Head coaching interview

What level?

High school program 9-12

Things such as how do you think you can develop the program, how do you help the players balance school and baseball, how do you help grow interest in the program. Those are some that I've always been asked.

I'd have something on your coaching philosophy ready.  Here are some of the more interesting ones I've been asked...

 

1.) If we name you head coach, what are the first 5 things you would do?

 

2.) If we attend a practice, what will we see?

 

3.) If we attend a game, what will we see?

 

4.) If you are outside right after school and it starts raining, baseball, softball, and soccer all need the one gym, how will you determine who gets it?

 

5.) Describe your process for selecting the team?

 

Hope that helps.  

 

 

1) how will you handle kids with bad grades

2) how will you handle the hiring of lower level coaches

3) how will you handle the media

4) what are your feelings about multiple sport athletes

 

By the way, best of luck to you on your interview if you are able to land it!

Thank you so much for the comments so far.

 

how would you involve your community with the baseball team?

Or, "how would you involve your baseball team with the community?"

(ie. have the team visit a children's hospital in uniform, sign a few balls to give away, etc.)

 

Keewart, I like it, other things? 

Yeah, hit it from both ends. 

-Get the local youth leagues involved by having a "little league" night (or whatever the local affiliation is).  The kids can come out in uniform and they can take the field with the team for the anthem. 

-Try to get game start times that allow parents and friends to come and watch (we gradually worked our 3pm starts back to 4:30 with occasional night games).

-Have music and BBQ on select games.

-Recognize local business sponsors with banner signage, preferred seating, etc.

 

How would you get the parents involved in the program?

snack bar, team website, scorers booth, team meals, senior day coordination, etc.  We like to have a pre-season parent meeting so they know what to expect and what the objectives, rules and boundaries are.

Patrick,

 

The best way to get parents involved is to set up a formal booster club. You have to be very careful with these as they are a two edge sword. You have to set the ground rules up front that the objective of the club is to help the "program". Meaning all levels and that it does not have anything to do with playing time, or any other favoritism. Even if you are diligent about this there still will be some grousing about this in the background, but you have that at any HS sports program. The club must be very transparent and you should set up website with minutes of the meetings. Set specific objectives for the club. Funding objectives, for specific things, batting cages, balls, away trips, etc. 

 

I set one up for my son's program and it continues to this day, we raised about $20K per year and this was not from a particularly wealthy area. Your will get all kinds of crazy ideas for fund raising but I found that if we kept it simple we generated the most funds from: 1. Car Wash. 2. Alum Game & BBQ (we charged)   3. Signage 4. Yearly Baseball "Media guide" Some programs do golf tournaments as their one big fundraiser but these take a lot of work and organization.

 

Each team Frosh, JV, Varsity would have a "team parent" who got all of the contact information, listed the players and their numbers and helped the coaches communicate schedules, travel, etc. These really help build a "family" for the program, but again you have to have very strict rules and communicate a lot that this is to help all kids, not just the starters.

 

Send me a PM with your email address and I will send you a link to a program that will give you some ideas.

 

Good Luck!!! 

Patrick 

Not sure if you have had the interview yet, but I was talking to our Varsity HC this past spring. He made mention that one of the questions posed to him by the interviewing committee was "What are your goals for the team?"  (his answer - another state championship).  They then asked him to detail out how he planned on achieving that goal.

 

I had a surprising amount of "what if" questions regarding disciplinary issues with the kids. for example: what would you do if a kid had something stolen from him from the locker room during practice? what would you do if the kid who stole it was on the team? what if 2 teammates got in a fight in or outside of school? things like that. 

Great help so far!  

 

what would some of you list as your teams goals? Also what about discipline? Do you come in with your own plans or do you talk with your team to decide? What types of things do you discuss? Missing signs? bad language? Lack of effort? Etc?

 

thanks!

I think it's good to involve the baseball team with the community.  For example, have  them perform clinics for youth baseball and perform charitable activities as a team.

 

I think it's bad to involve the community with the baseball team. It's a slippery slope that always ends up with parents trying to influence playing time... or with the appearance of parents influencing playing time, which is just as bad.. .

 

A lot of what is your philosophy and how would you handle questions.  The funny thing is the questions you never seem to get are the ones that would test your actual knowledge of the game!  I never quite understood that.  But I think now people are so afraid of 'issues' they are much more concerned about how you will present yourself (and the school) and how you will handle kids/parents.  Those things are important no doubt.  I just wish we also paid more attention to the baseball part as well.  A lot of good coaches out there.  Unfortunately there are also a lot of bad ones too.