Realizing Part of the Dream

It's been a long time since I've written. But I wanted to wait until a point in time where my destination would be concrete. And as you'll see, that was something very fluid and nerve-wracking.

I'll call this chapter..."Realizing Part of the Dream"

After the season ended with my freshmen team. I began to concentrate on landing a job on a college staff. I applied everywhere that had an opening:

JMU
Randolph-Macon
Christopher Newport
Elmira College

as well as a host of others whose names I cannot even recall. In all, I wound up applying to 30 different jobs in a 2 month span. It wasn't until I applied for a job that wasn't even available that the ball started rolling for me.

I read online that Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) had a job opening for a video coordinator position. I knew enough about Video Coordinators and how they function from my time with Virginia Tech that I thought I would like the job and would be qualified. I thought that if I had the right connections, I could have a leg up on others who may apply. I called a coach I know from Centre College in Kentucky and asked if he knew anyone on staff at VCU. Sure enough, one of the VCU assistants was a former player of his from a couple years ago. Next, I talked to a former Video Coordinator from the University of South Carolina and sure enough, he knew the other 2 assistants!

The only guy I had no connections with was the Head Coach, Shaka Smart. Until I read his bio...Coach Smart got his start as an assistant at the University of Akron, a place where I knew some people really well. I called my friend at Akron and the roller coaster began...

"Yeah sure, Drew, I'll call and recommend you, but I don't think that job is actually open"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm pretty sure they are giving that job to a former Grad. Asst. and are just posting the job to satisfy policy"

Ouch...I was devastated. I called the coach at Centre College again to see what we could do next, if anything. He told me a story about a kid in Kansas who got on the staff at the University of Kansas as a volunteer assistant. The kid was unpaid and worked a second job to pay the bills. That year the Jayhawks won the national title and that kid's coaching career was skyrocketed. He moved quickly up the ladder and is now one of the best coaches in the nation...Greg Popovich, Head Coach of the San Antonio Spurs.

My anxiety lifted, I was ready to start asking about a job as a volunteer assistant. I called back my friend at Akron to see if he could put in a good word for me as a volunteer assistant with VCU.

"Sure, I can do that"

"Do you think Coach Dambrot (Akron's Head Coach) would like a volunteer assistant?"

"Oh yeah, definitely! I can work on that for you."

I was sold! I had been to Akron twice to work summer camps and absolutely loved the city. If I could get a job there, I would be ecstatic. I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. My criteria for picking the places I would like to be went something like this:

1) winning program
2) friendliness and attitude of the staff and players
3) a city environment

Akron has won 20+ games each of the last 5 years (Coach Dambrot has been there for 6 years). Having met the staff and players from camps, I knew all of them by name and they were all friendly. Akron is a city, but it is also close to Cleveland and Canton, so there is lots to do and fills my third requirement of a city environment.

The only problem was...my parents weren't exactly on board. They weren't too keen on the idea of taking a non-paying job and having to cover me for another year. And if I was going to do that, they wanted me closer...somewhere familiar so that maybe I could live with family or a friend and cut costs.

During this time, I still applied for jobs, thinking if a paying job came along, it might be too much to turn down. However, literally none of the colleges I applied to sent me as much as an email to say I hadn't gotten the job.

Sometime in May, I was asked by my parents to drive to Washington D.C. and help move my brother into a new apartment. On the last day of moving I get a phone call...

"Drew, this is the Athletic Director from Ventura College in California. We would like for you to come in for an interview."

"Absolutely, when do I need to be there?"

"3 days from now..."

I had forgotten I even applied to the school. I had to act quick. I started to book flights, rent a car and prepare myself for my first interview. My parents seemed to be on board with it being a paying job. But there was a problem...I had to pay my own way to get there and get around. The cost would have been around $600 in total.

That night I had dinner with my dad in Baltimore. He told me after talking with my mom they decided I should turn down the interview and concentrate on Akron. They would now fully support my wish to go to Akron and work there. I turned down the interview and reluctantly said goodbye to my Southern California daydreams.

Flashback to 2008...

I had just begun working with Virginia Tech's men's basketball team. My first job was to pick up a coach at an airport. The coach was Keith Dambrot, from the University of Akron. He was coming to Blacksburg for a coaching convention. I picked him up in Roanoke and knew we had an hour drive ahead of us, so I might as well pick his brain. I asked him how he began coaching and got to the division-1 level. He told me that he got his start as a coach at a small high school in Akron, St. Vincent-St. Mary...and had a very talented freshman...LeBron James. He was able to use his stint there to propel himself into jobs at Central Michigan and ultimately, the University of Akron.

The following week I again got the assignment of picking up another coach at the airport. This time it was Akron's Director of Basketball Operations, Rick McFadden. Coach McFadden was 27 years old at the time so he was a little easier to talk to. I offered to show him around campus the next morning before his meeting with Coach Greenberg, so we exchanged phone numbers. Throughout the year I kept up with Akron and sent texts to Coach McFadden congratulating he and the Zips on making the NCAA tournament. That summer Coach McFadden called and asked me to work a camp for them, and that's where it all started.

Now back to June 2010...

I decided to go to Akron and work a camp in the summer. I arrived on a Sunday for an Elite Prospect camp in which their top targets for underclassmen were coming in to get further evaluated. I was standing around watching some of their prospects when Coach Dambrot saw me out of the corner of his eye. Keep in mind, I had not seen Coach Dambrot in over a year, and I had only seen him twice in my life for about an hour and a half total. As soon as he saw me he came over and exclaimed, "Drew! How ya doin buddy?" and gave me a big hug.

That blew my mind. Here is a successful basketball coach (who are notoriously self-absorbed) who not only remembers me from a long time ago, but takes time out of his camp to walk across the gym and make me feel welcome. I knew then Akron was where I belonged. That week I stayed in Coach McFadden's new house and slept on a blow-up mattress in his living room. He had been moved up from DBO to an assistant in the past year and he was well on his way in the coaching game. He and his wife could not have been nicer and I knew this guy wasn't going to let me fail if I did decide to come to Akron.

At that point I stopped applying for jobs...I had found a home. The NCAA had other plans...

Apparently the NCAA in their infinite wisdom did away with volunteer assistants for football and basketball, making it illegal. Coach McFadden decided to see if we could create a position for me, give me a small amount of money and circumvent the NCAA.

All they had to do would be for Coach Dambrot to write out a job description, take it to the AD, then post the fake job online and interview other applicants all the while knowing they created the position for me and would ultimately give it to me (much like what VCU did with the video coordinator position).

Then there was a phone call...again.

"Drew, I don't think it's gonna work out...Coach Dambrot's dad is in the hospital and not doing well...so he doesn't want to take the time away from his father to create the job for you"

"Is this a 'we might not do this right now' sort of thing...or 'we might not do this AT ALL' sort of thing"

"We might not do this at all..."

I was crushed...again...but understood Coach Dambrot's position. I wouldn't want to fool with creating a job in his position either. It just sucked. So I was back on the job market...

I applied for a job at Piedmont College in Georgia. A school in Jackson, Mississippi and another in Minnesota. I didn't think I was going to get a job. I thought I would have to spend another year in Gate City.

Then I came up with an idea. If I took one class at Akron, I could qualify as a student and a job would not have to be created for me...I would be classified by the NCAA as a student assistant and could join the staff immediately. Coach McFadden agreed and we started working on getting me into classes.

A week ago, I got a phone call from Piedmont College in Georgia. They said I was one of their top 3 candidates for their job opening as an assistant coach and wanted me to come interview. At that time, I had already firmed everything up with Akron and had to decline. If you had told me a year ago that I would be offered two job interviews and would turn both of them down, I would have said you were crazy...but that's just the way things worked out.

Akron has found me a house and a roommate, so it has cut my costs way down. They have also found me a second job working for a catering company to pick up some extra cash. This coming year will certainly be an interesting one, as I'm sure I'll be working all hours of the day to make this work. I'm looking forward to the challenge though, and I'm very appreciative of the opportunity. There's no way I'm letting this slip away.

I'm here...ready to start the next chapter...Akron, let's see what you've got...