eeeaee wrote:
Listen, that is trash..sorry. But a successful coach would know to hire assistants who come to the table with knowledge on all this stuff, then delegate. You hire three assistants who have already recruited in college, you name one coordinator. You hire a Director of Operations. Basically as a head coach your job is to meet with Alumni,fund raise, develop relationships, motivate the team by overall policy, coach a small event group, and take care of office work. You greet recruites briefly, but your assistants do most of that. You don't need to be an NCAA coach for 20 yrs for this stuff. Be a meet director? Theres not much difference if you've done that in the past. College is bigger seed times, the rest is basically the same thing.
Good heads of any business or program, hired qualified people and delegate, and motivate
Ok. Enough of this crap.
1/2 of you are sensitive high school coaches and 1/2 of you are egotistical college coaches (presumably).
You're both acting like complaining children or unsympathetic parents (you choose who is who...I don't care).
I started my love for coaching as a high school coach at a very large high school. I was not a teacher. Instead I had a 9-5 cubical job that allowed me to shift my hours (7-3) so that I could coach. It ruined my "young promising" career since all I wanted to do after was coach and interact with my athletes.
I coached 4 years in HS and hated that my best athletes moved on to college & did not reach their potential. They either bombed out, quit or just fizzled... I knew I could get more out of them if I had time...I wished that I WAS THE EGO-MINDED PRICK that stole my well-trained kids away and ruined them. So, I guess that became my goal.
I applied to every job under the sun, getting many interviews. But many times I was left brokenhearted. I knew that I needed a full time coaching gig if I was going to pay my bills/loans and if I didn't want to get a divorce. So I played the "Why won't anyone give me a shot? I can do it just as well as some stupid no-nothing college coach" card...That card didn't get me very far...
I was a finalist, but never THE FINALIST for a handful of full time gigs. So I asked around (like many of you) on what would I need to do to put me over the top. Instead, my now-college coaching mentors told me to do something else...take the first part-time college gig and bide my time. Work harder than you want to. Who cares if you are coaching a 5:10 miler in college when you used to coach 4:25 milers in high school. Make THAT kid better. Make cool events. Reach out to the community. Practice. Practice. Practice. Get an AD on your side and pick low hanging fruit. Be reliable. Don't make perfect kids, but try to be a perfect coach & never complain about a thing.
That advice brought me to where I am today. I am a head college coach for a school that now has a national presence (though not where I want it to be, just yet). I really know that I am living the dream (my dream...maybe not your dream...but I don't really care about YOUR dream). It's a struggle to pay the bills sometimes, especially with a wife and kids, but it was worth the step back in order to move around a roadblock and eventually forward. You can't just hold your hand out. It takes a long-term action plan & the utmost flexibility. If you think ANYONE is going to give you a job that you have ZERO experience with (other than holding a whistle...which is what AD's in college think when they see "gym class" track coaches) and that all you think you have to do is delegate then you are living in la-la land. You need to prove yourself AT EVERY LEVEL first before anyone gives you any sort of responsibility. If you delegate AND have no experience then the AD is going to can you. Seriously. You need to JUSTIFY your presence before you can do ANYTHING ELSE!
My advice for high school coaches wanting to make the leap:
-***get ANY college job that you can & make it perfect for YOU
-***make friends in the college coaching game
-***get a mentor & pick their brain...a lot...
-***attend coaching conventions/USTFCCCCA courses & drink
-***never complain
-***be genuine to your kids & to your boss
-***learn to coach BOTH genders...something I didn't have to do as a high school coach & college women are a different breed, man...you think that 16 year old girls are irrational? ...wow...
-***oh yeah...and NEVER complain :)
My advice for YOU college coaches:
-***the NCAA test is a joke
-***recruiting is not hard if you are genuine & patient
-***99% of the jobs you get by KNOWING other people, so stop bragging...that doesn't make you "qualified" but it does make you smart
-***coaching jobs are not easy to come by...ALL good coaches needed to start at a place where they built their character up first
OK. Rant over.
Summer sucks. I miss my team.