Notre Dame Assistant Al Washington Gets High Marks From High School Assistant

Tom Sheehan has had the opportunity to get to know Al Washington through the recruiting process over the past several years.

Washington has been recruiting players from Sheehan, a longtime high school coach in both Massachusetts and Georgia, dating back to Washington’s time as an assistant coach at Boston College.

“He does all the right things,” said Sheehan. “I think he tries to build those relationships right away; number one with the coaches. He gets to know them so they can go back and talk to their kids about what type of person he is.

“Once he gets to have that conversation with the kids, I think it makes that transition to talk to them a lot smoother because he's all about it. He follows through with things, that's probably the most important thing.”

Sheehan, who is currently an assistant coach at Lassiter High School, got to see Washington recruit players for programs on a different level of national stages, but he was always the same.

“I dealt with him when he at Ohio State,” said Sheehan. “He's up front and honest. Even when he was at Ohio State, they weren't real quick to offer kids and just jump right into it. They wanted to figure the kid out first and find out where he was at. He's not your typical used car salesman, I guess.

“You get what you get with him. He's not trying to be somebody that he's not.”

Sheehan also got a peek at the kind of coach Washington is.

“He's a hard-nosed guy, but kids want to play for him. It's a give-and-take with him. If you give everything you've got for him, he's going to make you feel like you fit in and make you feel like you're supposed to be doing what you're doing and stuff like that.”

Washington has already reconnected with Sheehan, Lassiter’s college liaison, since his arrival in South Bend to talk about Notre Dame.

That connection should help the Irish in a variety of ways.