Michael Groulx, of Marysville, speaks to the crowd about his family’s experience with cancer as part of the Pink Out during half time of a basketball game Friday, Feb. 5, 2016 at Marysville High School.

At times, coaching can look like a fun profession.

However, it’s one of the most stressful and unpredictable careers out there as well.

Marysville resident Michael Groulx knows all too well about that, as his time as Eastern Michigan’s women’s basketball assistant coach has come to an end after two seasons.

Make no mistake – this didn’t come on the heels of two bad seasons. It’s because EMU’s now-former head coach Tory Verdi took the head coaching job at the University of Massachusetts after the Eagles 22-12 season that ended in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

Groulx was invited to join Verdi’s UMass staff, but with a young family and a third child on the way in June, he decided it was best to stay put for now.

“The last two years, for eight months out of the year, I’ve seen my family for less than nine hours a week,” Groulx said.

“I would like to still coach, I’m looking for some avenues right now and hopefully we can stay in coaching.”

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Eastern Michigan announced they hired former University of Washington assistant coach Fred Castro to lead the Eagles program. Groulx met with Castro earlier in the week and mutually decided to part ways.

Groulx also has local coaching ties, manning the St. Clair County Community College women’s basketball team for two and a half seasons. In that period he took the Skippers to three National Junior College Athletic Association National Tournaments and was also named the 2013 Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Junior College Women’s Coach of the Year.

After his second season at Eastern Michigan, Groulx can look back on a year filled with wins that include victories over Michigan, Harvard and two wins over rival Western Michigan. They also made it into the second round of the WNIT, losing to Texas Christian University by just four points.

“(The best part) was seeing the maturation of the girls and everything starting to come together at the end of the season,” Groulx said.

“From the first year to the second year they grew tremendously.”