“We lived in a bubble,” said Suzanne Eyler Williams, a fifth- year senior on the 2003 Loyola team. “We thought we were doing what we were supposed to do. We never allowed any other distractions to filter into our locker room. That year, all of the little stuff just went away. Those six months from January until June were drama-free. School was easier. Everything was easier. We had ultimate focus and nothing else mattered.” It was a masterful coaching job by Geppi-Aikens, even if she couldn’t do things the way she always had. She leaned heavily on her assistants, Kerri Johnson and Krystin Porcella, both former All-American players at Loyola. But she controlled everyone’s emotions and kept the focus where it needed to be.
“She was the master of deflection,” Tucker said. “If she thought for an instant that things were weighing on you, she would immediately say something funny or deflect your attention off of feeling for her or feeling sorry. She had no time for people to fret about her. She wanted to make the most of every flipping moment that she had left with her friends, with her players, with her family.” Even before the tumor, the seizures and the imminent end of her life, that’s the way Geppi-Aikens always coached. “She was so different than anything I had been around,”
said Williams, now director of collegiate sports marketing for Under Armour. “It was very holistic. She didn’t just focus on the Xs and Os. It was so innate as to who she was. What she gave to me in those five years was even bigger than my education at Loyola. I still look to her for inspiration and ask how would Diane handle this.” Tucker also continues to look to her mentor. Two seasons ago, she was tied late in a game at Northwestern and found herself looking to the sky and asking, “Di, what should I do?” The Blue Jays pulled it off, winning 12-11 in overtime in one of the biggest wins in program history.
Through her “Coaching the Modern Player” book series with US Lacrosse, Tucker has also made good on a promise she made to Geppi-Aikens.
“She made me swear to her just days before she passed away that I would finish the book projects that she and I had talked so
much about,” Tucker said. “She wanted young coaches to have a resource. I’ve gotten so much joy and satisfaction out of fulfilling something that I know she felt so strongly about.” Loyola opened the 2003 NCAA tournament with wins over UMBC and Yale, setting up a semifinal date with Princeton in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Having to coach against her friend in this scenario was a nightmare for Sailer. Just a few months before, she and some friends had driven Geppi- Aikens to Rehoboth Beach, Del., so that Diane could see the ocean, perhaps for the last time. “We drove through a blizzard,” Sailer said. “We were pushing her on the boardwalk and the snow was blinding, but you could see she was so happy to be there.” The fairytale came to an end. Princeton dominated possession and used stifling defense to beat Loyola 5-3 on its way to a second straight national championship. Williams and her teammates would not deliver the national championship they so wanted their coach to experience. “It was hard to lose for Diane,” Williams said. “But she didn’t make us feel bad.”
Geppi-Aikens always took care of her players, including her decision to spend that final season with them. “When she told us in December she was sick and said she was still going to coach, we thought, ‘Well, of course you are,’ Williams said. “Looking back on it, you understand what she did for us, and it blows your mind. She gave up so much time and energy to be with us.”
Sailer viewed that final season another way. “I think it meant the world to her,” Sailer said. “Her children were her passion, but she was also a mother to her players. She got so much energy just from being around them. She got to see Michael graduate from high school and that was so important to her. “
The world got to see a coach that never put herself first. “It was so cool what the outside world got to see,”
Williams said. “As awesome as she was in those six months, that’s what we knew we had all along. My parents are my biggest heroes, but they’re beyond thankful that I had a mentor like Diane in my life.”
laxmagazine.com
October 2015 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE
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