How one agent retains the teaching carousel spinning in ladies’s school basketball

The ladies’s basketball program at Stony Brook has turn out to be one thing of a clearing home and stepping stone for coaches attempting to maneuver as much as the following stage within the sport. Starting with Beth O’Boyle’s remaining yr, the 2013-14 marketing campaign the place the Seawolves went 24-9, Stony Brook has had simply two seasons with a shedding file since and so they’ve gone to the postseason six occasions — together with the NCAA event in 2021.

In that decade-plus stretch, greater packages have come calling for the Seawolves’ coaches, providing bigger paydays. O’Boyle went to VCU, Caroline McCombs departed for George Washington, and final yr Ashley Langford took her abilities to Tulane after guiding the Seawolves to a program record-tying 28 wins.

By way of every of these adjustments, Shawn Heilbron has been the athletic director at Stony Brook. And each time he’s had a gap, he’s known as – after which employed – certainly one of Brian Stanchak’s purchasers. When Langford left final spring, he employed his third consecutive coach represented by Stanchak in former Tennessee assistant coach Pleasure McCorvey.

“Working with Brian is like working with a teammate,” Heilbron informed SB Nation. “Though I do know that his job is to characterize the perfect pursuits of his purchasers, my expertise working with him has all the time felt like a partnership.”

Stanchak is an agent who represents ladies’s school basketball coaches virtually completely. The roster for his BDS Company, which he based, consists of greater than 70 coaches within the sport.

When the teaching carousel in ladies’s school basketball will get going, Stanchak is among the individuals on the management board with the ability to make it cease or spin even sooner. Put extra merely, when any athletic director has a gap for a head ladies’s basketball coach, chances are high that they – or the search agency they’re utilizing – are going to have a dialog with Stanchak about who would possibly fill it.

Up to now calendar yr, three of Stanchak’s purchasers landed their first head teaching jobs within the Energy 4 ranks: Megan Duffy at Virginia Tech, Gavin Petersen at Utah and Kim Caldwell at Tennessee. His different purchasers embody a variety of coaches, from Michigan State’s Robyn Fralick to North Carolina A&T’s Tarrell Robinson to Division II Ashland’s Kari Pickens to Texas assistant Elena Lovato.

“I don’t know the way different brokers function as a result of I’ve by no means labored for one more agent. Contract negotiations and selling them, that stuff is vital. However I’m additionally a sounding board. I’m capable of type of give individuals peace of thoughts,” Stanchak informed SB Nation. “There’s a whole lot of companies that don’t prioritize ladies’s basketball. That’s a part of the rationale why I’ve stayed centered on this area of interest.”

Stanchak’s highway to changing into an agent wasn’t a straight and simple one although. There have been some twists and turns alongside the best way earlier than he turned the person whose cellphone by no means stops buzzing in March, and the one which has helped numerous coaches maximize their worth and discover their proper match within the sport.

A local of New Jersey and a graduate of Seton Corridor, Stanchak, 42, started his profession as an assistant coach in males’s and ladies’s school basketball with stops at Penn, Fairleigh Dickinson and his alma mater, piling up a decade’s value of expertise in teaching. Across the time he was 28, Stanchak says he felt “burnt out” by teaching and was trying to find extra of a work-life stability.

He was able to attempt one thing new, and he discovered it in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on the campus of Penn State Wilkes-Barre, the place he would turn out to be the athletic director of the tiny faculty in northeast Pennsylvania. He employed 4 coaches whereas he was there – together with one in ladies’s basketball – and oversaw packages that received 5 convention titles.

“Truthfully, I simply fell into it,” Stanchak says. “I knew nothing about being an athletic director, however I attempted to determine it out and it was nice.”

After studying that he had turn out to be an athletic director, Stanchak’s buddies within the ladies’s basketball teaching neighborhood began asking him for favors. They wished perspective from somebody in athletic administration and requested for his assist in getting ready for interviews, reviewing and negotiating their contracts, and dealing with distinctive conditions.

Following a number of of these casual consultations, certainly one of Stanchak’s buddies requested him level clean, “Do you need to be my agent?”

A bit bowled over by the concept of changing into anybody’s agent at that time in his life, Stanchak initially stated no to his buddies’ inquiries. However then they stored asking. And he gave it some actual thought and consideration. He was a former coach, now working as an athletic director, and he cared so much about ladies’s basketball and the individuals who labored within the sport.

“There’s actually nobody advocating for ladies’s basketball coaches on the market, and I used to be one, and I’m invested in it, and my expertise on either side of the desk may very well be worthwhile,” Stanchack thought to himself. “Let’s give it a shot.”

Stanchak didn’t precisely know the place to start and he knew he couldn’t discover ways to turn out to be an agent by merely watching Jerry Maguire. He simply trusted his instincts, and used what he realized from each his time as a coach and expertise as an athletic director. In that method, Stanchak is uniquely certified to be an agent in that he’s sat on either side of a negotiation.

“I simply realized to be an agent by eager about what I’d need from an agent if I used to be nonetheless teaching,” Stanchak stated.

He launched into the journey in 2013 and began BDS Company, signing a number of buddies he knew from his teaching profession who wished to climb the ladder as purchasers. That first offseason, he had 5 purchasers turn out to be Division I head coaches, together with McCombs at Stony Brook. Stanchak’s fame unfold via phrase of mouth in teaching circles and extra potential purchasers got here calling. On the time, he was nonetheless working because the athletic director at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, however he felt like he had discovered his function, that being an agent for ladies’s basketball coaches may very well be his full-time job. He resigned from Penn State Wilkes-Barre in February 2015, simply earlier than the teaching cycle began that yr. He then had 5 extra purchasers get Division I head teaching jobs, and a few of them nonetheless have these gigs immediately, like Jada Pierce at Niagra. Two years later, he helped certainly one of his former gamers, Gayle Coats Fulks, get employed at Davidson.

“I haven’t regarded again since,” Stanchak says. “I’ve all the time been a greater networker than a coach. On the finish of the day, being an agent, you need to make individuals really feel comfy.”

It’s all labored out fairly effectively for Stanchak and his purchasers. Lately, he’s helped a number of of them get some fairly excessive profile jobs. Maybe none have been extra shocking than Kim Caldwell – with only one yr of Division I teaching underneath her belt – touchdown the coveted posting at Tennessee final yr.

Caldwell, 36, spent seven seasons at her alma mater Glenville State in West Virginia, main the Pioneers to a Division II nationwide title in 2022. In 2023, she jumped to Division I by taking the reins at Marshall and coached the Herd to their first NCAA event look since 1997. And Caldwell wasn’t essentially trying to go away Marshall, however when the Tennessee job opened, an individual working for the search agency that Tennessee athletic director Danny White used in fact requested Stanchak about her.

“Kim has been a winner at each stage she’s coached at. It’s not about Kim – it’s what’s greatest for her program and her gamers. She’s the kind that simply places her head down and will get to work,” Stanchak stated. “She additionally runs an especially potent, high-powered offense. Kim with the ability to play that fashion, that’s simply entertaining, and that was a draw to Tennessee.”

Caldwell, to the shock of many, obtained the job that was as soon as held by the legendary Pat Summitt. She’s now tasked with restoring Tennessee to its standing as one of many sport’s signature packages. 12 months One has gone effectively, because the Girl Vols are NCAA tournament-bound with the nation’s second-best scoring offense. A win over rival UConn in February felt like proof of idea that Caldwell was the correct rent.

“I believe it was interesting for (Tennessee) to go outdoors the household this time. And should you have a look at Danny White’s monitor file of hires, he’s taken some dangers. He’s type of all the time gone outdoors the field. This gave him the chance to do this on the ladies’s aspect,” Stanchak stated. “For Kim, it’s an excellent match. It’s not going to make sense for some individuals who don’t know her, however she will actually thrive there.”

The second high-profile opening stuffed by a Stanchak shopper final yr had a really completely different course of. There was no search agency. Stanchak dealt immediately with the athletic director whom he had beforehand by no means met earlier than.

In Kenny Brooks’ seven seasons main Virginia Tech’s ladies’s basketball crew, the Hokies reached heights within the sport that they’d by no means seen earlier than. With gamers like Elizabeth Kitley and Georgia Amoore, Brooks led Virginia Tech to an ACC Tournament title and a Remaining 4 look in 2023 – each of which have been firsts for this system. Final yr, the Hokies received the ACC common season title and offered out seven residence video games, averaging a program-high in attendance in Cassell Coliseum.

When Brooks left Virginia Tech for the riches of the SEC at Kentucky, athletic director Whit Babcock solid a large internet in his seek for this system’s subsequent chief, looking fastidiously for the correct rent that would preserve the momentum rolling in Blacksburg. He had by no means heard of Stanchak, however shortly turned acquainted with him through the search course of and admired his forthrightness and thoroughness.

“Brian definitely represented his shopper effectively. He was agency but truthful,” Babcock informed SB Nation. “He appeared to care deeply for his purchasers, and to search out the perfect faculty or match for them. He was very skilled and approachable – a straight shooter.”

Babcock’s search ended with him hiring certainly one of Stanchak’s purchasers, Megan Duffy. A former Notre Dame participant, Duffy climbed the teaching ranks with three stops as an assistant coach, a two-season cease as the pinnacle coach of Miami Ohio, after which 5 seasons at Marquette the place she received 110 video games and made three NCAA event appearances. Whereas Brooks took a few of his high gamers with him to Kentucky – together with Amoore and heart Clara Strack – Duffy assembled a aggressive roster and went 18-12. The Hokies now discover themselves on the bubble of the NCAA event.

“We’re thrilled with Coach Duffy and her work,” Babcock stated. “I can see why Brian has had such a excessive stage of success with purchasers and placement.”

Stanchak is as soon as once more within the thick of his busy season. Presently, there are openings at seven Energy 4 packages: Missouri, Auburn, Arkansas, BYU, Houston, Arizona State and Wisconsin. Chances are high {that a} Stanchak shopper will likely be within the combine for many of them.

“Due to my relationships and my monitor file, I’ll get a whole lot of calls earlier than issues begin shifting,” he says.

As of late when Stanchak talks to his purchasers, the No. 1 factor on most of their minds when discussing new jobs or inking long-term extensions at their present one is how the House v. NCAA settlement will affect their capacity to win at a excessive stage. The settlement, anticipated to move later this yr, will pave the best way for establishments to share income immediately with gamers for the primary time ever.

Stanchak is working along with his purchasers in ladies’s basketball to determine how large of a bit of the income sharing pie their program is getting.

“Simply because a job is stable paying doesn’t imply it’s an excellent job within the panorama. What issues now could be what they’re doing in NIL or in income sharing. There’s simply much more off-the-court areas which have turn out to be a part of the dialogue,” Stanchak says. “These conversations (across the Home settlement) are taking place day by day, when it comes to what the quantity goes to be, how they’re going to allocate, and is that quantity going to be truthful in comparison with the convention panorama. In 12 months One, everyone seems to be flying blind. There isn’t any baseline, apart from the Large Ten and SEC are going to be forward of everybody else. In 12 months Two, we’ll have the ability to see a baseline.”

In Might, Stanchak’s BDS Company will as soon as once more host the Head Coach Coaching Heart, a multi-day occasion in Orlando, Florida meant to supply up-and-coming coaches with the information and expertise they should land the job they need. It’s a training convention of types, however one the place attendees received’t discover something about recruiting or drawing up baseline-out-of-bounds performs.

“It focuses completely on off-the-court skilled improvement. And so what meaning is there’s nothing there when it comes to X’s and O’s,” Stanchak stated. “You’ll be able to go to YouTube and get X’s and O’s and technique, however you’ll be able to’t go someplace and listen to how one can thrive through the interview course of, or what coaches must do when it comes to with the ability to delegate and handle their employees, or tips on how to handle their first 30 days on the job.”

Stanchak will host the occasion for the ninth time this yr in Orlando, Florida. Erin Batth attended it in 2018 when she was an assistant coach at N.C. State. She’s now in her second season as the pinnacle coach at Windfall.

“If you would like actual solutions to what it takes to turn out to be a head coach, the HCTC is the place for you. I left with a lot information,” Batth stated. “I realized so much about myself and the place I actually was at that time in my teaching profession.”

“I realized greater than I ever thought I might in two days,” added Chandler McCabe, who attended the 2019 HCTC and is now the pinnacle coach at Robert Morris.

Till then, for the following two months, Stanchak will likely be doing what he does greatest: networking, constructing relationships and advocating for his purchasers in ladies’s school basketball. Count on various of them to land greater – and higher paying – jobs because the spin velocity picks up on this teaching cycle.