A Good Realtor

Following every season, coaches find themselves either fired, accepting a raise with a couple of years added to their contract or finding the next ideal place to go to. And in a few cases, retirement is the best ending for a long career.

I’ve had the opportunity to read about some of the history of assistant coaches that are new hires at the local colleges. Some of these people must be living out of an RV for as many different places they’ve lived.

It’s one thing to be able to teach remotely, but coaching is one of those professions that’s hands on. You have to be up close and personal to get the point across — a virtual call isn’t going to work very well.

Every new hire is thought to be a good one because the person’s resume looks so fantastic. You know, played college ball for Hall of Fame coach fill-in-the-blank, grad assistant for another great team, offensive assistant or defensive assistant at a Division II program on the rise, coordinator at another up and coming program that made the playoffs for the first time in 7 years, his offense or defense led the nation in passing TDs or interceptions depending on the side of the ball they happen to be coaching.

The fact of the matter is most any person that had a really good coach that taught fundamentals and if you paid attention should be able to coach. But can they motivate or if the talent level isn’t there get the players to find a way to be better than they are.

I’ve met a fair amount of coaches over the years — the ones that really worked hard at the assistant coaching positions and understand the game can get the most out of athletes on a regular basis. It takes patience, hard work and an ability to praise and be tough when need be. It doesn’t mean shouting at a player to get their attention even though there are times when it is the only thing those particular players may understand.

I remember going to a basketball coaching clinic at Gonzaga University in the fall or 1992.

GU’s head coach was Dan Fitzgerald. His assistants and often time gofers were Dan Monson, Mark Few and Billy Grier. Fitz gave these guys a bad time joking about them to a bunch of high school coaches that wanted to learn the next great out-of-bounds play or how to break a press.

I remember thinking these guys had a great job, even though they weren’t getting paid a lot of money — especially in those days. But being able to coach at the collegiate level had to be a pretty cool experience.

It took about six more years for things to change for each one of these guys.

Of the three guys only Monson had a recognizable name since his dad had coached at Idaho and Oregon and he was the lead assistant at GU.

So when things came to an end for Fitz, it was Monson who took over. When I attended those GU clinics, I never imagined that GU would eventually be the successful basketball program that it has become.

Certainly, the most important thing is when a coach believes it can happen where they are at, at that moment.

Now, most coaches will trade that success and go to a place that may be easier to recruit and for a lot more money.

What is the price one pays to move on to that dream job? How many houses does a coach need to move to find comfort and make their spouse happy?

I think back to the days of Dennis Erickson and when he went from Idaho to Wyoming to WSU then Miami, Seattle Seahawks, Oregon State and so on. I don’t have enough space to tell his whole story. At the college level, he had a ton of success. But at the pro game, he was average, at best.

I remember when Erickson was rehired to coach the Idaho Vandals 21 years after leaving for the Wyoming job. He told the people at the press conference that he should have never left Idaho.

Now, that sounds really great, but he would only coach that season in Moscow before Arizona State hired him to coach the Sun Devils.

I’m sure that most of the Idaho faithful weren’t surprised.

For some coaches it doesn’t take a lot to make them happy or if they enjoy the challenge where they are at. For others I’m not sure they are ever satisfied.

But maybe they have a really good realtor that finds great homes for them to live in.

— Dale Anderson is a Ritzville-based sports columnist. Email him at editor@ritzvillejournal.com.