were a lot of Jesuit values [pushed] like caring for other people that have ended up becoming something that I try to do in everything, and I feel like they came about in me at least in part because of Marquette.

That carries over into being a coach then, too obviously, my degree in exercise physiology, learning how the body works, and then teaching some of those classes definitely helped reinforce all of those things.

Why did you want to come back to (or stay at) your alma mater and coach?

Jake:
I don’t think you ever really plan on staying somewhere necessarily. I didn’t not plan on not staying either, but I was surrounded by people that I loved and working on something that I loved.

It just kind of worked out that I continued to get opportunities to move forward in my career along the way, and so this program is a program I believe in wholeheartedly because it provides that Marquette experience, challenging guys in all the right ways to become the people they’re meant to be.

It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to lead the program into its new era-rooted in history and painting a new vision.

If anybody called [Mason and I] tomorrow, we would say, no, thank you. This is the place we want to be, because we know what it deserves. And so that’s a super cool journey to be on together, having been through adversity, having seen a lot of challenges, but also seeing so much of what makes this place successful and seeing the way it impacts people and guys that we’ve worked alongside of in their lives and who they are today.

Mason:
I don’t think I want to be anywhere else, coaching or living. I love the Midwest, but also, Marquette holds a special place in my heart. I wouldn’t have changed my playing experience, and so transitioning into coaching, I wouldn’t want to coach anywhere else, because it’s the place I know and love.

Although there have been challenges, it has also been easy, because I know it. We will have challenges going forward, but I’m ready to, and we’re ready to, take that kind of head on and go forward with it.

Jack:
I always had the dream to be a college coach, and in some ways it felt like that ship had sailed. Then when this opened up here in Milwaukee, that forgotten dream looked like it could be a reality again, it was easy to want to apply.

What role have the alumni in your respective program played in shaping the culture of your program today?

Calum:
Being an alum, I take charge of making sure we’re staying in contact with [alumni], reaching out, and talking to them about opportunities. Those stories that the alumni can share with the current guys on the team-the experiences they had as student-athletes here, but now also as professionals in whatever job or whatever field they’re in now, help our guys to really network to see what they can do.

I currently stay in contact with not only guys I’ve played with, but many generations before me as well, to make sure that we’re all staying in touch and that they can be outlets for the current student athletes, whether that’s getting them a job in the future or just mentoring them as human beings.

Jake:
I think a really cool thing about our alumni base is everybody has a fingerprint still on the program. You know, it’s a big reason that the concept of leaving a legacy and making an impact on a young program is a big thing that attracts recruits and brings guys in. Because of that, you can kind of see everybody’s fingerprint along the way.

We are also always evolving. Times change, and the game changes, and so we need to continue to adapt, but also stay core to who we are and what made us successful in the first place. So I think what we’re really, I’m really grateful for, is that we were able to accomplish a championship early on. That proof of concept shows that you can be successful here, and you can win at the highest level.

We hosted an NCAA Tournament game and so it’s not like it can’t be done, and having seen it be done gives us concrete evidence that it can be done and also even more firm beliefs that we will be back. That’s because of all the alums and the adversity they faced and the values they instilled in the guys in the program.

It is unique to us that we are able to point to each name along the way, and you can talk about their legacy and the impact they made on the program. They are one relationship, one person removed from knowing every single person in the program, and so that is unique to us in a lot of ways, and a strength of ours, and one that we look to lean on as we enter this new phase.

Mason:
When I look back on my five years, a lot of what we talked about was trying to emulate and do what [Jake’s] class did and the classes after him did as well. We tried to be about what they were about when they were here.

A lot of what we try to do is because of them, and so I think looking forward, we’ve talked a lot about trying to make the alumni proud this year and going forward in the future. If they didn’t do all the stuff that they went through early on, then Marquette [lacrosse] isn’t on the map.

Jack:
Once it got announced I had taken the job I had alumni from all over reaching out, asking how to support and how to help. There’s definitely been a lot of care that the alumni have shown and a lot of love that they still have for the program, so it’s been cool to see.

What makes the Marquette athletics community special?

Calum:
I think it’s just the people, the people all around it. I still see a ton of familiar faces from when I played here. I think that alone speaks volumes to what Marquette is all about, why people are here, and why people don’t want to leave here.

To come back here where it all started is something that’s really special to me. I want to be here for a long, long time, just like I feel like everyone else is. I feel like, once you become a Marquette student, you don’t necessarily have to be a student-athlete, but once you become a Marquette student, you really fall in love with the school and the community, and you’re a part of it for the rest of your life. And I think that’s super special.

Marquette people always find Marquette people, whether that’s in their personal life or their professional life.

Jack:
There’s just this branching tree of a network in just about any field [and sport] that reaches everywhere. I think that’s the thing that makes it more special than some other schools.

While their experiences are certainly unique to each of them, the love they have and pride they feel for being a part of the Marquette community ties their stories together. With their commitment to building upon the legacies of their respective programs, the sky is the limit for Marquette athletics.

Good thing Golden Eagles are meant to soar. Once a Golden Eagle, always a Golden Eagle.

Happy National Marquette Day weekend!

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.