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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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The funny side of sports
Former college lacrosse coach draws humor from NCAA rules and situations
Former college lacrosse coach draws humor from NCAA rules and situations
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By Gary T. Brown
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
Alison Bruno is good at finding the humor in NCAA rules. She’s probably not alone in that regard, but she has a unique way of expressing it.
Bruno, a former women’s lacrosse coach at Georgetown University, Towson University and Villanova University, has developed a comic strip that draws from her coaching experience and a perspective on regulations that leans toward the funny side of athletics life. The strip will run periodically in The NCAA News and online at the Double-A Zone.
Bruno’s penchant for punch lines propagated in the early 1990s when, while taking the NCAA coaches certification test as a lacrosse skipper at Georgetown, she thought to herself, “There are just so many jokes in here.”
It’s not because of the rules themselves, she said, but because so many common-sense situations have to be regulated.
“When I read the NCAA Manual,” Bruno said, “funny thoughts pop into my head.”
She may not be the first to say that, but she’s among the few to illustrate it. The result is a series based on an “old school” football coach who seeks help with maneuvering through a growing number of NCAA regulations in an increasingly technological and “new school” environment. Text messaging, recruiting restrictions and required days off for student-athletes serve up some subtly funny fodder for a cartoonist who describes herself as not particularly punchy in person.
“I could never be a stand-up comedian,” Bruno said. “But the jokes come to me as I’m reading things, and I can write them down, develop characters and incorporate them into a story.”
Bruno was anything but a character as a coach. After a successful four-year career as a student-athlete at Temple University (and a member of the 1984 NCAA championship team under coach Tina Sloan Green), she quickly excelled on the sidelines as well, building successful programs at major universities. She broke ground at all three, leading Towson to two conference titles and Georgetown to its first national ranking. She coached Villanova’s most successful teams in program history and produced three academic all-Americans.
“I love working with student-athletes and bringing out the best in them,” Bruno said. “Whether they are beginners or advanced-level players, trying to bring out the best in them is a challenge, and that’s what I enjoy most. Every player is different, both in skill and personality, and you have to find what works best for each.”
All the while, though, Bruno’s creative side was calling. That included art, but also stage work and film. In what little spare time she had as a coach, Bruno did some modeling, commercial work and summer stock theater. At one point her face was part of an advertisement that brightened the sides of community buses.
Her success in those fields took her out of the coaching arena, but Bruno said the shift might not be permanent. She’s currently married and raising three children. Once the two youngest are in school full time, Bruno said she’ll consider more coaching — and creative — opportunities.
For now, drawing affords her an outlet from the daily grind. In addition to the series based on the football coach, Bruno has another devoted to a lacrosse family. She has samples of her work on her Web site, www.checkfamilylacrosse.
“I always dabbled in drawing and compiled little stories but never did anything with them,” Bruno said. “So many humorous situations have come up during my coaching career. A comic strip is an easy and fun way of portraying that.”
Bruno, a former women’s lacrosse coach at Georgetown University, Towson University and Villanova University, has developed a comic strip that draws from her coaching experience and a perspective on regulations that leans toward the funny side of athletics life. The strip will run periodically in The NCAA News and online at the Double-A Zone.Bruno’s penchant for punch lines propagated in the early 1990s when, while taking the NCAA coaches certification test as a lacrosse skipper at Georgetown, she thought to herself, “There are just so many jokes in here.”
It’s not because of the rules themselves, she said, but because so many common-sense situations have to be regulated.
“When I read the NCAA Manual,” Bruno said, “funny thoughts pop into my head.”
She may not be the first to say that, but she’s among the few to illustrate it. The result is a series based on an “old school” football coach who seeks help with maneuvering through a growing number of NCAA regulations in an increasingly technological and “new school” environment. Text messaging, recruiting restrictions and required days off for student-athletes serve up some subtly funny fodder for a cartoonist who describes herself as not particularly punchy in person.
“I could never be a stand-up comedian,” Bruno said. “But the jokes come to me as I’m reading things, and I can write them down, develop characters and incorporate them into a story.”
Bruno was anything but a character as a coach. After a successful four-year career as a student-athlete at Temple University (and a member of the 1984 NCAA championship team under coach Tina Sloan Green), she quickly excelled on the sidelines as well, building successful programs at major universities. She broke ground at all three, leading Towson to two conference titles and Georgetown to its first national ranking. She coached Villanova’s most successful teams in program history and produced three academic all-Americans.
“I love working with student-athletes and bringing out the best in them,” Bruno said. “Whether they are beginners or advanced-level players, trying to bring out the best in them is a challenge, and that’s what I enjoy most. Every player is different, both in skill and personality, and you have to find what works best for each.”
All the while, though, Bruno’s creative side was calling. That included art, but also stage work and film. In what little spare time she had as a coach, Bruno did some modeling, commercial work and summer stock theater. At one point her face was part of an advertisement that brightened the sides of community buses.
Her success in those fields took her out of the coaching arena, but Bruno said the shift might not be permanent. She’s currently married and raising three children. Once the two youngest are in school full time, Bruno said she’ll consider more coaching — and creative — opportunities.
For now, drawing affords her an outlet from the daily grind. In addition to the series based on the football coach, Bruno has another devoted to a lacrosse family. She has samples of her work on her Web site, www.checkfamilylacrosse.
“I always dabbled in drawing and compiled little stories but never did anything with them,” Bruno said. “So many humorous situations have come up during my coaching career. A comic strip is an easy and fun way of portraying that.”
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