Army coach Jeff Monken tells Nassau coaches to communicate and invest in relationships with their players

One of the best coaches in college football stood behind the lectern Friday night inside Oceanside High’s massive auditorium. Jeff Monken can teach a thing or two about how to lead a team, and he was trying to do just that to the coaches filling the seats.

The slides changed on the screen behind the Army coach. Now there was a word superimposed over the photo of a player: “Communicate.”

Monken urged these coaches to talk to their players individually, even just for a minute. And not about football.

“You can spend three minutes a day, three minutes, and hit three different people that are on your team and talk to them about what’s going on in their life,” Monken said.

“. . . I like to talk to players and coaches on their turf. I like to sit down at the locker next to them. I like to grab them on the practice field and not bring them into my office like they’re going to the principal. Go sit with them [at lunch]. Go talk to them. What they talk about at lunch time ain’t going to change their life. But you sitting with them, talking to them, might change their life.

“Effective leaders have people skills. They invest in people. They talk. Inspire others with your words and your actions. At Army, we don’t have NIL. We don’t have revenue sharing. We have to invest in relationships. That’s our NIL. That’s our revenue sharing.”

Players can always learn more. Coaches can, too. And that’s what this day/night was about.

This was the Nassau County High School Football Coaches Association’s 30th annual clinic, an event that was run by former Oceanside coach Frank Luisi and featured several guest speakers before Monken’s keynote address.

“I think just the high school coaches by themselves getting together, we can learn something from each other,” Carey coach Mike Stanley said after giving a talk. “But then you also have the opportunity to hear from next-level coaches with SUNY Maritime being here and West Point. It’s great to hear how they’re doing things.

“. . . I think that if you don’t have the attitude that you want to keep learning, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it anymore.”

Stanley, coming off a Long Island championship in his 18th season, spoke about building a successful program, including evaluating a season through data, among other things.

“I think it’s extremely important [to be here], and I think Coach Stanley said it the best when he said the best resources we have are right here in Nassau County,” said Dan Agovino, who’s taking what he called a “sabbatical” from coaching after 23 years leading North Shore.

“You pick up the phone and you call anybody in the association and they’re always willing to lend a hand for the betterment of Nassau County football.”

Jericho coach Brendan Lahti said the thing he took from Stanley’s talk was “learning from others, not being narrow-minded. You’re never one mind that knows it all.”

Monken is one mind that does know a lot, though.

This 57-year-old Illinois native, who played for his father in high school, came from Georgia Southern to take over an Army program that had finished south of .500 in 16 of the previous 17 seasons, including 13 with three wins or less.

“I got to be a part of the Monken era that shifted the culture at West Point,” Giants defensive back Elijah Riley told the coaches before introducing his old coach for the keynote. Riley came out of Newfield to play for Army.

Indeed Monken has worked wonders, standing now as Army’s second all-time winningest coach, going 82-57 through 11 seasons, including 5-1 in bowl games.

Last season, the Black Knights went 12-2, setting the Academy record for wins. Monken claimed several coach of the year awards.

“When I took the job at Army, I expected to win, and I expected to win every game,” Monken said in a room away from the crowd before the speech. “My responsibility was to set standards and maintain standards that would meet those expectations.

“We haven’t been perfect, but I think high expectations do not survive low standards. So if you have very high expectations, then you’ve got to set very high standards, and I think that’s what we did . . . We were very demanding, and fortunately we had enough people in the program that responded. They wanted to win, too.”

So he laid out his leadership principles for Nassau’s football minds.

“I just always try to share how important it is for us as coaches to serve those that are counting on us, that we are charged with leading, our players, our fellow coaches, our families; to be servant leaders,” Monken said.

He concluded his interview and then his talk with two very West Point words:

“Beat Navy.”