Year 3: Adjusting to Division 3

Coaches tend to have an idea of what their career path looks like ideally. Everyone starts at the bottom. Everyone wants to be a part of a staff at one of the power conferences on the Division 1 level. Well...my path has worked out the opposite way...sort of.

I started on the Division 1 level at an ACC school, one of the best, if not THE best, basketball conferences in the nation. My next job took me to a successful Mid-Major in Ohio. A step down in basketball prestige. My next move brings me to Emory & Henry College, a Division 3 school in Southwest Virginia.

Judging by the schools alone, this would seem to be a demotion. However, I'm still moving up the ladder. Somehow defying the laws of physics and moving forward and backward at the same time. (M.C. Escher would be so proud...#GoogleItIfYaDontKnowIt) I started as a manager, then a Graduate Assistant, and now an Assistant Coach. A step up in the coaching world.

The jump from Graduate Assistant to Assistant Coach is definitely an adjustment, but a move from being Division 1 my whole life down to Division 3 is equally as big of an adjustment.

I walked into the office on my first day, sat down with the head coach and talked about my duties. We met for over half an hour and I left with a long list of things to get done. I sit down at my desk (in an office shared with the Cross Country coach) and in walks an elderly gentleman wanting to talk sports. I do my best to oblige him (no, I don't know who started for Emory & Henry's Badminton team in 1937), but I'm ready to get my work done! I've waited months to get this job! I learned that with such a small school comes a group of alumni who are passionate about their university, and that's a good thing to have...let's just have it on a slow day, huh?

Next item on the agenda? Cutting a piece of string off my new jacket...I need scissors. I ask for a pair of scissors...

It seems on the D3 level, the entire athletic department uses one pair of scissors. And apparently everyone knows who has the scissors on any given day. I'm hoping there is a different policy in place for toilet paper...

In all seriousness I've loved my time here. The staff is young (average age of 27), the mood is relaxed and I genuinely like the kids I'm working with. The amount of responsibility I will have this year will help me grow as a coach and take some ownership of the program. I used the analogy with some people I talked with about taking this job and I talked about how I'm done being a fly on the wall. I'm done listening and learning while staying in the background. I want to affect a change. I want to help turn a program around. These are all opportunities I'll be afforded at Emory & Henry. I might succeed. I might fail, horribly. I might figure out Division 3 isn't all that bad. But all those questions will be answered in time. And I have a lot of time to prepare. For now, I only have one question...

WHERE ARE THOSE FREAKING SCISSORS!?!