Becky Burleigh: principles, people and Marta

Not every coach has a box of Q-tips – or cotton swabs – on her desk as a reminder of one of her guiding principles.

But then not every coach is Becky Burleigh, who served as the University of Florida’s women’s soccer head coach for two and a half decades, from 1995 to 2020.

She led them to an NCAA Division I championship in 1998, and still holds second spot in the rankings for all-time wins among coaches at that level.

And, explaining the presence of the cotton swabs, she told WSC: “I feel like longevity in this profession is predicated on the fact that you don’t take things personally.

“And, for me, QTIP stands for ‘Quit Taking It Personally’. The Q-tips box on my desk is just a reminder that feedback is usually more about [other] people than it is about you. 

“You have to own the part that is you. But you also have to let go of the part that is not you.”

Burleigh’s own playing career was in Division III at college level, and is notable for a late switch in her position from defence to goalkeeper during her senior year.

“[On] the first day of pre-season, our starting goalkeeper tore her ACL. The second day, our back-up goalkeeper found out that she was academically ineligible,” Burleigh explained.

“On day three, they were like, ‘OK, who’s tall, has decent hands, and is kind of dispensable on the field?’. And I’m like, ‘I am!’”

“I had four players that were older than me! I had to coach more through influence...”

Coaching was something that, by that point, Burleigh had already set her heart on. She saw that her college coach was coaching for a living – prior to that, all of her coaches had been a team-mate’s parent, who was volunteering to help out.

Her parents, though, were not convinced that coaching would be a practical career. 

Eventually, they all came to a compromise, agreeing that she would train to become a science teacher and coach alongside that.

But her first coaching job came the month after her own college graduation, as she accepted the job of head coach at Berry College in Georgia, at the age of just 21.

“I had four players on that team that were older than me!” she said. “I didn’t know at the time, but looking back now, because I really had no positional power, I had to learn to coach more through influence.

“That set the tone for my career. I never really understood until looking back at it. But, when you think about it, the higher level you go, particularly when you get like to the professional level, you’re having to do that type of influence.

“You’re not telling a Premier League player: ‘Hey, you’re five minutes late, let’s run some sprints!’”

Burleigh’s learning curve was steep, and she is particularly grateful for the help that she got, both in that first job and when she moved on to lead the new Florida Gators soccer programme five years later.