Back-to-back coach searches pose challenge for Pirates’ AD
HAMPTON — It’s been a tumultuous March for Hampton University athletics director Anthony Henderson. More specifically, it’s been a hectic past two weeks.
Last Monday, Hampton parted ways with long-time men’s basketball coach Buck Joyner. Just four days later, Henderson concluded a national search that resulted in the hiring of Georgetown associate head coach and Norfolk native Ivan Thomas as the Pirates’ new head coach.
Three days after that? Longtime women’s basketball coach David Six announced his retirement. That kick-started yet another search for Henderson and the Hampton administration.
“It’s a lot,” Henderson said. “Being an alum, I knew both of those guys. It’s not like I’m coming in as an AD and I didn’t know them or have a relationship with them — a long-standing relationship. So to lose collectively 30 years of Hampton experience in the same week? Yeah, it’s a lot.”
Henderson, along with Hampton University president Darrell K. Williams and others, introduced Thomas during a press conference Wednesday.
This isn’t the first head-coaching hire Henderson has made in just more than a year on the job — see new women’s soccer coach Scott Vorwold and women’s volleyball coach Ronaldo Pacheco — but it’s definitely the first with major impact.
“This was the most important hire I think in my short tenure,” Henderson told The Pilot. “… Some people have said it’s the most important hire for the university. Football is big, of course. But you know at the FCS level, men’s basketball, from a financial standpoint, if you are successful and you go to the NCAA Tournament and win games in the NCAA Tournament, that’s real revenue.”
Henderson said the same revenue standpoint applies to women’s basketball, but he also has to deal with the pressure that both are more “visible” programs that people pay attention to. Still, every coaching hire comes with pressure, Henderson said.
With Thomas now officially introduced as the men’s coach, Henderson can take a breather, albeit a short one, before getting back to work on finding the Pirates’ next women’s basketball coach. Henderson told The Pilot he is progressing “nice and fast” on the search, partly because of the transfer portal, which opened Monday.
“Hopefully, we’ll be narrowing that down and announcing that one soon, too. The transfer portal opened on Monday. That’s one of the things that you have to navigate now that you used to didn’t have to. Used to (be), you go to the Final Four, you do all your interviews and you name somebody in April. Can’t afford to do that anymore. So, we’re at the point now, we’ve narrowed it down. Hopefully, soon we’ll be wrapping that one up.”
Thomas and the new women’s basketball coach will replace coaches who had become synonymous with Hampton basketball. Six and Joyner were responsible for more than half of the Pirates’ total conference tournament championships in their respective programs’ Division I history.
“These are big hires because you got some big shoes to fill,” Henderson said. “Even though the recent success hasn’t been there, they both had a great track record of success. So hopefully, we got it right. We’ll see.”