It can be pool volleyball, pickleball or anything else and Darby is going to be super competitive. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky football coach Will Stein has always been a competitor and that helped enable him to go from a walk-on player at Louisville to a starting quarterback. It’s the same trait that enabled him to go from college graduate assistant to high school offensive coordinator to college assistant to Oregon offensive coordinator to head coach at UK.
However, Stein is not the most competitive person in his own family.
“His wife, Darby, is super competitive,” said Lake Travis(Texas) High School coach Hank Carter.
Will Stein spent two years as offensive coordinator at Lake Travis when the team went 26-4 and made the state semifinals each year. Stein left to coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio but Carter stayed in touch and later attended Stein’s wedding.
“Darby and Will complement each other so well but she is super competitive. It can be pool volleyball, pickleball or anything else. She is competing to win. She’s very easy going and down to earth, but she likes winning just as much or maybe more than Will does,” Carter said.
Stein called Darby, a former University of Louisville lacrosse player, his “rock” at his introductory press conference.
“I’m going to get emotional right now thinking about this. She’s our everything. She’s my biggest fan, my number one supporter. I’m so thankful to be married to you and to see you be just an unbelievable mother to our two kids. Joey and Demi are right there,” the UK coach said..
He didn’t deny that Darby is even more competitive than him.
“Darby hates to lose more than she likes to win, for sure. So I’m just so thankful for her,” Stein said after retiring to Lexington after Oregon’s loss in the college football playoffs.
He shared that she tested him “Day 10 of being a single mother” during the time he was still coaching at Oregon but also putting together a staff and roster at UK.
“Coaches wives, anybody in sports that is a spouse, it is a tough job just because we are not always there. Everybody thinks we are just having fun, we are just with the boys hanging out, telling jokes in the staff room. But we are working. We are doing stuff that coaches have to do to win,” Stein said.
“But, yeah, she is definitely extremely competitive. You should see her play tennis. She didn’t play tennis growing up, but she has turned into a pretty good tennis player.”
