The TBirds…
The interview at Mesa Community College took place near the end of the season. The previous coach, Alton Lister, had resigned before the season began and John Mulhern, who was the athletic director then took over on an interim basis. He did that for the length of the season, which afforded MCC the time to have a thorough search for a permanent coach. Junior colleges can be notoriously slow on these matters across the board, as witnessed by the number of interim appointments currently in place- including the Chancellor’s position and a few of the college Presidents.
After the interview, which took place in front of a committee that included the Vice President of Student Affairs, the Athletic Director, and all of the head coaches of the other sports at MCC, I got a phone call about two weeks later saying I would be getting a second interview- with the Athletic Director and the Interim College President. Shortly after that one, I received a call from the VP offering me the job. It just so happened that I had crossed the 80 point threshold for Arizona State Retirement, so I decided to retire from teaching at Mountain Pointe and head over to MCC full time.
Here’s what I walked into. Mesa Community College is in the NJCAA and is designated as a Division 1 school in men’s basketball. The NJCAA went to divisions 1, 2, and 3 for most of its sports more than twenty years ago, and the Maricopa County Community College District decided to fund its college’s athletic programs in the style of Division 2- meaning a school could give up to full tuition, books, and fees in athletic scholarships. Giving athletic aid for room and board, as is allowed in Division 1 would be prohibited. Some sports, such as football, track, women’s golf, and tennis were not included in the split into divisions, and would still compete all together in one division. The MCCCD decided to look the other way on that issue and lumped those one-division sports into the same funding formula as the rest- meaning no room and board. MCCCD used to give tuition waivers for athletes, but about the same time as the division split, they chose to freeze that amount at $325 per semester, which is probably about the cost of tuition in the late 90’s. By 2020, the tuition is nearly $1200 per semester, but the amount of the scholarships we offer is still $325. Can you see the problem? In men’s basketball, we are allowed 12 of those $325 per semester scholarships, even though the NJCAA allows us to have a 15-man roster. At those costs, you can see where athletics is viewed by the MCCCD. It is sort of a distraction. They recently did away with football altogether. In basketball, most of our Division 1 opponents give full tuition, books, fees, room and board. We are given $7,800 annually by the district for what they call Athletic Talent scholarships. If they gave us what is allowed by the NJCAA for Division 2 programs, that would be approximately $3,000 per player (tuition, books, fees for a school year) for a 15-man roster, or $45,000. You can see how close they come to that number.
Why did Mesa stay in Division 1 when they broke out and everyone else in Maricopa County went D2? Good question. I have to believe it had something to do with Mesa’s proud tradition over the years when there was just one division. I have never talked to any of the coaches who were here when it happened, but I must assume that was the case. Plus, at the time of the split, they were still operating on tuition waivers. Any one of the coaches after could have waved the white flag and dumped into D2- including me- but I guess we’re all stubborn and prideful and don’t want to be the guy that capitulates to the district. Just remember, though, that while we give $7800 total in scholarships from our district, schools like Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, which has a $100,000 recruiting budget, gives everything- tuition, books, fees, room and board. That is what we are up against. I will tell you also, that I probably wouldn’t have applied for the job to begin with if I knew it was in Division 2. I love to be in Division1 and compete against the best teams in the country, even with one hand tied behind our backs. It’s like Rambo in “First Blood”- I just wish the district loved us as much as we love it!
My experiences had led me to believe that there were five essential things that needed constant work in college coaching. Number one was recruiting. What Scott Mossman at GCU lacked in X’s and O’s, he made up for in recruiting. He was a thorough, persistent, and active recruiter- a salesman. He was one of the founders of Synergy, the scouting system used by just about every college and pro team today. Back in the year that I worked with him, Synergy was just getting off the ground, and he talked about it with me relentlessly. He thought it was going to go big time, and he was right. Scott had infected his assistants with his recruiting abilities, and no one was better than Mike Grothaus. As mentioned, Mike and I had become close friends and shared a common coaching tree, so I called Mike right after getting the MCC job and asked to come aboard as the chief recruiter. Thankfully, he agreed. Mike knew we had to get guys with a chip on their shoulder- guys who believed they had gotten passed over by NCAA D1 schools and had a point to prove. The challenge of it was the enticement- clearly not the money.
Number two was academics, and it requires enormous attention. When I say academics, I mean everything from accumulation of all paperwork necessary for college enrollment, to advisement on curriculum, to setting up class schedules around a sport, to grade and attendance checking during a semester. There are other issues that are always popping up- all of which adds up to a pretty good percentage of each day where some aspect of academics has to be taken care of. My jayvee coach at Mountain Pointe, Lane Waddell, came on board that first year to handle these items.
Number three was fund raising. Even though the district didn’t give us much to work with, we were allowed to give up to tuition, books, and fees- if we could raise the money ourselves. As mentioned, to fully finance a 15-man roster would cost approximately $45,000 a year. The district was giving us $7800, so our goal was always around 35k just for scholarships. Trust me, that is really hard to do, so we have ended up learning that about 70% of this job is fundraising. And, if we wanted to go play other Division 1 programs anywhere outside of Arizona, we had to pay for the trip ourselves. Yep- the district forbids any money for out of state competitions other than national tournaments. You can go- but you have to raise every penny. Our first year, we went to Moberly, Missouri to play in a tournament against the #2 ranked team in the nation in Cotton Fitzsimmons Arena. We paid for it, we won it, and we never heard a word from the district- like “good job, boys”.
Next…Four and Five and beyond….
The interview at Mesa Community College took place near the end of the season. The previous coach, Alton Lister, had resigned before the season began and John Mulhern, who was the athletic director then took over on an interim basis. He did that for the length of the season, which afforded MCC the time to have a thorough search for a permanent coach. Junior colleges can be notoriously slow on these matters across the board, as witnessed by the number of interim appointments currently in place- including the Chancellor’s position and a few of the college Presidents.
After the interview, which took place in front of a committee that included the Vice President of Student Affairs, the Athletic Director, and all of the head coaches of the other sports at MCC, I got a phone call about two weeks later saying I would be getting a second interview- with the Athletic Director and the Interim College President. Shortly after that one, I received a call from the VP offering me the job. It just so happened that I had crossed the 80 point threshold for Arizona State Retirement, so I decided to retire from teaching at Mountain Pointe and head over to MCC full time.
Here’s what I walked into. Mesa Community College is in the NJCAA and is designated as a Division 1 school in men’s basketball. The NJCAA went to divisions 1, 2, and 3 for most of its sports more than twenty years ago, and the Maricopa County Community College District decided to fund its college’s athletic programs in the style of Division 2- meaning a school could give up to full tuition, books, and fees in athletic scholarships. Giving athletic aid for room and board, as is allowed in Division 1 would be prohibited. Some sports, such as football, track, women’s golf, and tennis were not included in the split into divisions, and would still compete all together in one division. The MCCCD decided to look the other way on that issue and lumped those one-division sports into the same funding formula as the rest- meaning no room and board. MCCCD used to give tuition waivers for athletes, but about the same time as the division split, they chose to freeze that amount at $325 per semester, which is probably about the cost of tuition in the late 90’s. By 2020, the tuition is nearly $1200 per semester, but the amount of the scholarships we offer is still $325. Can you see the problem? In men’s basketball, we are allowed 12 of those $325 per semester scholarships, even though the NJCAA allows us to have a 15-man roster. At those costs, you can see where athletics is viewed by the MCCCD. It is sort of a distraction. They recently did away with football altogether. In basketball, most of our Division 1 opponents give full tuition, books, fees, room and board. We are given $7,800 annually by the district for what they call Athletic Talent scholarships. If they gave us what is allowed by the NJCAA for Division 2 programs, that would be approximately $3,000 per player (tuition, books, fees for a school year) for a 15-man roster, or $45,000. You can see how close they come to that number.
Why did Mesa stay in Division 1 when they broke out and everyone else in Maricopa County went D2? Good question. I have to believe it had something to do with Mesa’s proud tradition over the years when there was just one division. I have never talked to any of the coaches who were here when it happened, but I must assume that was the case. Plus, at the time of the split, they were still operating on tuition waivers. Any one of the coaches after could have waved the white flag and dumped into D2- including me- but I guess we’re all stubborn and prideful and don’t want to be the guy that capitulates to the district. Just remember, though, that while we give $7800 total in scholarships from our district, schools like Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, which has a $100,000 recruiting budget, gives everything- tuition, books, fees, room and board. That is what we are up against. I will tell you also, that I probably wouldn’t have applied for the job to begin with if I knew it was in Division 2. I love to be in Division1 and compete against the best teams in the country, even with one hand tied behind our backs. It’s like Rambo in “First Blood”- I just wish the district loved us as much as we love it!
My experiences had led me to believe that there were five essential things that needed constant work in college coaching. Number one was recruiting. What Scott Mossman at GCU lacked in X’s and O’s, he made up for in recruiting. He was a thorough, persistent, and active recruiter- a salesman. He was one of the founders of Synergy, the scouting system used by just about every college and pro team today. Back in the year that I worked with him, Synergy was just getting off the ground, and he talked about it with me relentlessly. He thought it was going to go big time, and he was right. Scott had infected his assistants with his recruiting abilities, and no one was better than Mike Grothaus. As mentioned, Mike and I had become close friends and shared a common coaching tree, so I called Mike right after getting the MCC job and asked to come aboard as the chief recruiter. Thankfully, he agreed. Mike knew we had to get guys with a chip on their shoulder- guys who believed they had gotten passed over by NCAA D1 schools and had a point to prove. The challenge of it was the enticement- clearly not the money.
Number two was academics, and it requires enormous attention. When I say academics, I mean everything from accumulation of all paperwork necessary for college enrollment, to advisement on curriculum, to setting up class schedules around a sport, to grade and attendance checking during a semester. There are other issues that are always popping up- all of which adds up to a pretty good percentage of each day where some aspect of academics has to be taken care of. My jayvee coach at Mountain Pointe, Lane Waddell, came on board that first year to handle these items.
Number three was fund raising. Even though the district didn’t give us much to work with, we were allowed to give up to tuition, books, and fees- if we could raise the money ourselves. As mentioned, to fully finance a 15-man roster would cost approximately $45,000 a year. The district was giving us $7800, so our goal was always around 35k just for scholarships. Trust me, that is really hard to do, so we have ended up learning that about 70% of this job is fundraising. And, if we wanted to go play other Division 1 programs anywhere outside of Arizona, we had to pay for the trip ourselves. Yep- the district forbids any money for out of state competitions other than national tournaments. You can go- but you have to raise every penny. Our first year, we went to Moberly, Missouri to play in a tournament against the #2 ranked team in the nation in Cotton Fitzsimmons Arena. We paid for it, we won it, and we never heard a word from the district- like “good job, boys”.
Next…Four and Five and beyond….
