Coaching high school basketball feels like a full-time job in itself. Even outside of game and practices, coaches are busy building practice plans, analyzing film, traveling to scout opponents and watching more basketball to better themselves.
But for the vast majority, coaching at the high school level is not a primary source of income. Coaches often work as teachers or administrators in their own or another school system, or have a different job entirely.
"It really is just two full-time jobs that you're trying to keep going," Norwood girls coach Kristen McDonnell said. "It's a whirlwind. I say goodbye to my friends in December usually, and say I'll see you again in March."
So how do they manage both commitments, and how do they find time to improve?
We went to five well-known MIAA coaches for insight: Amy Dolores (Bishop Feehan), Alan Hibino (Andover), Shantell Jeter (Belmont), McDonnell (Norwood) and Steve Solly (Lexington). Here are their thoughts.
How do you balance time management between coaching and your day job?
Hibino and Dolores each have several roles at their schools. Both teach math, and Hibino also coaches Andover's girls tennis and trivia team, while Dolores is Bishop Feehan's assistant athletic director.
"I try to spend that fall getting everything set up in my classroom so that when it does get busier, I can find pockets of time to, where it used to be grading, now I might be watching film or doing a scouting report," Hibino said.
Dolores actually likes that basketball season includes both Christmas and February vacations. It gives her more time to focus on coaching and extra time to catch up on grading assignments.
"It doesn't give you any vacation because I'm probably working harder during those off-school, off-teaching times, but it helps me for sure," she said.
During the winter season, and especially during school vacations, it's common to find multiple coaches in the gym bleachers scouting future matchups. For Solly, also a physical education teacher at Lexington, travel outside of gameday is an additional piece to the coaching schedule, but modern technology has made film more accessible.
"It's easier now in the era of HUDL, people exchange film and stuff," Solly said. "Back in the day, we had to drive and watch everyone play. So I do it for every opponent going into every game. Even if it's someone we've seen multiple times, I try to watch at least one of their most recent games within the last week of them playing, because things ebb and flow, and starters change and injuries happen."
Jeter coaches at Belmont but works outside of the school system as Manager of Special Projects in Boston Public Schools' Division of Student Support. Since she's not seeing her players in the hallways or in class, she makes sure she puts in effort to maintain relationships with the team.
"I talk to them all the time," Jeter said. "I text them during the school days, I stay connected with them about things that they have going on outside of basketball, and I think that makes it easier for me to get to them and to get them to do what I need them to do."
McDonnell, also a guidance counselor at Norwood, believes that sometimes "less can be more" for both players and coaches. She'll take note if her team is burnt out during a tough midseason stretch and occasionally schedule a day or weekend off. Those breaks are sometimes necessary for her too.
"I also think that with technology, things continue to get put on us, like some expectations — and not written ones, just the unwritten," she said. "You're going to do film, and you're going to do all these big, elaborate scouting reports, and you'll have every kid watch film, and there's specific weaknesses and strengths, and it's just unrealistic.
"I always am amazed at how much film other coaches can get in, because by the time I get home, you're exhausted after a game, and you're trying to figure out what you're doing for your full-time job the next day. So you do what you can, but you give yourself a little bit of a break and not feel like everybody's out there doing this."
Where do your coaching philosophies come from?
All five coaches played basketball through at least high school, and McDonnell went on to score more than 1,200 points at Stonehill. She attributed the foundation of her style primarily to her college coaches Kelly Hart and Tricia Brown. McDonnell also participates in weekly online coaching discussions called "Fireside Chats" run by North Andover resident coach and trainer Rick Gorman.
For others, their most impactful mentors came when they first joined team staffs. Hibino, who led Andover to the 2022-23 Division 1 championship, started as the school's freshman boys coach, where he learned from the coach he also played for: longtime varsity coach Dave Fazio.
In college, Hibino was a team manager while a student at Michigan during the days of Brian Ellerbe and now-Harvard coach Tommy Amaker.
"With (Amaker's) organization, his attention to detail, his ability to communicate with all the different players and other administrators (and) coaches, we got to see that," Hibino said. "Even just the way that, as managers, we felt like we were an important, integral part of the success of the program. He gave us responsibility, and so I learned a lot about program-building from him."
Solly, the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Association 2024 Coach of the Year, played high school ball in New Jersey and started coaching alongside his first years as a P.E. teacher. He became the Lexington girls freshmen coach in 2003 under varsity coach Paul McManus. Part of Solly's job included scouting Lexington's opponents to prepare McManus's defensive-minded teams. In return, McManus gave Solly practice time near the varsity team; Solly then took over for McManus when he retired in 2009.
"If you've ever been in our Lexington Fieldhouse, the practices out there, you've got the track team running around you, you've got the wrestling team behind the bleachers, and then you have a varsity (and) freshman team sharing it," he said. "So I developed a pretty good skill set of, hey, we have a limited number of hoops, not great acoustics — let's go. Plus, I'm a P.E. teacher, so I'm kind of used to the chaos."
Jeter and Dolores have picked the brains of coaches in close proximity to them. Jeter is good friends with Dwayne Powell, now head coach at Concord Academy, and he gave her the encouragement to try coaching. She also works in Boston Public Schools alongside another great basketball resource: five-time state champion Cory McCarthy.
Dolores' neighbor is Mansfield coach Mike Vaughan. Vaughan helped Dolores prepare for her ascension from Bishop Feehan assistant to head coach. She took over the Shamrocks program in 2019 and won last year's Division 1 title.
"When I was interviewing for (the head coaching job), I used to sit at his AAU practices with a notebook and just write down everything," she said. "He's an incredible resource. Our spouses always joke that in the winter, we're useless. We just talk to each other and share film clips and things like that."
Where do you go to become a better coach?
One common theme: Take advantage of local college practices.
Solly is a frequent attendant at Bentley women's practices, formerly under coach Barbara Stevens and now under C White. He also watched Carla Berube's teams when she coached Tufts.
"I'd always go to (Stevens') first week of practice, because that's when I felt like all the teaching cues were happening," he said. "I'm a big teaching cue guy — they say it like that, but like I say it like this? Let's try this word."
McDonnell also takes in Bentley practices and returns to her alma mater to watch Stonehill. Dolores noted Stonehill and Wheaton as places she studies.
Hibino got to watch Merrimack's team up close one summer, when the Warriors used Andover's gym due to humidity issues in their own facility.
"The first thing I noticed was how loud the gym was, and I was like, that's basketball," he said. "They were working on some different breakdowns and things like that, but you could see how much energy there was the second they walked into that gym."
The internet is also loaded with film and perspective. Dolores is a big fan of The Basketball Podcast, part of Chris Oliver's Basketball Immersion platform. Jeter finds new plays and ideas on YouTube and Instagram. She also leans on her own experience as a player at Brighton High in Boston, and the challenges she faced as an athlete with ADHD.
"I laminate boards for each of the kids so they can take it home. So if they need to draw their own plays, they're able to do that, so that they can practice themselves — and I wish someone did that for me," she said. "I try to find plays that there is a video for, or I'll record a video of them doing the play so they can take it home."
What lessons have you learned that could help young or aspiring head coaches?
McDonnell believes that over time, her motivations have changed. When she started coaching, winning helped to satisfy her competitive desire stemming from her time as a player. Now it's a healthier balance that focuses more on giving her players a positive experience.
"I do think what happens over time, and I'm sure a lot of coaches that have now been in it, maybe 10 years-plus, would agree, is that it becomes less about your own pride and fulfilling that own little ego you might have to do well and to win," she said. "And I think that's just a natural transition... I think there's absolutely still that competitiveness, but it is totally much more the giving sake than a taking sake."
Dolores is only in her sixth year as head coach, but has been in the Bishop Feehan coaching pipeline since 2003. She spent 15 years soaking up experience before she took over the Shamrocks.
"Listen to whoever you're around that's got any kind of experience, or knowledge or anything that can relate," she said. "I've learned a lot from people who are basketball coaches (and) people are not basketball coaches. I've learned things from parents. I've learned things from kids. I've learned things from alumni. Just don't be afraid to listen, to try new things, and to kind of consider out-of-the-box ideas."
Jeter is also newer to the rigors of being a head coach, in her third year at Belmont after previously coaching at Wellesley. At 36, she's one of the younger head coaches in the community and also a Black woman, an underrepresented group particularly at the New England high school level. She encourages more young people to join and bring their unique approaches to coaching.
"Let's get some new faces out there. Let's get some younger people out there. The game is changing," Jeter said. "I think of a lot of the things that my old school coach used to teach me and used to say, and it's just different now. So how do we keep growing the game?"
