Alexis Golesh: The Woman Empowering the Bulls Football Coach

Alexis Golesh: The Woman Empowering the Bulls Football Coach

After a recent win for the USF football team, CBS Sports Network interviewed head coach Alex Golesh on the field. Golesh is typically composed in these situations, but this time, he became emotional. He noticed his wife, Alexis, standing nearby, and her presence moved him.

He explained that they rarely have time to reflect on anything before moving on to the next task. However, when he saw his wife, he knew she was proud. He reflected on everything they had done to reach this point and expressed gratitude for having a supportive partner like her.

Alexis Corbin Golesh is not your typical coach’s wife; she is fiercely independent. She holds a master’s degree in healthcare management and is a dietitian. Once a month, she flies back to her home state of Arkansas to consult with nursing homes.

In addition to her career, she is involved in the lives of their two children, daughter Corbin and son Barrett. She provides support and advice to the spouses of USF staff members, cheers on Bulls players, and welcomes recruits and their families.

When she met Golesh in 2008, he was a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State. They married a year later and moved to Toledo, when he became an assistant coach. His career took them to Illinois, Iowa State, UCF, and Tennessee before he became the head coach at USF last December. While he hit the ground running in Tampa, she stayed in Knoxville until summer so that the children could finish the school year.

She said that the rewards of this lifestyle are significant, and their kids get to be around college athletes and see how hard their dad works. She acknowledged that the lows can be challenging, but the highs are very high. Even in the craziest times, she realizes they are fortunate to be part of something like this.

Golesh emphasized that his wife’s role is vital, even though she prefers to stay in the background. Before he accepted the USF job, they had a serious conversation about the challenges they would face. He asked her if she was ready for the social responsibility and the other wives seeking her direction. He also wanted to know if she was ready for him to work consistently and for his phone to be on at all times.

She replied with a resounding ‘Let’s go!’ Golesh was thrilled to hear her answer and knew they were both ready for the challenge.

For Golesh’s wife, there was never a question. She knew that moving wouldn’t be easy, but she was ready to support her husband and help him achieve his dream of becoming a head coach.

Alexis Golesh and the Bulls Football Coach’s Journey

What was her first attraction to Golesh?

“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t earning potential,” Golesh laughed. “She knew I worked 55,000 hours and wasn’t making much. But thankfully, she had a good feeling about me.”

In 2008, Golesh had just started working as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State. He made about $12,000 a year and had basic living arrangements. She had a graduate degree, and her career as a dietician was already taking off.

The wife of Golesh’s fellow GA, Glen Elarbee (now the offensive line coach at Tennessee), introduced him to a friend coming into town. She thought Golesh should meet her.

She was an Arkansas girl from the small town of Greenwood with a passion for football, and she never missed a Razorback home game. He was an up-and-coming coach, the son of Russian immigrants, with an outgoing personality.

They hit it off immediately.

“I think we talked every day after that,” she said. “I just wanted to get to know this guy better. He had an entertaining personality. I still do.

“He’s very much a relationship-type person. He can dive into stories with a college coach or a high-school coach, just from memory, and there’s this immediate connection. It’s the way he connects with people in recruiting as well. It astonishes me sometimes. He makes a connection. You like him. You trust him.”

At the beginning of their relationship, Golesh had a problematic car, an old Camaro. It wouldn’t make it into Arkansas for the first meeting with her parents, so he borrowed another vehicle. Constant repairs were needed on the car. After too many loans from his brother, Eugene, who had an excellent financial services job in Ohio, Golesh sheepishly turned to his relatively new girlfriend.

“Alex called and said, ‘Hey, I hate to ask this, but …’ and he wanted to borrow $400,” she said. “I knew it was for his car. I gave him the money, no questions asked. He wrote me a check, and I joked, ‘Hey, should I hang onto this for a couple of weeks and not cash it immediately?’ He laughed and said, ‘Um … maybe.'”

Eight months after they met, Golesh was offered his first full-time coaching job when Oklahoma State assistant Tim Beckman became head coach at Toledo. Golesh knew his relationship with Alexis was growing severe, so he asked if she would accompany him. They located Toledo on the map, and the great adventure began.

“It was such an unlikely thing for me to do, leaving a perfect job and going to a place where I didn’t have a job,” she said. “My parents love Alex, but I think they were mad at him. They were like, ‘What are you doing?’ But I just had this feeling.”

“That was pretty much the moment that I truly knew what I had,” Golesh said. “The southern girl wanted to come with me to live on Lake Erie and survive those winters? At that point, I knew I better not screw this up. I had to put a ring on it.”

Golesh proposed to her on a bench at Disney World, not far from the boardwalk area. They were married in 2010 on Clearwater Beach and spent their honeymoon in Montego Bay, Jamaica, before returning to Toledo’s fall training camp and the non-stop football life that led them to USF.

The Strength and Support in Coach Golesh’s Life

Golesh’s wife admitted to crying nearly every day during the first few weeks in Toledo, which was a big adjustment for her. However, once she stepped out of her comfort zone, there was no looking back. Golesh appreciated her resilience and credited all the coaches’ wives who had moved to places without an automatic support system except the other wives. When Golesh took the job at USF, his wife stayed behind in Knoxville, which was challenging for her. Nevertheless, she handled it gracefully.

Golesh’s wife has been in charge of the lawn for their family for most of their marriage. She prefers being outside to doing indoor chores. When they lived in Oviedo for the UCF job, and Golesh became the offensive coordinator at Tennessee, their neighbors said they hoped Golesh would get a lawn guy up there since they knew how much he was making. But she quickly responded that she enjoyed doing the lawn herself.

She enjoys figuring things out and solving problems. She loves building a family and being part of an extended family – the USF coaches, their spouses, and kids. She also enjoys the connection of recruiting, getting to know potential players and their families, and helping them achieve their dreams. She says she loves meeting new people on the front end of the recruiting process and watching the players develop and thrive.

She knows sometimes people need a sounding board, whether her husband, a player, or a young wife new to the scene and the town. She is happy to be there for anyone who needs her.

When she jumped on the college coaching train, she knew it would be an adventure, and she was grateful that it landed them in Tampa. She is proud of her husband and everything that is going on at USF, including the on-campus stadium, and appreciates the support he receives. She loves that they ended up in Tampa, which she describes as an excellent place for kids with the weather and many activities.

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