Bigger Than the Job Description: What JUCO Taught Me About Coaching the Whole Player
JUCO is not for the weak.
Ed Durham and Cecil College gave me my first opportunity to become a head coach. I had been a junior-college player myself, so I understood the grind and the two-year process from the player's side. Coaching it was completely different.
Cecil had amazing facilities, scholarships, and a winning tradition. We had plenty to sell. What we did not have were dorms and meal plans. That changed the job.
You had to make sure players ate, help them manage apartment bills, figure out transportation to campus and back, and solve problems that had nothing to do with a jump shot or a scouting report. Being a college coach became bigger than the job description.
Cecil taught me to adjust on the fly, be resourceful, and adapt when the ideal solution was not available. Over those three years, JUCO kept putting new situations in front of me, especially off the court, and I had to figure them out.
Cecil College did not just give me my first opportunity to be a head coach. Cecil College taught me how to be a small-college head coach.
— Coach Hammett