SUNY Cortland News

   Paul Alexander, a 1982 SUNY Cortland graduate who just completed his 15th season as a coach with the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals, will present "Coaching is Teaching" on Thursday, Feb. 12, at his alma mater.
   Alexander, the Bengals' assistant head coach since 2003, will present "Coaching is Teaching" at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 12, in the Corey Union Function Room. Geared for interested students aspiring to be teachers/coaches, his talk is free and open to the public. Although many of the stories that Alexander will tell and the principles that he will offer are specific to football, much of what he will have to say has broader applications.
   Alexander is visiting SUNY Cortland from Feb. 11-13 accompanied by the noted Austrian-born pianist Albert Muhlbock from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. The two visitors, special guests of SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum, will also meet with students, faculty, staff, coaches and administrators during their stay in Cortland.
   A music minor while at SUNY Cortland who plays piano, guitar and sings, Alexander is currently studying classical piano under Muhlbock, who is completing a doctoral degree in piano performance at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with Professor Eugene Pridonoff.
   Alexander was a cum laude graduate in physical education from SUNY Cortland and a former Academic All-America offensive tackle for the Cortland Red Dragon football squad. He earned a master's degree in exercise physiology from Penn State.
   As a graduate assistant, he coached under two legends, Joe Paterno at Penn State and Bo Schembechler at Michigan. He was offensive line coach at Central Michigan, a school whose coach, Herb Deromedi, ranks with Paterno and Schembechler among the winningest coaches in NCAA Division I history.
   In 1992, Alexander was hired by Bruce Coslet as a tight ends coach with the New York Jets and followed him to Cincinnati in 1994 when Coslet was named the Bengals' offensive coordinator under Coach Dave Shula. He has served in that capacity for the past 14 years. Alexander has remained a Cincinnati coaching mainstay under a series of different head coaches – Shula, Coslet, Dick LeBeau and Marvin Lewis.
    A native of Spencerport, N.Y., Alexander knew he wanted to coach football ever since his freshman year at Rochester's Cardinal Mooney High School. Alexander tried Bridgewater State in Massachusetts for a year, but transferred to SUNY Cortland as a sophomore.
    "There's only one school in New York State to go to if you want to be a physical education teacher and coach," Alexander's mother, a guidance counselor at Rochester East High, told him.
   "Cortland was a great school, absolutely outstanding," said Alexander. "I thought one of the real strengths of Cortland was the teachers. They really cared about teaching. For a school that turns out as many public school teachers as Cortland does, that's important."
    Off the field, he is actively involved with the Boy Scouts, the D.A.R.E. program and high school linemen camps. He and his wife, Kathy, have three daughters: Mary Beth, Carolyn and Emily.
    The visit by Alexander and Muhlbock is sponsored by the President's Office, Performing Arts Department, Alumni Affairs Office, Physical Education Department, and Athletics.
   For more information, contact Darci Bacigalupi, special events coordinator for the President's Office, at (607) 753-5453 or darci.bacigalupi@cortland.edu.