Horsemen grad departs Lobos staff for coaching job
The coaching profession is all about upward mobility. So when Guy Meyer was offered a chance to take the ultimate leap from the bottom rung on one team’s staff into the top spot of another, he couldn’t resist taking it.
Hired this spring to be a part of Paul Weir’s staff on The University of New Mexico’s basketball team, the 32-yearold St. Michael’s High School graduate vacated his video coordinator and scouting director post two weeks ago to take over as head coach of the Glendale (Ariz.) Community College men’s program.
It’s Meyer’s first stint as a head coach, one prompted by a dose of reality shortly after joining Weir in the move from New Mexico State to UNM.
“Basically it’s like this,” Meyer said by phone Thursday, “I had a long talk with Paul and was told there wasn’t a good chance of me moving into one of the three assistant’s jobs in the next three years. For me, I’m a coach and I want to be on the floor doing just that. What I had with the Lobos wasn’t so much coaching as it was a behind-thescenes thing.”
Meyer has always had his sights set on leading a program. After leading the Horsemen to back-to-back state titles his final two years in high school, he had a successful playing career in college at Fort Lewis.
From there, he had a brief stint playing professionally in Sweden and five years as an assistant coach at Cochise (Ariz.) College. He managed to sandwich in a couple years in Santa Fe teaching physical education while finishing a graduate degree.
What he never had was a chance to sit in the hot seat, a spot reserved for a head coach who sets the bottom line.
“For me, this move is for the betterment of my career,” he said. “Probably 50 percent of the people I talked to told me to stay at UNM and the other half said I should go. Honestly, I’ve never been that enamoured with the Division I level, so staying with the Lobos didn’t have that appeal to me that it might with others.”
While the money’s definitely better at UNM, there’s no doubt that Meyer feels his career trajectory is best served at Glendale. Besides, he doesn’t have the added pressure of uprooting a family to make the move. Still single, he has a serious girlfriend who will move with him.
“My mom still lives in Santa Fe, so being in Albuquerque was, in some ways, a great benefit — on paper,” Meyer said. “But that job at UNM kept me so busy that being 65 miles down the road prevented me from seeing her just as much as this job in Glendale will. It all kind of balances out.”
Meyer said he will still try to uphold a commitment he made to attend Weir’s camp at St. Michael’s this weekend. The camp, open for kids in grades first through eighth, runs Saturday and Sunday at Perez-Shelley Memorial Gymnasium.
“Even if I have to drive all night, I want to be there,” he said. “It’s home.”