With the basketball coaching domino season just about over, it will be interesting to look back in a couple of years to see who were winners and who were losers. When an Athletic Director is faced with the challenge of getting into that domino game of hiring a head basketball coach, the first decision is one of the biggest: To hire a search firm or not to hire a search firm? That is the question.
Clearly there are pros and cons going both ways and each AD and department has to make that decision based on what provides the most comfort and best result for them. For me, I have never hired a search firm and probably never will. I have four major components to my process that have served me well over the years. I use these four concepts as the cornerstone of hiring head coaches:
I do not use a search firm or search committees. In consultation with the University President, I recommend to him who I want to hire and give him my rationale and justification.
Rationale: When I hire a head coach, I am going to have to work very closely with that individual on a daily basis. I am going to have to have a relationship with the coach based on trust. The coach/AD relationship is very unique and both have to have the same vision and understanding of the realities of the situation. The search firm or search committee has no continuing relationship with the coach. In four or five years if the coach was not successful, the search firm or search committee will not have to fire the coach, I will. The success of my job and my career is tied very closely to those I hire, so I want to make that decision.
I use an inner circle of individuals that I have ultimate confidence in to give me input and feedback on potential candidates extremely early in the process.
Rationale: I have a good idea when this situation is going to occur so I discuss potential coaches with my very close inner circle. These are folks with whom I have a very strong relationship and they care about helping me get the right person. This past year, I hired Steve Forbes to be our coach and the results were impressive, winning 24 games and raising our RPI from the previous year to 83 from 192. The people I relied on were Buzz Williams, Anthony Grant, Shaka Smart, Jeff Capel and Rick Boyages. In the past, when I had a head basketball coaching need, I would have Dean Smith, John Thompson, Dale Brown and many other pre-eminent coaches call me. I would tell those answering the phone that if they were calling to schedule a game with us, I will be glad to talk with them. If not, then I really had no interest in hearing their sales pitch for someone in their coaching tree.
I work really hard to understand the exact situation of our basketball program and identify the specific needs of the team.
Rationale: Fit is incredibly important and knowing what you want out of the head coach and his strengths allow for that good fit. When I hired Jeff Capel, I knew we had good players and wanted someone the players would respect and connect with. With Anthony Grant, I needed someone who could take the program to a national level (Florida had just won the national championship). When I hired Steve Forbes, I wanted someone who could recruit, coach and connect with community, and had the experience to do that immediately.
I really do not go through interview process. Instead, I know who I want and meet with them to discuss the program.
Rationale: I have done my background work and recruited the individual I want. I then meet with them with the situation being more about how are we go to reach our goals together. I feel that from the outset this is a two-way conversation and we are a team that is working together to insure success. This technique allows for honest communication and starts to develop trust. When I hired Jeff Capel (all of 27 years old), I asked him out of the blue if he could be the head basketball at VCU. With Anthony Grant, we met in the Atlanta airport for six hours and talked about building on what we had going. With Steve Forbes, we met at a restaurant in Wichita and talked about our program and his ideas.
Hiring coaches is both an art and a science. While I feel my process has worked well for me, I know everyone has to figure out how to make this work for them. As you may know ETSU has created a Doctor of Education degree for current practitioners and these kind of ideas often are the topic of a class. Please check out ETSU’s Ed.D in Global Sports Leadership by clicking the link provided.
Dr. Sander and ETSU Doctoral Program in Global Sport Leadership will publish an article bi-weekly. If you want to give any feedback or contact Dr. Sander you can at sander@etsu.edu
About Dr. Richard Sander
Dr. Richard Sander, led Virginia Commonwealth’s athletic program for 20 years, and was introduced as ETSU’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics in 2013. Prior to his time at VCU, Sander served as Assistant Athletic Director and was responsible for athletic fundraising at Memphis State University (now The University of Memphis). Sander earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga in 1968. He received a M.S. in Physical Education from Xavier University in 1974, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Cincinnati in 1980.
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