When I got to college and realized I did not want to be a high school coach, rather get into college I was always asking other coaches what I needed to do to get a job. The answer I always heard was,” you need to network.” I remember sitting down at the Syracuse Men’s basketball office with Associate Head Coach Bernie Fine and he asked, “ If you were a head coach looking for assistants would you go through a stack of resumes or just get in touch with people you already know.” To me, the answer was obvious. I’m going to just start talking to people I already know and know what they are good at to start building my staff.
Even after everyone told me I needed to keep in touch with everyone I met, I didn’t really know how. I always felt I would be bothering them or they would know I was calling or emailing for the sake of staying in touch. Tonight at the Lebron James Skills Academy there was a coaches chalk talk and ESPN analyst and former DI coach, Fran Fraschilla, brought up probably the best technique for networking I have heard. Maybe it’s a no brainer to everyone else, but I wish I would have heard it 10 years ago. He suggested that we ask for advice. Call someone up and ask them for advice in a certain area that you know they are good at. People always love to give advice and you won’t look like you are “staying in touch” just in case you need them to recommend you for something. You can never have enough friends!