Looking For A New Coach

As you have likely heard by now, Hardin-Simmons is in the market for a new men’s basketball coach. Dylan Howard, who has been on our campus since the spring of 2001, is leaving to take a coaching position at Mississippi Valley State, a Division I program that competed in the NCAA Tournament last year. When Dylan interviewed with us seven years ago, he told us then that his long-term goal was to coach at the Division I level. We congratulate him on reaching this goal and we thank him for all that he has done for our basketball program, our university and the local community. We wish Dylan, Nicole and Danielle the best of luck as they make the move to Mississippi.

We now begin the process of finding his successor and I thought that I would share with you how we look at potential candidates when we have an opening in the athletic department. Once we decide on a candidate that we are interested in, we bring that individual to campus for a full day of meetings. The candidate will meet with several of our vice-presidents to discuss the administrative aspects of working at HSU. We also try to schedule meetings for the candidate with Enrollment Services so they can learn about our admissions process, we schedule a meeting with Dr. Chris McNair, our Faculty Athletic Representative and we have the candidate meet with several members of our coaching staff and the athletic training department. In this case we will also attempt to have the candidate meet with members of the men’s basketball team as we solicit their input. Finally the candidate and I will spend a great deal of time discussing the strengths of Hardin-Simmons, the areas we need to improve on, and what our long term goals are for the athletic department. We strive to make sure the candidate knows exactly what our situation is here at HSU. It is an exhaustive ordeal for both the candidate and our department, but it is a process I am a big believer in. As I have said to every coach we have brought on campus, the last thing we want to do is bring an individual and his/her family to Abilene and then they find out something about the job that they were not aware of. We preach the doctrine of no surprises on both sides of the interview process and I think it has helped our new coaches with the transition to Hardin-Simmons. After all of this, there is a great deal of thought and prayer on my behalf on which candidate to invite to come to HSU.

There are only 48 days before the first day of school, so we will have our work cut out for us to find our next men’s basketball coach. As they say every April in the leadup to the NFL Draft, “we are on the clock” as we begin the process of evaluating candidates. We look forward to the challenge of not only finding the right person for our basketball program, but also finding the right person for our campus.

Cowboy Up,
John Neese