My Coaching Journey

The process of hiring coaches.

Matt Hackenberg on Twitter posted “The magic number for head coaches is four. Hit on four key areas and your career is almost guaranteed to take-off:

• Track record

• Presentation skills (interview)

• Coaching Portfolio

• References

I responded, “Let’s be honest, 90% is who you know/where you played”, which is similar to most jobs. My Little League baseball coach hired me in my first job as a waiter/dishwasher; my youth soccer coach hired me to referee soccer games; my dad hired me to do data entry at his office. I applied for other jobs during high school, but I was hired by people with whom I had a previous relationship. Many jobs hire in the same way; I would it say it is more the norm than not, especially in competitive fields without specialized requirements or barriers to entry, such as doctors and lawyers.

Coaching is complex and evaluating coaches is difficult. There is no surefire criteria for a hiring a basketball coach or mandatory specialized training. The barrier to entry is small, generally just someone willing to hire you. Colleges generally require a Bachelor’s degree, but the degree can be in any subject; the degree is not evidence of any special knowledge. Evaluating coaches beyond a simplistic won-loss record is problematic, as each context and each job differs in its different positives and negatives, goals, and objectives, and more.

We hire coaches almost exclusively without watching them run a practice, teach a drill, strategize at half-time, lead a team meeting, and more. When I applied for a job as a professor, I met with a committee, presented my research and answered questions, and taught a mock class — Essentially the primary duties of a professor — beyond the actual interview with the dean, department head, and more. I have heard of less than a handful of coaching jobs that have operated in this way. Instead, administrators rely on who they know personally, their contacts, or coaches’ (agents/PR) self-promotion.

Coach Hackenberg’s comment caused me to reflect on my coaching journey…the following are brief explanations from memory of my career.

Coached at elementary school I attended because my friend’s parents asked me to coach their little sisters.

Coached (assistant) at my high school because I knew the coaches.

Coached at my club where I played in Sweden.

Coached at an elementary school after working with the athletic director/physical education teacher at a summer camp (randomly hired for the summer camp). Originally hired to coach volleyball, but coached volleyball, basketball, and spring volleyball for two school years.

Coached (assistant/head) AAU because a friend from my college intramural co-ed volleyball team coached with the club and introduced me.

Coached J.V. high school after responding to a job vacancy.

Coached (assistant) varsity high school because I applied to be head coach, was not hired, but athletic director recommended me to new coach who was new to the city.

Coached varsity high school volleyball because the athletic director was the co-director of the AAU club.

Coached (assistant) at an NCAA D3 after working a week of camp for free and sleeping on the head coach’s couch. Contacted the head coach, and dozens of other college coaches, randomly and worked the camp, and others, via an invitation based on my initial emails.

Coached (assistant) at a junior college after being hired randomly.

Coached (assistant) AAU in a different club because a coach from the previous club started a new club.

Coached professional team after emailing every club in the men’s and women’s league; one responded, and after 70 emails, hired me.

Coached (assistant) different AAU club; unclear how I ended up there, but may have been because I met a player and her mother, a coach, at a summer basketball camp and the mother recommended me.

Coached (assistant) junior college with a coach I met at summer basketball camp.

Coached professional team after responding to a job listing.

Coached high school junior varsity volleyball after responding to a job listing. Subsequently asked to coach the varsity basketball team at the same school.

Coached junior varsity basketball because a friend coached at the local D1 and recommended me to the varsity coach when he called and asked if she knew anyone interested in coaching.

Coached junior varsity volleyball after responding to a job listing; AD was the basketball coach who was familiar with one of my books.

Coached freshman basketball after talking to the guy installing new carpets in my place who happened to have a son who was a star high-school player and knew his coach needed a freshman coach; he recommended me to the head coach.

Worked as junior college strength & conditioning coach because I knew the new assistant coach.

Note: In previous three basketball jobs (JV, freshman, S&C), I spent a full year applying for jobs after moving to a new city without getting any response or a single interview. I even emailed the J.C. head coach directly 11 months before she hired me and she never responded.

Coached professional club after a coach emailed about my Playmakers League. In the course of several emails, found out he had played professionally in the country in which I had recently applied for a job. He offered to post on the country’s coaching Facebook page. A different club contacted me based on his post and hired me. I never heard from the original club.

Spent two years unsuccessfully applying for various jobs, although I turned down three opportunities because of distance and other factors. Two were training-oriented jobs, and one was a sports science internship; at least two occurred primarily due to a recommendation by Vern Gambetta after I spoke at his conference.

Coached high school varsity after randomly emailing dozens of high schools in a new city and asking if any needed a strength and conditioning coach. Two responded and asked if I would coach basketball instead.

Coached AAU after randomly reaching out to local AAU teams.

Coached junior college because my previous athletic director had been a baseball coach and the junior college athletic director had been a baseball coach, and they knew each other. Also, I applied before the job was posted as I was helping the previous coach recruit a player I knew from a previous job, so I knew the job was opening before she officially left.

Coached youth in a professional club when my business partner suggested me to the youth coordinator who was a member of his coaching group.

Coached professional club after a coach I had messaged with for years moved into management with the club.

Coached varsity basketball after replying randomly to a job listing after being turned down by several other local high schools and colleges.

Coaching youth in a professional club after a coach who I had messaged with for three years recommended me to another club near him where he knew the director because of his son who I helped to secure a college scholarship.

These are my experiences. Everyone’s journey is different, but my path may be instructive. Often, I am asked about coaching jobs, and especially coaching in Europe, and my journey probably is not possible today: It is very unlikely a professional club will hire a guy who emailed randomly, as the club easily could find dozens of coaches on social media, through agents, and more.

I rarely apply or inquire for jobs at this point because my experience has told me if I have to apply, I am not getting the job. I have not asked anyone to call on my behalf in over a decade (Gambetta was probably the last), and I cannot remember a job that actually checked a reference. Nobody has asked for my won-loss record. My junior-college athletic director and my present job found my YouTube clinics in their googling, and they were the primary reason each hired me, according to them.

Every path is different. This is one. My experience suggests people hire who they know because evaluating a coach is mostly guesswork; we have no universal standards, and nobody has sufficient time to watch enough coaches intimately to evaluate coaches accurately.