On to Mesa Community College
As fate had it while that season was progressing, I learned of an opening for a head men’s coach at Mesa Community College. I talked to Scott about it and, surprisingly, he said that he thought it was the third best coaching position in the Valley, behind the Suns and ASU. He said it was full time, it was Division 1 NJCAA, and the recruiting field in the metro area was very fertile, since ASU really wasn’t recruiting any Phoenix kids, and Scott and his GCU staff didn’t really hit the valley that hard, as well. This was 2007, and there were none of the NAIA schools present then either. Equally surprising, Scott told me that he might even apply. So, I put in for the job. That was in October. I called my friend, Tom Bennett, and told him that I was going to apply and was there any guidance he could give me. Coach Bennett was the winningest coach in MCC history, and was a member of the NJCAA Hall of Fame. He told me to make sure that I included an experience reference to each one of the requirements listed in the job description. Otherwise the search committee would throw my cover letter in the trash without any further consideration. A few years later, to amplify the point, I served on a search committee at MCC for an on campus job of some importance. Over two hundred people had applied, and in the first meeting of the group, we were told to read each introductory letter, and if the candidate had failed to mention prior experience that was listed in the job description, we were instructed to throw the application out. I tried to object to this method, as there were many outstanding candidates with great educational and work backgrounds who had simply not listed their experiences in each category. I was told by the committee chair that was how it was done at MCC- period. I couldn’t help but to think back to Coach Bennett’s advice and be grateful that I had followed it. I declined to ever participate in another search committee after that. So, if you ever apply in that District, remember this.
As I eventually found out through the years, the Maricopa County Community College District is a lumbering bureaucracy that moves extremely slow when filling jobs. I think right now in 2022, the majority of college presidents in the district are interims, as is the Chancellor, if that gives you any idea. I thought in October 2007, that they would wrap up the coaching search fairly quickly to give the new coach a recruiting advantage. Wrong. It was January of 2008 before I heard anything. I had no idea if I was even being considered and by January was beginning to think I had been passed over. The GCU basketball team was in Hawaii, and with a day off, we were all at Sunset Beach on Oahu when my phone rang. It was an administrative assistant to the interim Vice President of Student Affairs at Mesa Community College. She said the search committee wanted to interview me. Over the sound of the crashing waves, I told her where I was and that it would be difficult for me to get there. She said not to worry, the interviews would not take place until February- late February. What’s the hurry, right?
It was the kind of interview that I do not like- a committee of coaches who had been roped into asking candidate after candidate a series of scripted questions. You could just read their faces that they knew this was a waste of their time. I believe the main role of a college athletic director is to hire good coaches, and then give them all the resources they need to be successful in the pursuit of excellence. That’s his/her job, not some committee. If this was a high school interview, I would have walked, like I did at South Mountain CC a dozen years earlier. I actually did that at Mesa High once, also. I went over to interview with Lionel Gore, who I believe was the Mesa District AD at the time, only to walk into a room that had parents, players, teachers, and God knows who else. I asked Lionel if I could speak to him in the hallway, and then left. But, after my experience at GCU, and the fact that Tom Bennett and Royce Youree really wanted me to do this, I gutted out the MCC interview. But the fact that MCC did it this way, would be a bad omen for the future, as it usually is.
I actually didn’t find out that I had been selected as the next MCC coach until late March. They called me in for what was supposed to be a second interview with the college president, only to be told by him right away that they wanted me for the position. Just like the South Mountain president, he didn’t beat around the bush, only this time it was a full-time position coaching basketball. It turned out to be perfect timing for retiring from teaching, as well, as I had reached my 80 point retirement threshold in February, so I immediately put in for it upon hearing the news from Mesa. I finished out my teaching contract in May, but was actually working two jobs in March, April, and May. I would drive to work in Ahwatukee each morning- teach at Mountain Pointe High School, then go to MCC for work there, then home to Central Phoenix. Long days.
Right here, let me say that for the third best coaching job in the valley, it was crickets when I got the job. I did not receive one call from anyone in the media to talk about the job, or to announce it. I don’t coach for that, but I thought it was a bit odd. As with most people, I hadn’t really paid any attention to the kind of media coverage that the Maricopa jucos got in the media, which was actually nata. Even the MCC Sports Information guy said he would get it up on the internet somewhere down the line. He was a part timer, like many people who worked there, as I found out. Some people refer to the community college system in Maricopa County as a kind of pyramid scheme- most of the faculty are what they call “adjunct”, which is probably Latin for “part-time”. Even my wife was an adjunct French teacher at MCC. She taught the same subject at Camelback High School full time, and most adjuncts have a desire deep down to catch on at one of the colleges full time. That is a very slim chance proposition, as full time faculty positions are few and like golf coaches in high school- you have to pry them away from cold, dead fingers.
There was no official announcement from the school about the hiring, nor was there any sort of welcome ceremony. Sometimes I wondered over the years why the Maricopa Community College District even bothers with athletics. They have a low regard for coaches, only hiring a few full time. I went to a Vice President at MCC once to see if I could get some jobs on campus for my assistants. She said “what can I do for them, they’re just coaches?” These were men who had Master’s Degrees and years of experience in education, but to her they were just “coaches”. The District recently dropped football altogether, and during that mess, there were serious discussions at the district level as to why they should fund any athletic programs. The schools had to scramble around and come up with justifications for keeping the athletic programs at their schools. The reason for funding any program should be the pursuit of excellence, but unfortunately for most high school coaches and all of the MCCCD coaches, it is simply participation. Just don’t bring them any problems. The pursuit of excellence, unfortunately brings problems- most notably a strong level of institutional commitment.
But, I just wanted to coach…so away we went.
Next time: The Vision
As fate had it while that season was progressing, I learned of an opening for a head men’s coach at Mesa Community College. I talked to Scott about it and, surprisingly, he said that he thought it was the third best coaching position in the Valley, behind the Suns and ASU. He said it was full time, it was Division 1 NJCAA, and the recruiting field in the metro area was very fertile, since ASU really wasn’t recruiting any Phoenix kids, and Scott and his GCU staff didn’t really hit the valley that hard, as well. This was 2007, and there were none of the NAIA schools present then either. Equally surprising, Scott told me that he might even apply. So, I put in for the job. That was in October. I called my friend, Tom Bennett, and told him that I was going to apply and was there any guidance he could give me. Coach Bennett was the winningest coach in MCC history, and was a member of the NJCAA Hall of Fame. He told me to make sure that I included an experience reference to each one of the requirements listed in the job description. Otherwise the search committee would throw my cover letter in the trash without any further consideration. A few years later, to amplify the point, I served on a search committee at MCC for an on campus job of some importance. Over two hundred people had applied, and in the first meeting of the group, we were told to read each introductory letter, and if the candidate had failed to mention prior experience that was listed in the job description, we were instructed to throw the application out. I tried to object to this method, as there were many outstanding candidates with great educational and work backgrounds who had simply not listed their experiences in each category. I was told by the committee chair that was how it was done at MCC- period. I couldn’t help but to think back to Coach Bennett’s advice and be grateful that I had followed it. I declined to ever participate in another search committee after that. So, if you ever apply in that District, remember this.
As I eventually found out through the years, the Maricopa County Community College District is a lumbering bureaucracy that moves extremely slow when filling jobs. I think right now in 2022, the majority of college presidents in the district are interims, as is the Chancellor, if that gives you any idea. I thought in October 2007, that they would wrap up the coaching search fairly quickly to give the new coach a recruiting advantage. Wrong. It was January of 2008 before I heard anything. I had no idea if I was even being considered and by January was beginning to think I had been passed over. The GCU basketball team was in Hawaii, and with a day off, we were all at Sunset Beach on Oahu when my phone rang. It was an administrative assistant to the interim Vice President of Student Affairs at Mesa Community College. She said the search committee wanted to interview me. Over the sound of the crashing waves, I told her where I was and that it would be difficult for me to get there. She said not to worry, the interviews would not take place until February- late February. What’s the hurry, right?
It was the kind of interview that I do not like- a committee of coaches who had been roped into asking candidate after candidate a series of scripted questions. You could just read their faces that they knew this was a waste of their time. I believe the main role of a college athletic director is to hire good coaches, and then give them all the resources they need to be successful in the pursuit of excellence. That’s his/her job, not some committee. If this was a high school interview, I would have walked, like I did at South Mountain CC a dozen years earlier. I actually did that at Mesa High once, also. I went over to interview with Lionel Gore, who I believe was the Mesa District AD at the time, only to walk into a room that had parents, players, teachers, and God knows who else. I asked Lionel if I could speak to him in the hallway, and then left. But, after my experience at GCU, and the fact that Tom Bennett and Royce Youree really wanted me to do this, I gutted out the MCC interview. But the fact that MCC did it this way, would be a bad omen for the future, as it usually is.
I actually didn’t find out that I had been selected as the next MCC coach until late March. They called me in for what was supposed to be a second interview with the college president, only to be told by him right away that they wanted me for the position. Just like the South Mountain president, he didn’t beat around the bush, only this time it was a full-time position coaching basketball. It turned out to be perfect timing for retiring from teaching, as well, as I had reached my 80 point retirement threshold in February, so I immediately put in for it upon hearing the news from Mesa. I finished out my teaching contract in May, but was actually working two jobs in March, April, and May. I would drive to work in Ahwatukee each morning- teach at Mountain Pointe High School, then go to MCC for work there, then home to Central Phoenix. Long days.
Right here, let me say that for the third best coaching job in the valley, it was crickets when I got the job. I did not receive one call from anyone in the media to talk about the job, or to announce it. I don’t coach for that, but I thought it was a bit odd. As with most people, I hadn’t really paid any attention to the kind of media coverage that the Maricopa jucos got in the media, which was actually nata. Even the MCC Sports Information guy said he would get it up on the internet somewhere down the line. He was a part timer, like many people who worked there, as I found out. Some people refer to the community college system in Maricopa County as a kind of pyramid scheme- most of the faculty are what they call “adjunct”, which is probably Latin for “part-time”. Even my wife was an adjunct French teacher at MCC. She taught the same subject at Camelback High School full time, and most adjuncts have a desire deep down to catch on at one of the colleges full time. That is a very slim chance proposition, as full time faculty positions are few and like golf coaches in high school- you have to pry them away from cold, dead fingers.
There was no official announcement from the school about the hiring, nor was there any sort of welcome ceremony. Sometimes I wondered over the years why the Maricopa Community College District even bothers with athletics. They have a low regard for coaches, only hiring a few full time. I went to a Vice President at MCC once to see if I could get some jobs on campus for my assistants. She said “what can I do for them, they’re just coaches?” These were men who had Master’s Degrees and years of experience in education, but to her they were just “coaches”. The District recently dropped football altogether, and during that mess, there were serious discussions at the district level as to why they should fund any athletic programs. The schools had to scramble around and come up with justifications for keeping the athletic programs at their schools. The reason for funding any program should be the pursuit of excellence, but unfortunately for most high school coaches and all of the MCCCD coaches, it is simply participation. Just don’t bring them any problems. The pursuit of excellence, unfortunately brings problems- most notably a strong level of institutional commitment.
But, I just wanted to coach…so away we went.
Next time: The Vision
