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

The ladies’s basketball program at Stony Brook has grow to be one thing of a clearing home and stepping stone for coaches attempting to maneuver as much as the following degree within the sport. Starting with Beth O’Boyle’s ultimate yr, the 2013-14 marketing campaign the place the Seawolves went 24-9, Stony Brook has had simply two seasons with a dropping document since they usually’ve gone to the postseason six instances — 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.

Via 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 – one in every of Brian Stanchak’s shoppers. 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. “Regardless that I do know that his job is to characterize the most effective pursuits of his shoppers, my expertise working with him has all the time felt like a partnership.”

Stanchak is an agent who represents ladies’s faculty 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 faculty basketball will get going, Stanchak is likely one of the folks on the management board with the facility to make it cease or spin even quicker. Put extra merely, when any athletic director has a gap for a head ladies’s basketball coach, likelihood is that they – or the search agency they’re utilizing – are going to have a dialog with Stanchak about who may fill it.

Up to now calendar yr, three of Stanchak’s shoppers 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 shoppers embrace 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 understand how 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 important. However I’m additionally a sounding board. I’m capable of sort of give folks peace of thoughts,” Stanchak informed SB Nation. “There’s a whole lot of businesses that don’t prioritize ladies’s basketball. That’s a part of the rationale why I’ve stayed targeted on this area of interest.”

Stanchak’s street to turning into an agent wasn’t a straight and straightforward one although. There have been some twists and turns alongside the way in which earlier than he turned the person whose telephone 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 girls’s faculty basketball with stops at Penn, Fairleigh Dickinson and his alma mater, piling up a decade’s price 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 strive one thing new, and he discovered it in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on the campus of Penn State Wilkes-Barre, the place he would grow 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 gained 5 convention titles.

“Actually, 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 grow to be an athletic director, Stanchak’s associates within the ladies’s basketball teaching neighborhood began asking him for favors. They needed perspective from somebody in athletic administration and requested for his assist in making ready for interviews, reviewing and negotiating their contracts, and dealing with distinctive conditions.

Following a number of of these casual consultations, one in every of Stanchak’s associates requested him level clean, “Do you wish to be my agent?”

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

“There’s actually nobody advocating for girls’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 could possibly be invaluable,” 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 grow to be an agent by merely watching Jerry Maguire. He simply trusted his instincts, and used what he discovered from each his time as a coach and expertise as an athletic director. In that means, Stanchak is uniquely certified to be an agent in that he’s sat on either side of a negotiation.

“I simply discovered to be an agent by desirous about what I might 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 associates he knew from his teaching profession who needed to climb the ladder as shoppers. That first offseason, he had 5 shoppers grow to be Division I head coaches, together with McCombs at Stony Brook. Stanchak’s popularity unfold by phrase of mouth in teaching circles and extra potential shoppers 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 girls’s basketball coaches could possibly 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 shoppers get Division I head teaching jobs, and a few of them nonetheless have these gigs right now, like Jada Pierce at Niagra. Two years later, he helped one in every 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 wish to make folks really feel comfy.”

It’s all labored out fairly nicely for Stanchak and his shoppers. Lately, he’s helped a number of of them get some fairly excessive profile jobs. Maybe none had 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 seeking to depart Marshall, however when the Tennessee job opened, an individual working for the search agency that Tennessee athletic director Danny White used after all requested Stanchak about her.

“Kim has been a winner at each degree she’s coached at. It’s not about Kim – it’s what’s finest for her program and her gamers. She’s the sort that simply places her head down and will get to work,” Stanchak stated. “She additionally runs an especially potent, high-powered offense. Kim having the ability to play that model, 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 nicely, 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 fitting rent.

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

The second high-profile opening stuffed by a Stanchak consumer final yr had a really totally different course of. There was no search agency. Stanchak dealt instantly 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 workforce, 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 Last 4 look in 2023 – each of which had been firsts for this system. Final yr, the Hokies gained the ACC common season title and offered out seven house 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 out fastidiously for the fitting 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 actually represented his consumer nicely. He was agency but honest,” Babcock informed SB Nation. “He appeared to care deeply for his shoppers, and to seek out the most effective faculty or match for them. He was very skilled and approachable – a straight shooter.”

Babcock’s search ended with him hiring one in every of Stanchak’s shoppers, 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 top coach of Miami Ohio, after which 5 seasons at Marquette the place she gained 110 video games and made three NCAA event appearances. Whereas Brooks took a few of his prime 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 degree of success with shoppers and placement.”

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

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

As of late when Stanchak talks to his shoppers, 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 influence their capacity to win at a excessive degree. The settlement, anticipated to go later this yr, will pave the way in which for establishments to share income instantly with gamers for the primary time ever.

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

“Simply because a job is strong paying doesn’t imply it’s a fantastic 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 grow to be a part of the dialogue,” Stanchak says. “These conversations (across the Home settlement) are occurring each day, when it comes to what the quantity goes to be, how they’re going to allocate, and is that quantity going to be honest in comparison with the convention panorama. In 12 months One, everyone seems to be flying blind. There isn’t a baseline, aside from the Massive Ten and SEC are going to be forward of everybody else. In 12 months Two, we’ll be capable to see a baseline.”

In Could, 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 offer up-and-coming coaches with the data and expertise they should land the job they need. It’s a training convention of kinds, however one the place attendees gained’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 possibly can go to YouTube and get X’s and O’s and technique, however you possibly can’t go someplace and listen to how one can thrive through the interview course of, or what coaches must do when it comes to having the ability to delegate and handle their workers, or easy methods 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 top coach at Windfall.

“In order for you actual solutions to what it takes to grow to be a head coach, the HCTC is the place for you. I left with a lot data,” Batth stated. “I discovered loads about myself and the place I really was at that time in my teaching profession.”

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

Till then, for the following two months, Stanchak will probably be doing what he does finest: networking, constructing relationships and advocating for his shoppers in ladies’s faculty basketball. Count on quite a lot of of them to land greater – and higher paying – jobs because the spin velocity picks up on this teaching cycle.