How to handle the interview process?

Coming into this Final Four season there is always coaches who are hired and those that get fired. It is part of the business. There are also those coaches who are looking to move into various High School openings and might benefit from this bit of advice. How to handle the interview process.

Let’s start from the finish line. At the end of the interview process, the thought process of the committee has to be that this is our next coach. At the end of the interview you want to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind, no doubt as to who you are as a person, what you are all about and what you are capable of achieving.

You want to begin the process by entering the room and making sure that you can shake each person’s hand, look them in the eye, dress professionally, make sure that you hand them your card, that you also smile and show them your personality and not be so serious right from the start. Once you are about to interview begin with a short statement, about why you want the job and what unique values you are going to bring to the job.

Prior to all of this: questions to ask yourself are important. Am I trying to take this job to be a head coach? Don’t do this, it’s a trap, there are more important things to consider. Do you have a chance to excel as a coach? What percentage do you have? 50, 60, 70%? Halfway through the interview you should be able to tell if you are interviewing for a great job or if it is a bad job. You will know by what is told you, how the administration is responding and sharing with you and if there is an air of excitement in the room. Be sure to know what your budget is? Where is it in relation to the others within the conference? This requires an aggressive mentality within the interview to bring this up and to want to know all of the information so that you can make that judgment as to whether this is going to be a great job. What else aside from winning is important to you?

Prior to the interview try to figure out who is going to be on the committee. Figure out who played competitively , this will allow you to adjust the way you talk in that room to them as former athletes. What if no one on the committee played? This is an opportunity to educate them, to give them a vision as to what you do, to allow them to be there with you. You must have a relaxed positive body language, eye contact that is very firm, tremendous energy and enthusiasm and confident in what you can and will deliver.

Be the very best prepared during the interview. Have a PowerPoint presentation, a packet of information to hand out so that all can follow along. Leave nothing to chance. During the interview be prepared to answer the question, “Why do you want this job? Why should we hire you?” At the end of the interview, usually you have a chance to ask a question. Salary is to be avoided as one of the questions you ask. Ask the committee, “Why do you think this is such a great job?” This will give you some great insight into the Purpose, Persistence and Passion that this is going to be required from you and those in the room.

After the interview, send a handwritten thank you to each member that was on that committee, shows your class.

Coach John Saintignon

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Coach John Saintignon

John Saintignon has an extensive background of an experienced and successful basketball coach at the International Professional, NCAA Division 1, NCAA Division 2 and High School levels — and a three-time NCAA All-American as a player and a professional player. Coach Saintignon has been helping players and their families navigate through the NCAA process of helping them get a college scholarship, having wrote a book on the subject while at Oregon State University, “ What does it take to get a college scholarship?”, as well as preparing them for the court. Coach Saintignon trains the athletes and provides performance nutritional advice working alongside Advocare to help his athletes reach their fullest potential. FB: JSSportsNet and at www.advocare.com/130423949

Saintignon was the Head Coach of Fuerza Guinda of the FIBA Americas; Coach Saintignon led his team to a Playoff finish. During the 2011-2012 season of the NBA lockout, Saintignon was instrumental in getting NBA players into jobs overseas having placed Jarron Collins and Mardy Collins into the CBA in China, Salim Stoudamire into Italy, Sam Clancy into Argentina, James Porter into Japan, Calvin Hampton into Bahrain. Over a 100 players have come through Los Angeles to get player development training including the future Hall of Famer NFL Defensive end and Superbowl winner Simeon Rice who came out to LA to train for 3 days in strenuous basketball training with Coach Saintignon.

Saintignon has been a coach in high school, college and professional basketball in Arizona, California, Oregon, Mexico and Bahrain. Most recently, Saintignon was the successful Head Coach in the Premier League in the country of Bahrain in the Middle East since March 2010, leading his team to a Final Four finish. Prior to that he was the Assistant Coach at Cal State Stanislaus University in the CCAA Conference and an NCAA Division 2 institution. Saintignon was also the Associate Head Coach and Director of Player Development for the Culiacan Caballeros of the top league in the Mexican Professional Basketball League (LNBP). As a first-year franchise, the Caballeros went to the LNBP playoffs in a top 6 finish.

Prior to coaching professionally, Saintignon was the Director of Basketball Operations and Assistant Coach at Oregon State University in the Pac-10 Conference from 2006 to 2007. Before landing in Corvallis, Saintignon was a teacher and Head Coach at Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Ariz. His previous high school coaching experience included being the Head Coach at Canyon del Oro High School in Tucson, Ariz. (2001-04); Bonita Vista High School in Chula Vista, Calif. (1995-01); and Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach, Calif. (1992-95).

Saintignon led his team at Canyon del Oro to the state tournament twice and was named the Coach of the Year in 2001-02. At Bonita Vista, he was also named the league’s coach of the year after leading his team to the CIF championship in 1999, the first CIF Championship earned in the schools history. At Mar Vista, Saintignon earned Coach of the Year honors by taking his team to the league championship in 1994-95, and the schools first since 1964.

As a guest speaker in Italy, Croatia, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Bahrain, Mexico Israel and Argentina, Saintignon has earned a reputation as an authority on player development and has produced several DVD’s on getting athletes better through individual training; “Advanced Guard Workout” is the title, as well as attacking on offense with his Secondary Break philosophy, called “On the Attack: Mastering the Secondary Break.”

Saintignon graduated from the University of California at San Diego in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in Economics, and a Master’s degree from Liberty University in Sports Administration. He played one season at UC San Diego and three seasons at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In 1985-86, he was the Leading Scorer in the United States (USA) as he led the entire NCAA Divisions with 31.2 points per game scoring average. He earned All-Conference MVP and All-American candidate honors all three of his years at UC Santa Cruz as he scored more than 2,450 points in his career where he is the All-Time scoring leader in University history as his number was retired this year. He went on to play professionally in Spain and Mexico for four seasons earning various honors including several All-Star selections.

A native of Tucson, Ariz., Saintignon graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School where he was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998. Saintignon has been married for 16 years to Angelica and they are proud parents of their two sons, Vicente (14) and Sebastian (11).