Speech Impediment Not Stopping Coach!

Jeff Walz is a stutterer. He is the coach of the University of Louisville's women's basketball team. This is a very demanding job, which puts much responsibility and stress on a man like him. He has to satisfy the needs of a whole team, the players, the fans, the media representatives, the collage, and his own higher authorities. His responsibility has just gone up recently because Number 4-seeded Louisville, is reaching the first Sweet 16 in program history; they face No. 1 North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament South Region semifinals. This creates a tense and a potentially uncomfortable situation, one filled with microphones and flood lights. In all this, he has a stuttering problem which can sometimes serious.

"I know the words I want," said Walz (sound familiar?). "Sometimes, it just takes me a little longer to get them out."

Louisville junior forward Angel McCoughtry said, "It's never a problem in games or anywhere, really. He can sure get those choice words out there - with force." With force is just how so many of us try to do it. Personally, I say it takes longer most of the time and looks weirder than prolonging it or even doing some fake bounces. McCoughtry also said, "Me? Growing up, I always thought my feet were too big. I was so self-conscious, almost embarrassed. But nobody else noticed that but me. When you get to know Coach Walz, you don't hear the stuttering. You see the person. You see how much he cares." I think that is great advice and it speaks for many of the things we get so self-conscious about.

This man, coach Waltz seems to have good control of his speech and really seems to knows what he is doing. Others think so too. McCoughtry expressed her opinions, "I'm sure it must be hard for him in public situations, but we love how he tries and how much he cares. I was in that room when he came for his interview, and I didn't know he stuttered. My first instinct - and this is terrible - was to kind of laugh. But then he just disarms you. He's real."

"You know what I think about Jeff Walz?" Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said. "I think he's a tremendous communicator. Once you look below the surface, you see the man, you see the coach."

Stuttering is indeed a mystifying condition. Walz, with deep Kentucky roots as a high-school and college player, wishes he knew the cause. He is currently working with Louisville's speech pathology department, and he has had improvement.

Most people who stutter don't have their words dissected for public consumption which can be dangerous for him, but he seems to get the hang of it. He really has that drive and determination to make something good out of himself, and his team. Walz is a disciplinarian, a taskmaster, a no-nonsense leader who also likes to have fun. Walz has received letters from parents of stuttering children. They call him an inspiration. He doesn't cringe and hide from the world. He tries. And he usually ends up laughing at himself. So kudos to Coach Walz!