The vast majority of student-athletes at AHS have very close relationships with their coaches, but the lives that coaches possess outside of coaching is overlooked more often than not. Nearly all of the coaching staff at AHS have another occupation that keeps them hard at work throughout the day, and that is all on top of controlling a large group of adolescent teens (which is not easy).

Dru Lucchesi is a prime example of an Aspen local who voluntarily decides to take on the role of being a coach as well as a working citizen. Lucchesi is currently the head coach of the AHS Varsity Hockey Team. He spends hours on end drawing up new plays and composing new lines of players that he thinks will have the most success playing alongside one another. Lucchesi loves the role that he has been granted, and would never trade it for anything else.

“There are a couple of reasons that I love coaching for a team like this so much. First, I love the support that I get from my players as well as the parents. They make me feel like this is where I am supposed to be,” Lucchesi said. “Second, I love the bonds that I am able to create with the kids on the team. It truly is an amazing feeling to be so close to so many great young people, and also have the privilege of watching them grow into men.”

Although the coach is so heavily committed to leading his team, there are several other responsibilities that he has to tend to on a day to day basis. Lucchesi works several full-time jobs as a banker, a husband, and very recently, a father as well. With a very full plate of work, Dru has to manage his time very wisely and decide which situations require the most time and attention.

“There are always several times a season where I am forced to choose between one event or the other. The beautiful thing about that though is that my players and co-workers are always very understanding of me and my work,” Lucchesi said. “I make the decision to keep staying as busy as I am because work is required to make a living, but I do not think that means I should give up the one thing that I have always loved; hockey.”