9781422285251

Coaching & Scouting

C areers O ff the F ield

C areers O ff the F ield

Analytics: Sports Stats and More Coaching & Scouting Health Careers in Sports Sports Agent Sports Arena & Event Management Sports Broadcasting Sports Marketing Sports Media Relations Sportswriting and Sports Photography Working in College Sports

Coaching &Scouting By James Buckley Jr.

C areers O ff the F ield

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2016 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3264-4 Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4222-3267-5 EBook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8525-1

First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group LLC Santa Barbara, California Editorial Director: James Buckley Jr. Designer: Bill Madrid Production: Sandy Gordon www.shorelinepublishing.com

Cover photo: Dreamstime.com/Monkey Business Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

Foreword …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….… 6 Introduction …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….… 8 Chapter 1: Getting Started …….…….…….…….…….…… 16 Chapter 2: Hard at Work …….…….…….…….…….…….…… 26 Chapter 3: Realities of the Workplace ……. 38 Chapter 4: The Nitty-Gritty …….…….…….…….……. 52 Find Out More …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…… 62 Series Glossary …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….……. 63 About the Author …….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…… 64 C ontents Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowl- edge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connect- ed to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Key Icons to Look For

Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here.

Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains termi- nology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s abil- ity to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

Foreword By Al Ferrer

So you want to work in sports? Good luck! You’ve taken a great first step by picking up this volume of CAREERS OFF THE FIELD. I’ve been around sports professionally—on and off the field, in the front office, and in the classroom—for more than 35 years. My students have gone on to work in all the major sports leagues and for university athletic programs. They’ve become agents, writers, coaches, and broadcasters. They were just where you are now, and the lessons they learned can help you succeed. One of the most important things to remember when looking for a job in sports is that being a sports fan is not enough. If you get an interview with a team, and your first sentence is “I’m your biggest fan,” that’s a kiss of death. They don’t want fans, they want pros. Show your experience, show what you know, show how you can contribute. Another big no-no is to say, “I’ll do anything.” That makes you a non- professional or a wanna-be. You have to do the research and find out what area is best for your personality and your skills. This book series will be a vital tool for you to do that research, to find out what areas in sports are out there, what kind of people work in them, and where you would best fit in.

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C areers O ff the F ield • Coaching & Scouting

That leads to my third point: Know yourself. Look carefully at your interests and skills. You need to understand what you’re good at and how you like to work. If you get energy from being around people, then you don’t want to be in a room with a computer because you’ll go nuts. You want to be in the action, around people, so you might look at sales or marketing or media relations or being an agent. If you’re more comfortable being by yourself, then you look at analysis, research, perhaps the numbers side of scouting or recruiting. You have to know yourself. You also have to manage your expectations. There is a lot of money in sports, but unless you are a star athlete, you probably won’t be making much in your early years. I’m not trying to be negative, but I want to be realistic. I’ve loved every minute of my life in sports. If you have a passion for sports and you can bring professionalism and quality work—and you understand your expectations—you can have a great career. Just like the athletes we admire, though, you have to prepare, you have to work hard, and you have to never, ever quit.

Series consultant Al Ferrer founded the sports management program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, after an award-winning career as a Division I baseball coach. Along with his work as a professor, Ferrer is an advisor to pro and college teams, athletes, and sports businesses.

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F oreword

Introduction

Words to Understand administrative: having to do with the business of an organization: paperwork, schedules, budgets, and more intern: an unpaid worker, often a student, who is working to gain knowledge rather than money

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C areers O ff the F ield • Coaching & Scouting

Like any other coach, Bill Pintard is a juggler. It’s game day, and his Santa Barbara Foresters college summer-ball baseball team will be taking on its archrival, the Conejo Oaks. First pitch is hours away, but Pintard is already hard at work. Before he gets home tonight, he’ll juggle a dozen different tasks, even though his job title is simply, “Coach.” As this book will show, coaching is about much more than just the time on the field. Coaches at every level need to be experts at the game they teach. They need to understand strategy, game and roster management, and the rules of the game. They have to be leaders, and able to organize and inspire people—often young people—to do their best and work together for the common goal of winning. Being a successful coach also means being successful at a wide range of skills. It’s not enough just to have a whistle, a clipboard, and a loud voice. Coaching today is a complex job with many moving parts. (Note: We’ll touch on scouting a bit later in this introduction.) Game Day Morning It’s a rough morning already. Pintard has a bit of a cold, his team lost last night, and there is a problem at home he’ll have to deal

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I ntroduction

with later. He’s having a bad day. However, he knows that he can’t take that feeling to the ballpark. “To be a successful coach, you cannot have a bad day,” says Pintard, who has led his team to five National Baseball Congress World Series championships since 2006 and has won more than 800 games as the Foresters’ manager. “Or if you are having a bad day, you have to hide it. If you verbalize that you’re having a bad day, then it’s okay for your assistant coaches and your players to have a bad day. As a leader, you can never have bad days.” So, no matter how he is feeling, he puts on his game face and heads out. Before heading to the ballpark, Pintard is on the phone ordering equipment. The team is running short on baseballs and, at this level of the sport, there’s no one else to make sure the Foresters have this vital piece of the baseball puzzle. He’s got dozens of emails to return. Some are from players who want to join the team. It’s early in their summer season, so he has his eye out for additions that can help fill roster spots. Assembling and organizing the roster is perhaps the coach’s most important administrative function. A coach will typically work harder and longer at the office or doing paperwork than he or she does on the field.

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A coach is pulled in many directions on game day. Pintard takes a moment to answer a few questions from a local reporter.

A Foresters’ intern calls, and Pintard has another issue to deal with. The concession-stand operator is having trouble getting ice delivered. Isn’t that for someone at the ballpark to handle? Normally the answer is yes, but just about anything will end up on a coach’s desk. It’s all about being flexible. Next up: finances. Pintard’s team has to raise all the money it needs to support its 50-game summer season. At a high school, a coach might meet with booster clubs or attend a bake sale to help raise extra money that the team does not get from the school system. A college coach will connect with team sponsors, such as companies that advertise in the stadium. Even in the pros, a coach or manager will need to spend time meeting with people and companies whose money makes the whole system run.

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For Pintard, the community is the main source of the team’s support. He talks with a bank president for about 15 minutes, filling her in on the team’s chances this summer and describing the ways that the bank’s name will appear on tickets and a banner at the ballpark. Pintard has been working as a coach for more than two hours today, and he has yet to set foot on the grass infield. Running the Clubhouse Once his office work is done, Pintard can finally head to the ballpark. That’s when his work really gets going. Even as he walks in from the parking lot, he is met by the intern about the ice situation; thanks to a little muscle, the ice is in place for the game. That’s one problem solved. A reporter comes up and needs “a couple minutes, Coach,” to tape an interview for the radio. Pintard tells him he’ll be free once he checks in with his other coaches. A fan of the team, at the ballpark early to watch batting practice, stops by to shake Pintard’s hand. He has an idea about who to pitch against Conejo. Pintard listens politely, and moves on as soon as he can. Fans are part of the bargain of just about any sports situation. Learning to understand and deal with them takes patience and practice.

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He still has not reached his office before a player corners him to make sure that Pintard knows the player’s mom will be at the game. The reason for letting Pintard know? The player wants to make sure he gets in the game today, so his mom can watch him play. It’s a 19-year-old college sophomore asking, but everyone wants to make their mom happy. Finally, Pintard reaches his office, where the members of his coaching staff are waiting. After greeting them all, he settles into his desk chair for a short meeting on the roster and the game. The coaches go over strategy against Conejo, as well as the lineup they’ll put on the field. The coaches pass along any news about players, including injuries or other things that might affect Pintard’s decisions. Putting on a team windbreaker, Pintard finally heads to the field, where his team is warming up. Warm-ups take about two hours, during which time Pintard also visits with the opposing coach, deals with the radio interview, and meets more fans. Finally, after meeting with the umpires and standing with the team for the national anthem, Pintard watches his team take the field. After more than five hours of work on game day, he is finally ready to do what he actually does: coach the team during the game.

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After more than four hours at the ballpark, Coach Pintard (19) finally joins his team on the field.

Scouting for the Future If Pintard’s schedule seems busy already, add to that the fact that he is also wearing another hat. He is a scout for the New York Yankees, charged with looking for young players who might be worthy of being asked to join a pro team. He’s not the only scout at the game, either. A half-dozen men stand behind home plate

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