At the Final Four, Everyone Is for Hire

Coaches Are Networking With an Eye on Moving Up

SAN ANTONIO, April 4 -- There was a time, just two or three years ago, when Eddie Jackson would have handed out close to 500 business cards over the course of the Final Four weekend. Back then, Jackson was a high school assistant and AAU head coach who was dreaming of moving up into the college ranks, so he went out of his way to meet as many people as possible.

Now, Jackson is finishing up his second year as the director of basketball operations for American University, and he hands out maybe a 10th of that total. But he still brought a small stack of cards to San Antonio.

"You've got to be prepared," Jackson said. "You never know what might happen."

The city is filled this weekend with men such as Jackson, basketball coaches who are trying to network and look for jobs. The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) holds its national convention in conjunction with the Final Four, and approximately 2,800 coaches -- both head and assistant, from all levels -- are here, according to an NABC spokesman. They can be seen throughout the city, running along the streets or socializing along the River Walk. But the lobby of the coaches' hotel is the epicenter, the place where they mingle and gossip about job openings.

"This is a normal business function," Georgetown graduate manager Martin Bahar said.

Each of the Final Four teams has one head coach, three assistants and one director of operations. Of those 20 positions, 16 are filled by men who played college basketball, mainly at the Division I level. But for someone such as Jackson, who did not play college basketball, finding a way into the business and establishing connections is tougher.

"There are thousands of guys that would like to have those jobs, and there are probably thousands of guys that are qualified to do those jobs," said Kieran Donahue, an assistant at American. "Very rarely, from what I've seen, does someone get hired as an assistant coach if they don't have a connection to the head coach or to someone who has a connection with the head coach. It's very much a 'who you know' network."

Donahue, 32, knows that from experience. He's always wanted to be a basketball coach -- his father was a high school and college referee, so he grew up around the game -- but he wasn't good enough to play at the Division I level. So he worked as a team manager at the University of Virginia instead, and when it was time for him to graduate, then-coach Jeff Jones kept him on as graduate administrative assistant.

"I made $6,000 a year, but I was in heaven," Donahue recalled. "I was living the dream."

After Jones resigned, Donahue moved to Boston University as an administrative assistant -- he supplemented his meager salary by working as a bouncer and a waiter -- and then he rejoined Jones, this time as a full assistant, when Jones was hired as American's head coach.

Eight seasons later, Donahue says he is happy at American and that he's not currently pursuing jobs elsewhere. When he comes to the Final Four, he takes advantage of the opportunities to learn. He attends coaching clinics -- a few years ago, he went to one run by Bucknell Coach Pat Flannery, in part to see if the rival coach would reveal the secret to his effective matchup zone (he didn't) -- and question-and-answer sessions -- on Saturday he planned to go to one given by Jay Bilas, because he admires the work Bilas does as an analyst for ESPN. But he still brings a sport coat, just as his mentor at Virginia, Pete Herrmann, told him to do before his first Final Four trip, because you never know who might want to sit down for an interview.

"If I ever were to leave, I would want to try to go to a great job, an ACC or Big East program," Donahue said. "Am I getting hired in those jobs? Apparently not yet. But that's okay. I really like where I'm at. We've got great kids, we've got a great program, and we have the chance, year in and year out, to be successful."

Bahar, like Donahue, is trying to use his experiences as a team manager as a springboard into coaching. The Bullis graduate spent four years as an undergraduate manager at Vanderbilt, and the past two years as Georgetown's graduate manager. But he is set to graduate in May with his master's degree in communications, and he is trying to figure out what he is going to do next. Bahar, 23, brought his résumé to San Antonio.

"You talk to people. You try to find out what jobs are available," Bahar said. "You hope you know enough people and that they think highly enough of you to recommend you to others."

Jackson, 30, took a roundabout path to coaching, after graduating from South Lakes High in 1995. He attended Ohio State, and then worked in corporate business for four years before deciding to commit to coaching. He became an assistant at South Lakes and started coaching with the Nova United AAU program and gave himself five years to earn a college position. In year four, he was hired by American and he quit his job in the mortgage industry.

Now, with a wedding on the horizon, Jackson is looking to move up, ideally into a full-time assistant position. He doesn't have to be quite as aggressive as when he walked around the coaches' hotel with a stack of résumés, because he has developed relationships and contacts, and because he has a job he likes. Plus, the best thing that could have happened to Jackson did: The Eagles won the Patriot League title and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. That opened some eyes.

Said Jackson, "People treat you differently when you win, especially here."

Jackson doesn't plan on attending the national semifinals in person; instead, he will likely watch the games at a party that is being sponsored by the Hoop Group, which runs high school basketball events. There will be plenty of other coaches there, which means more chances to network.

"This is not a passive business," Jackson said. "You've got to beat down doors."