Going into the 2003/04 season, as I began my third year on Kevin Stalling’s staff at Vanderbilt at 27 years old, it was one of those years. Win or find another job, and we all knew it. We were coming off of an 11-18 season with a rough finish and our 2nd leading scorer and leading rebounder decided to transfer. As they say in March, win or go home…
One year later, we were on our way to the Sweet 16, making the NCAA Tournament for only the 5th time in school history. Coach Stallings went on to become the winningest coach in school history. How did Coach orchestrate an historic turn around at one of the toughest jobs in the country with only the addition of one incoming freshman who played eight minutes a game? One word – COACHING.
During that preseason back in 2003 some guy named Price started to show up around our program. Coach was noticeably running his program in new and different ways and was coaching our players in a style that I had never seen. He was still himself, but he was the best version of himself more often, and our players were responding. Price came in and led a reverse engineering session with our staff and we all started to get to know him a bit more. What was Price? He was an executive coach who helped save our season, our jobs and my basketball coaching career.
I have seen the power of having a coach, as a coach. I understand the challenges of the decisions, the pressure and the expectations that you are facing. I know the feeling of “sitting in that chair” and feeling the weight of the position. I had success, and I experienced failure.
Your players get tired of your voice and the voice of your staff. Who do you have who can help teach your players leadership skills, how to be a better teammate, to be more coachable, to take ownership of the team, to understand and process the pressures they are facing, to embrace challenges and adversity, and on and on and on…?
In my ten years as head coach, I tried to hire Price as my executive coach but it was not in our budget. Looking back, if I would have made the decision to pay for the coaching myself, I believe I would still be a head Division One basketball coach. Don’t make the mistake I made. Let me come help you, help your players and staff.
