By Tom Jackson
Tom Jackson is a freelance writer from central Illinois. He is a frequent contributor to Coaching Management.
Coaching Management, 8.7, October 2000, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0807/help.htm
An assistant coach’s job can be a thankless one, often requiring a time commitment nearly equal to that of the head coach, a solid grasp of a program’s goals and aspirations, an ability to teach the sport to young women, and the willingness to be both a follower and a leader. And, let’s face it: Assistants don’t pull down the big bucks.
But most head coaches agree that the first necessity for a successful softball program is a good assistant coach. Finding the ideal assistant is not easy. It requires the ability to judge character, an even better sense of humor, and more than a little luck. It may also mean interacting outside the usual network of coaches in order to find the best person for the job.
Sharing a Vision
Whether you’re searching for a hitting sage, a pitching guru, or a simply glorified fungo hitter, you need an assistant who will buy into your vision for the team. “It’s important that you hire someone who knows the expectations you have of the program,” says Kirk Walker, Head Coach at Oregon State University. “That’s the first thing I look for in an assistant: Someone who is like-minded.”
University of Iowa Head Coach Gayle Blevins concurs. “The one thing I really want to find out about a prospective assistant is if his or her philosophy matches both the program and my own approach,” Blevins says.
It’s important that a coach and assistant share philosophy for two reasons. The number one reason is so the head coach is sure the assistant will follow her or his plans at all times without the need for constant supervision or micro-management. The second reason is so the coaching staff presents a united front to the players. If an assistant does not buy into the way the head coach runs the program, the potential exists for the assistant to contradict the head coach in front of the players. Dissension is unwelcome in the dugout, creating confusion for the players and bad feelings among the coaching staff.
“One thing that is so critical is having an assistant supporting the head coach in front of the players,” says Kathy Wagoner, Head Coach at Knox College. “If an assistant’s actions undermine or show dissent in any way, the players can sense that. So I’m very up-front with my assistants about this issue.”
That’s not to say that an assistant should be the mirror image of the head coach. Far from it. “I prefer somebody who complements my coaching style, mostly in the areas of motivation and maybe in relationships with the players,” says Wagoner. “I’m very much the technician, very serious on the field, and it’s nice to have someone who’s more light-hearted. It’s good for the players to have a release like that, and it’s good for me because it helps me keep perspective.”
Margie Knight, Head Coach at Salisbury State University, is even more outspoken on the issue. “I don’t want someone just like me—it would drive me crazy,” she says. “I think we’d drive the kids crazy, too. An assistant can mirror my goals and expectations of the players, but I like people who have different coaching styles and experiences from mine.”
In fact, she adds, their different styles allow her and her long-time assistant, Tom Stitcher, to practice a “good cop/bad cop” method of motivating their players. “I’m the mean one, the ‘bad coach,’ and Tom is the good one,” she says. With a running string of four straight NCAA Division III tournament berths, it’s hard to argue with their motivational methods.
Pitching Responsibilities
But finding an assistant to be the yin to your yang doesn’t necessarily cover all the coaching bases. You still need somebody who can teach your players how to hit, pitch, or field. And of these, finding a specialist who can teach players to pitch may be a priority in the larger programs.
“A pitching coach is critical,” says Liz Miller, Head Coach at the University of Notre Dame. “I’ve never been a pitcher, so I need someone to deal directly with the pitchers, someone who’ll be in the trenches with them, who can share that perspective with them. If you’ve never been a pitcher, you can still be a pitching coach, I guess, but you’ll probably have a very difficult time.”
In choosing an assistant, coaches agree that a program needs a pitching coach as a part of the staff for a number of reasons. The first is time, because the role of pitching coach is a full job in itself.
“I handled the pitching coach duties my first couple of years here,” says Lisa Navas, Head Coach at Barry University, “but I eventually realized I didn’t have the time to work with the pitchers and also devote enough attention to the catcher, the shortstop, and everyone else on the team.”
The second reason is for camaraderie. “I know a good deal about pitching,” says Christi Wade, Head Coach of St. Leo University, who is in the process of looking for a pitching coach. “But pitchers are funny people, and they seem to relate better to each other. So it helps our staff if we have a former pitcher as our pitching coach.”
The problem, however, is that former pitchers who also make good assistant coaches are hard to find. Miller compares the current situation in collegiate softball to baseball’s major leagues, where expansion has created a dearth of good pitching. Because there have been so many start-up softball programs since the mid-1990s, there is less pitching talent to go around. This, in turn, increases the importance of good pitching instruction; as a consequence, pitching coaches are at a premium. “Right now, with all the new softball programs that have popped up in the last five years, if you’re a pitching coach, you can go pretty much anywhere you want,” Miller says.
Yet for those schools that can only afford one assistant coach, a pitching coach may not be as critical. “My pitching coach? You’re talking to her,” says Knight. “We’re a small school, so the coaching for our pitchers consists of me and our older, more experienced pitchers.”
“In our program, we all want to keep our noses in everything,” says Rick Noren, Head Coach at Pacific Lutheran University. “Good coaches learn to coach everything. I want to make sure I’m comfortable coaching pitchers if need be, even though I’ve never been a pitcher.”
And Noren also cautions that you just can’t expect a former pitcher to know how to coach the position. “There are a lot of people who can pitch,” he says. “but not a lot who can teach pitching.” So, you’ve got to know where to look and how to assess a candidate.
Where to Look
It’s one thing to know what you need in an assistant. It’s another to actually find the right person to fill that role. And whether you’re looking for a pitching coach specifically or a coach with broader skills, finding a good employee is the same as in any field. The more time and creativity you put into it, the better candidates you will find.
However, while it may be instinctive to pull out your Rolodex of tried-and-true contacts, that should only be a starting point. Finding the best coaching talent is not unlike finding a great recruit—you’re going to have to do some legwork into unknown territory.
The complicating factor, of course, is money. Most assistants’ salaries, especially those of second assistants, are low. As a consequence, you’re looking for a person who has great coaching skills but is willing to accept limited monetary compensation for his or her effort.
At smaller schools, an assistant practically has to view his or her job as a hobby, according to Howard Okita, Head Coach at Hawai’i Pacific University. “They’re not going to get paid much,” he says. “In fact, they might even be losing money since they’re spending time here instead of working at a job that could make them more.”
Most coaches start their searches by talking to coaching peers and former players. “Networking is the primary way of finding prospective assistants,” says Miller. “When looking for an assistant, I do look for a specific skill, and we begin with a list of people that we know who we think are the best candidates. Then, we’ll usually call schools and programs to see where their graduating players are going and if they’re willing to give coaching with us a try.”
Given the relatively quick turnover rate of assistant coaches, particularly second assistant positions, Miller adds that it is necessary to maintain a list at all times. That way, you’ll have a jump on the process the next time.
When looking at new job candidates, don’t forget to take a look at your own team. If you ignore your own dugout, you may overlook a potentially loyal—and capable—assistant. “A player who has gone through your own program and comes back to coach for you will likely have a great deal of faith and pride in the program,” says Blevins. “She sees the job as a wonderful opportunity to help her alma mater.”
Noren says the relationship between recent grads and their former teammates can be a source of heightened trust between players and the coaching staff, but it can also pose significant challenges. “Some kids have trouble with a former teammate coaching them,” he says. “And going from being a competitive player to being a coach requires changes in your approach to the game and to other players. They have to say, ‘I’m not necessarily your buddy anymore.’ Some new assistants have trouble adapting to that new relationship. Others relish it.”
So, as a consequence, if you decide to hire a former player, you need to develop your own set of criteria for determining her suitability for the job. “If you’re going to hire a recent graduate,” Blevins says. “she’d better be a really mature, very special young woman. You may be better off with a former player who has been out of the cycle for a few years, who hasn’t played alongside the players she’ll be coaching.”
There are other ways to find an assistant without tapping into “the old boys’ network” of contacts or hiring one of your former players. Noren says he uses his camps and clinics as a means of scouting prospective assistants. “When you use local high school and junior college coaches to help you run those camps, you can get a sense of how they would help run a team and how they would work with you.”
Knight says she also looks for prospective coaches in the community, getting to know promising candidates personally before even approaching them about being a Sea Gulls assistant. “I like to hire smart people with strong opinions, a good, strong background,” Knight says, “and a plethora of experience upon which they base those opinions. Those qualities can come in different ages, genders, backgrounds, whatever.”
It’s often the smaller schools that must be the most resourceful in their search for assistants. Wagoner professes, only partially in jest, “I get down on my knees and beg locals to come out and help,” she says. “But, seriously, we advertise in the local paper. And I’ve occasionally convinced our athletic director to advertise in other college communities’ newspapers, in an effort to find a grad student with an interest in entering the coaching field.”
Making the Call
Although coaches agree that a candidate’s mere interest in the job is sometimes enough, many want to determine a prospective assistant’s passion for the game and the job before the hiring decision is made. This means some time must be spent with the candidate to determine whether he or she will truly fit in with your program.
When interviewing his prospective assistants, Walker says he looks for leadership qualities. “I want somebody who’s able to take charge when necessary, something that’s critical in Division I,” he says. “I’ll give them hypothetical situations and ask how they’d best be handled. There’s no real right or wrong answer, but I’m able to learn how they’d react to certain coaching situations.”
Blevins describes Iowa’s interview process as more intensive than most. “Our school has a very thorough process,” she says. “We’ll typically go through a search committee and bring the candidate in to meet with several administrators. And that’s before the real face-to-face interview with me takes place.”
Blevins also suggests taking note of a candidate’s demeanor during phone conversations. “I want to get a good idea of a candidate’s personality, how good a recruiter he or she would be,” she says. “So I’ll ask questions and while listening to responses, I’ll think about how they would sound to a 17- or 18-year-old kid.”
Some coaches suggest a full day of informal interaction. “Our ‘interview’ is usually a very informal situation, taking at least a full day to help them get a feel for where we’re coming from,” explains Miller. “It’s a very important time.”
For Knight, on the other hand, there’s no real interview process at all. “We pick home-grown people, from right here in the area, and I know pretty much what I’m getting—it’s a small community,” she says. “But I guess you could say my ‘interview process’ goes on for about a year. I’ll be watching people, my older players and others in the area, to see how they might do as a coach. So they’re essentially being interviewed as possible assistants for a long time—they just don’t know it.”
The key to finding the best assistant is being very selective, according to Knight. “We look for family-oriented people,” she says. “We want good teachers, good communicators, people who are good with kids. And when you can only offer them enough money to maybe cover their gas to and from the games, you really have to find those who love the game and love having a positive influence on young people.”
But don’t let an interview be your sole guide. Checking references is also vital, especially for a coaching/teaching position.
When contacting references, draw up a list of particular questions that will give you more specific information than, “Oh, she’s terrific.” Ask about skills, situations that might come up in your program, anything where some clue to work habits and people skills will be revealed.
It’s important to pursue the details, because, according to Noren, 99 percent of references will simply gush about a candidate. “That’s not always the most helpful information,” he says. “I’d like to hear some of the things that aren’t so positive.”
Blevins recommends doing a lot of homework on a candidate before any interview takes place. “Sometimes I’ll check with people who aren’t listed as references,” she says. “If a candidate has coached in the ACC [Atlantic Coast Conference], it’s very easy to call those he or she coached against. It’s amazing what you’ll hear from these sources.”
Sealing the Deal
Portraying the assistant coach’s position at your school in a positive light may be the last step toward finally landing the best person for the job. Because the pay is universally low, be prepared to offer intangibles.
Blevins, for example, takes pride in her program’s success, “I stress what we’ve built here,” she says, “and that we’re a nationally competitive program, playing in the Big Ten—plus the fact that if they want to go on to a head coaching job, we’ve done a great job in preparing assistants for that.
“What we offer here is an opportunity to grow professionally,” she continues. “We provide all the experiences and key life skills that they need, whether they stay in coaching or go on to another profession.”
Noren sells his program on its commitment to the players and staff. “We make sure they’re appreciated,” he says.
The relationship between you and your assistants will be close. After all, this is a person that you’re going to spend as much—or more—time with as your spouse. And just as there’s no absolutely correct way to select a life partner, nor is there one way to select the right assistant.
So whether you’re conducting a nationwide search or seeking assistance from a local high school coach, don’t rush your search. Do the homework and make the calls, and by all means get to know the candidates well before making that final decision.
Just remember: You want your assistant to be an extension of you as a coach. By selecting wisely, you’ll make your job easier and have a positive impact upon the lives of your players for years to come.
Does gender make a difference when choosing an assistant coach? For further discussion of this issue, read “Drive to the (Gender) Gap,” found on the Bonus Editorial section of this Web site (on Home Page).