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Mike Van Diest couldn't stay away from football.

"I graduated with a degree in community recreation. I wanted to work at a boys and girls club or YMCA and work actively in sports and youth programs. But I missed the game of football," says the former college football player.

"I missed the excitement of football...the workouts, the strategy."

It's no surprise then that he felt like he'd scored a touchdown when, just six months after college graduation, he was offered a coaching job in Wyoming.

"Every day is the best part," he says. "Getting to come to work and being around coaches and players. I enjoy the game of football, the camaraderie.

"I don't know how to say it really, but I want to give back a lot to the game because it's given so much to me."

That enthusiasm is echoed by Brian Towriss, head coach of a university football team. "I've been fortunate along the way to have some great opportunities both to learn and to work with some good people and we've turned it into a fairly successful run here."

Towriss says thehighlight of his career is not necessarily the exhilaration of victory.

"The thrill of the competition for me is still a huge motivating factor. But it's really very rewarding working with the young kids...to see them develop, not only as athletes but as people. I think that's the real appeal of the job," says Towriss.

The first time Christie Martin tossed a pigskin, she knew there was no turning back. Today, she's the defensive coach of a women's professional football team.

She says it was the love of the game that first attracted her to job of coaching. "As a former player and as a former player of many different sports at many different levels, I think football is definitely the ultimate sport. There's no other sport like football, once you've played it."

Not that coaching football is all rosy. "The fund-raising part of the job is the hardest. And recruiting is not easy because the academic standards here are so high," says football coach Lou DesLaurier.

For Van Diest, one of the toughest parts of the job is dealing with injuries. "There's nothing worse than seeing a young person lying out on the field, hurt...not knowing if their career is over. Whether it's going to be a permanent injury that may hamper them later on.

"I think that's really tough to struggle with. It's part of the game, but it's not anything I can ever get used to. It still affects me in a tough way."

For Towriss, time is often the most formidable opponent. "The hardest part of my job is the time commitment. We all love what we do or we wouldn't do it because nobody at the amateur level is getting rich.

"But we spend countless hours and weekends, because that's just the nature of the position. The time commitment and the time away from family is the toughest part, but when you do something you love, it makes it a little easier," says Towriss.

Time -- or the lack of it -- is often on Van Diest's mind too. "I want to try to impart to these guys that they only have a short window of opportunity while they're in college. Those four or five years really fly by very fast....I want them to enjoy their experience with football the way I did."

Martin is concerned about short-changing her players in the time department also. "You always want more time with the players to coach them, and it always seems like there's just never enough of it."

Towriss says you need commitment, a strong work ethic, honesty and integrity to be a football coach. "And you have to have the willingness to admit that you made a mistake and to work hard to correct those kinds of things as well," says Towriss.

"It's important, too, to be flexible and open-minded. If you're not willing to change or adapt, then things are going to pass you by pretty quick."

"A misconception might be that coaching football is easy and you don't have to work hard at it," says Martin.

"Just the couple of years that I've been doing this, I've spent hours and hours researching different positions that I coach, different ways for strength training, conditioning, drills. I've gone to weekend clinics. It's hard work. But it's definitely rewarding."