At the point of my last update I had applied for a couple of NCAA Division II head coach positions, interviewed for one, but had otherwise not heard anything.
Head Coach – US
I found out on July 27th that Lake Erie filled their position. I’d still had no communication from the school to that point. The news came via a forum. Someone else on the same forum said they were also an on-campus finalist. They too had no communication from the school. I never did hear anything directly.
Newman announced a new head coach in the latter part of July. I had applied on the 12th and the announcement was dated the 24th, which is very interesting. Either they had him in mind already, or they moved VERY quickly indeed through their interview process.
The posting of the new Maryville head coach went up on August 6th. That’s literally the day Division II preseason started. The new coach has zero college experience, which makes one scratch their head when someone with it doesn’t even get a phone interview.
Assistant Coach – US
In the latter part of July the assistant job for the University of Central Oklahoma came open. I coached against them with Midwestern State in 2017. They’ve regularly been nationally ranked of late. I applied, but with no real expectation. Male head coach meant lots of pressure to hire a female assistant. Got a “thanks, but we’re looking for a different kind of candidate” email from the school at the start of August.
Overseas
In early August a German contact of mine reached out. He wanted to see if I was still available for the upcoming season, which obviously I was. The reason is that he’d heard from the now former head coach of the 2nd division (2.Bundesliga Nord) men’s team at SV Warnemünde. He’s move up to Sports Director, so the club has been looking for a replacement. My contact asked if I’d be interested, and of course I was happy to at least have a conversation. It didn’t go anywhere, though. The report I received from the team manager, with whom I had some correspondence, was that the club directorship was too slow to move with respect to my candidacy. As a result, he didn’t see a good hiring prospect. He did, however, suggest there might be interest for next season.
In late August I heard about a youth academy opening for one of the top clubs in Germany. I didn’t find the job all that interesting, though, so I didn’t apply.
National Team
In mid-August I applied for the England Women’s National Team head coach position. This is a volunteer role and not nearly the kind of commitment of other national squad positions. England just doesn’t have the funding for that. It’s something that could fit in with another job, though, especially as the coach has a lot of latitude over scheduling team training. My time coaching in England gives me a good sense of the system there, and I’ve got the endorsement of some strong references. I did my interview yesterday as this post goes up. I should know something within about a week.
Other
In the latter part of July I was in touch with the guy leading the formation of a new club, Charleston Academy. They posted for a number of different coaching and non-coaching positions at that time. I’d reached out because there were some issues with the coaching postings in terms of the qualifications and I offered to help them correct them. That conversation ended up being a lengthy phone call during which I was invited to apply for the Technical Director position, which I did. That’s basically the person of leads the club’s coaching philosophy, drives coach development, and that sort of stuff.
On September 8th I did what was basically a second interview for the position. The next day they told me I was going to be offered the position. I had a further conversation with them on the 10th. Everything became official yesterday.
6 Steps to Better Practices - Free Guide
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter today and get this free guide to making your practices the best, along with loads more coaching tips and information.
