I had an opportunity in women's basketball. I never played college basketball (much better soccer player and played at the JC level in SoCal), but I LOVE the sport so I did JV girls coaching for a year at a small Catholic School and then got promoted to varsity girls coach.
Here's how I got my shot:
1. I worked my *** off. When I decided to take the varsity job, I went to 2 successful boys coaches (one my closest friend), had beers with them whenever I had questions and talked shop for hours. I still have the napkins and notepads that they drew plays for me on (offensive plays, press breaks, out of bounds plays, presses, defensive strategies, etc). I also went to the Las Vegas Nike coaching convention every single May, and while the other coaches were partying and sleeping in all day, I went to tons of clinics and heard guys like Majerus, Few, Izzo (my personal fav), Calhoun, Geno, etc speak on all kinds of topics. For example, Izzo did an entire 45 minutes on specials against a zone, a few of which won my team quite a few games. I took crazy notes on every single speaker and studied them all off-season. I also went to local coaching clinics given by guys like Tim Floyd, Ben Howland and top high school coaches. And I watched tons of videos that I would rewind and watch again and rewind and watch again until I knew the system inside and out (I used Duke's practice model, Izzo's rebounding drills and philophies, Self's press break, etc). I was always the most prepared coach in our division by a mile.
2. I networked like hell, and went to tons of games, where I met all kinds of coaches. I hung out with coaches after games at the local watering holes and became friends with some of the top coaches in the area. Before games, I talked with the opposing coach. If my team wasn't playing, I was scouting other teams or just going to watch the top teams where I met other coaches who appreciated my work ethic. This part of the job cannot be overlooked.
3. I got my teams to perform. We were a small Catholic school who had never won anything before, my center was 5'6" (no lie), and nobody expected anything from us. But I was lucky to have some really hidden talent and scrappy little Hispanic girls who would go through a wall for our program. And then I played in some bigger tourneys that I knew would lose big but always prepared us for league. I wasn't afraid to lose, but I knew my teams would at least compete. What that did was get other coaches to respect my team big time, because we'd play hard and smart, we just couldn't compete talent-wise. In one tournament, we played Beverly Hills H.S. (current USC player Greg Townsend's school), were supposed to lose by 30, and had a lead all the way into the 4th before losing. The opposing coach couldn't stop gushing about our team afterwards, and we became very good friends and he introduced me to TONS of basketball people as a great coach with a bright future. If you can latch on to someone with a bright future in coaching like I did, he could be your ticket.
Anyway, my team went to the semis of CIF one year, and the finals the next, and we got noticed. Through my friend, I got offered a JC assistant job and a low-level asst job at UC Irvine, where I would've had to quit my teaching job and take a massive pay-cut. I had just got engaged and decided that I didn't want to live a vagabond life. I hated recruiting and I hated moving, and I didn't want my family to have to live the life of a coach's life. It's the life for some people...it just wasn't the life for me. I even quit coaching high school b/c I got tired of losing to coaches who did nothig but recruit like hell and roll the balls out (I refused to recruit middle school kids to my school - hell no). I coached elementary the last 4 years and loved every minute of it.
Sooooooo, if it sounds like I tooted my own horn too much, my apologies; that wasn't my intent. Hell, I might have been a God-awful college coach LOL. I just wanted you to see how a guy who never played h.s. basketball (in Socal, soccer and bball are the same season, so I played soccer b/c I thought that was my ticket to a scholly LOL) had a chance to be a college coach. It's possible, if you put in the work, are willing to make mistakes (I made a ton) and know how to deal with young people...
