SOME PEOPLE KNOW THEY WANT to be a coach long before their college careers end. Scudder was not one of them.
He was, however, a freshman on Cassese’s first Lehigh team. He was one of 12 players in his recruiting class but one of only three who made it to their senior year with the Mountain Hawks.
A faceoff specialist, Scudder was a captain in 2011, helping to lay the groundwork for a team that would make its first two NCAA tournament appearances in 2012 and 2013. And by the time he was ready to graduate, Cassese approached him about a position on staff.
“He offered me a job as kind of, ‘Hey, do you want to come and do this? I think you’d be a pretty good coach, do you want to stay on staff and try this out next year?’” Scudder said. “I laughed at him, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to coach. I want to go make money.’”
So that’s what he did, working a financial insurance gig while living at home with his parents in the Philadelphia area. By his second year, he was volunteering as a lacrosse coach at Great Valley High School. Bosses allowed him to leave work early in exchange for coming in around 5:30 a.m.
Scudder experienced a bit of an epiphany that spring. He wasn’t getting paid to coach high school kids, but that’s who he was pouring all his energy into. So, when Cassese asked him that summer if he’d be interested in returning to Lehigh, he had a different answer.
“I felt like I was missing and losing a little bit of my competitive drive after I graduated college,” Scudder said. “Once I got back on staff, there’s nothing that replicates the adrenaline rush of game day. The preparation we put in for the week. It just comes down to surrounding myself with like-minded individuals and being around something that’s bigger than myself.”
Over time came more responsibilities. About five or six years ago, Cassese began letting Scudder have a hand in every part of the Mountain Hawks’ program. He saw how Cassese handled things and also had a sense of what problems could pop up based on various situations.
When Cassese made his move, no one was better equipped to keep Lehigh — which has six 10-win seasons in the last 12 years, including a 10-5 mark last season — operating as a reliable Patriot League contender than Scudder.
“To have one of my own take over and have that transition happen quickly and smoothly was really important to me, and I know it was important to the administration,” Cassese said last summer. “It’s obviously well-deserved for Will. Is he ready? Yep, absolutely he’s ready, and he’s going to do a great job there.”
Cassese let Scudder know the Thursday or Friday before his eventual departure that he was leaning toward leaving. By Sunday, he’d made his decision. Less than 24 hours later, Scudder was speaking to a team that was both surprised by the news and elated about their new coach’s promotion from defensive coordinator.
“It was so humbling to see how excited my players were for me to know this was such a dream of mine to be a head coach in Division I one day and have it be at my alma mater and have it be with the guys I recruited,” Scudder said. “That sentiment has really carried through the fall and into the spring where they’re playing really hard for me because they don’t want to disappoint me.”