Potpourri of Coach Thoughts...Continued...
I usually wait until at least 100 people have read my last blog before moving on to another. Sometimes that happens pretty quick, but other times, like this time, it doesn’t. I must admit to being a little disappointed in the response for the last one, as I had hoped to get some book recommendations from someone. I read a lot and am always looking for something good from the basketball world, the sports world, biographies, and/or historical features. I am still waiting…
I have a few thoughts this time, starting with junior college basketball. I have done several posts on the subject, since I spent almost half my coaching career at that level. I called it the “netherworld” of basketball in the Phoenix Metro area, as people seem to know or care very little about it. Let me present some recent events as proof. Central Arizona College recently cancelled their men’s basketball program for next year. I haven’t seen a whisper on that subject in the media and it didn’t stir up much interest on this website. I mean, what happened down there?? Can you imagine if ASU cancelled their men’s basketball program? I also saw that the new Yavapai College coach resigned after one year. The only statement from the college was that it was a “personnel matter”. No kidding. What happened? Mark Bunker left Scottsdale to take the head job at Western New Mexico, an NCAA D2. I like Mark, he is a great guy, and I wish him all the best. Some places are a coaching graveyard, and Silver City is Boot Hill. But, I know Mark will work hard. The point is, when he left SCC for the new job, there wasn’t a bit of coverage locally- just a few things on social media. And Mesa, once a national powerhouse in men’s basketball, is sliding into Division II. It is something the Athletic Director has wanted for many years, but I resisted on historical and sentimental grounds. The administration doesn’t care one way or the other, and the public is generally ignorant of the differences between Division I and Division II junior college sports. The first year I came to Mesa, the Athletic Director was a gentleman named Jeff Fore. He is now in that position at Park University in Gilbert. He showed me plans for a mid-size arena that was projected to be built at Fiesta Mall in Mesa. The plans also included housing and shops, and Jeff had serious discussions with the then-mayor of Mesa about the project. I even sat in on a few. We, as a D1 junior college program, would share the arena with other events, which meant that the City of Mesa and MCC would have to do some serious marketing. Among the other tenants of the new arena that was mentioned was a hockey team. This was in 2008. Jeff was fired after one year, the new AD was not the same kind of thinker, and the college outside of Jeff never got interested in participating in this project. Why would they, since they had an enrollment of almost 40,000 students with practically no full time faculty? Now, in 2023, I see Fiesta Mall once again being mentioned as a possible site for a hockey team- the Coyotes. MCC will be completely out of that picture.
A lot of people thought MCC was funded differently for basketball than the other Maricopa schools, since we were D1 NJCAA. The assumption from the public and very limited media interest was simply that we were D1 and, thus, we operated on a D1 budget. I even had assistant coaches from other juco’s in the Valley and coaches from four year schools mention that to me. The truth was that all the Maricopa schools were funded for basketball exactly the same. So, money was always an issue. Fundraising became 70% of the job on a daily basis. We wanted to sell banner space for local businesses, but our AD didn’t like the look of advertising banners in the gym. He instead filled the gym with championship banners from MCC’s glorious past. If you ever go in there, you’ll notice the western wall is covered with golf banners of various descriptions, which caused us to nickname the gym “the Caddyshack”. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a dime for any of those banners. The Fiesta Bowl, at the height of their involvement with us, gave us 10k a year, and they gave us a large banner to hang in the gym. One year, the AD had the wall where the Fiesta Bowl banner hung re-painted, and the banner disappeared. I was told officially that the banner just vanished and no one knew what had happened, but word around the maintenance shack was that the banner was tossed on orders. The space was soon filled by golf banners. Caddyshack.
Another time, I suggested selling warm-ups and jersey space to advertisers. This was around 2010, and the idea just seemed too far fetched for the AD. He pointed out that neither the NBA nor the NCAA did that, and that it would be unbecoming to the ideals of athletics to have advertising sold onto jerseys. Now, as you know, NBA jerseys have advertising, and NILs have taken the colleges by storm, soon to be followed by jersey advertising, I’m sure. High schools will most certainly go there someday, as well. I also suggested chair coverings where the players sit to have advertising, but that was nixed for the same reasoning.
In-state travel and meals aside, we estimated that it would cost 50k annually to run a first class D1 program, of which MCC was providing around 12-15k, depending on whether we needed new jerseys in a particular year. So, that’s why so much of my time was spent trying to raise money.
Then there are the high schools. Annually, there are thirty or forty openings in Arizona for head coaches. This website memorializes this with the “Coaching Carousel”. Why is this an annual event? Hints- administrations, parents, club ball scene, pay, pay and respect for assistant-coaches. I will broach these subjects next time.
I usually wait until at least 100 people have read my last blog before moving on to another. Sometimes that happens pretty quick, but other times, like this time, it doesn’t. I must admit to being a little disappointed in the response for the last one, as I had hoped to get some book recommendations from someone. I read a lot and am always looking for something good from the basketball world, the sports world, biographies, and/or historical features. I am still waiting…
I have a few thoughts this time, starting with junior college basketball. I have done several posts on the subject, since I spent almost half my coaching career at that level. I called it the “netherworld” of basketball in the Phoenix Metro area, as people seem to know or care very little about it. Let me present some recent events as proof. Central Arizona College recently cancelled their men’s basketball program for next year. I haven’t seen a whisper on that subject in the media and it didn’t stir up much interest on this website. I mean, what happened down there?? Can you imagine if ASU cancelled their men’s basketball program? I also saw that the new Yavapai College coach resigned after one year. The only statement from the college was that it was a “personnel matter”. No kidding. What happened? Mark Bunker left Scottsdale to take the head job at Western New Mexico, an NCAA D2. I like Mark, he is a great guy, and I wish him all the best. Some places are a coaching graveyard, and Silver City is Boot Hill. But, I know Mark will work hard. The point is, when he left SCC for the new job, there wasn’t a bit of coverage locally- just a few things on social media. And Mesa, once a national powerhouse in men’s basketball, is sliding into Division II. It is something the Athletic Director has wanted for many years, but I resisted on historical and sentimental grounds. The administration doesn’t care one way or the other, and the public is generally ignorant of the differences between Division I and Division II junior college sports. The first year I came to Mesa, the Athletic Director was a gentleman named Jeff Fore. He is now in that position at Park University in Gilbert. He showed me plans for a mid-size arena that was projected to be built at Fiesta Mall in Mesa. The plans also included housing and shops, and Jeff had serious discussions with the then-mayor of Mesa about the project. I even sat in on a few. We, as a D1 junior college program, would share the arena with other events, which meant that the City of Mesa and MCC would have to do some serious marketing. Among the other tenants of the new arena that was mentioned was a hockey team. This was in 2008. Jeff was fired after one year, the new AD was not the same kind of thinker, and the college outside of Jeff never got interested in participating in this project. Why would they, since they had an enrollment of almost 40,000 students with practically no full time faculty? Now, in 2023, I see Fiesta Mall once again being mentioned as a possible site for a hockey team- the Coyotes. MCC will be completely out of that picture.
A lot of people thought MCC was funded differently for basketball than the other Maricopa schools, since we were D1 NJCAA. The assumption from the public and very limited media interest was simply that we were D1 and, thus, we operated on a D1 budget. I even had assistant coaches from other juco’s in the Valley and coaches from four year schools mention that to me. The truth was that all the Maricopa schools were funded for basketball exactly the same. So, money was always an issue. Fundraising became 70% of the job on a daily basis. We wanted to sell banner space for local businesses, but our AD didn’t like the look of advertising banners in the gym. He instead filled the gym with championship banners from MCC’s glorious past. If you ever go in there, you’ll notice the western wall is covered with golf banners of various descriptions, which caused us to nickname the gym “the Caddyshack”. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a dime for any of those banners. The Fiesta Bowl, at the height of their involvement with us, gave us 10k a year, and they gave us a large banner to hang in the gym. One year, the AD had the wall where the Fiesta Bowl banner hung re-painted, and the banner disappeared. I was told officially that the banner just vanished and no one knew what had happened, but word around the maintenance shack was that the banner was tossed on orders. The space was soon filled by golf banners. Caddyshack.
Another time, I suggested selling warm-ups and jersey space to advertisers. This was around 2010, and the idea just seemed too far fetched for the AD. He pointed out that neither the NBA nor the NCAA did that, and that it would be unbecoming to the ideals of athletics to have advertising sold onto jerseys. Now, as you know, NBA jerseys have advertising, and NILs have taken the colleges by storm, soon to be followed by jersey advertising, I’m sure. High schools will most certainly go there someday, as well. I also suggested chair coverings where the players sit to have advertising, but that was nixed for the same reasoning.
In-state travel and meals aside, we estimated that it would cost 50k annually to run a first class D1 program, of which MCC was providing around 12-15k, depending on whether we needed new jerseys in a particular year. So, that’s why so much of my time was spent trying to raise money.
Then there are the high schools. Annually, there are thirty or forty openings in Arizona for head coaches. This website memorializes this with the “Coaching Carousel”. Why is this an annual event? Hints- administrations, parents, club ball scene, pay, pay and respect for assistant-coaches. I will broach these subjects next time.
