Dan Christensen

Excited to begin working with @CoachBechler at Bechler Leadership on the Search Team. If you’re an athletic director wanting to do a thorough search for an open coaching job you have but you just don’t have the time to do it justice right now, we can help. DM me!

Every coaching candidate should answer the same core questions during the interview. Follow-up can vary, but consistency gives your committee a much fairer and more meaningful comparison.

In coach interviews, there are some obvious red flags. And there are also some more subtle ones. As an Athletic Director, make sure you're paying attention to these red flags in the interview process: linkedin.com/pulse/red-flag…

Winning can hide cultural problems for a while. It rarely fixes them. Eventually culture shows up in retention, recruiting, conduct issues, and reputation. ADs need to make culture building a priority in every coaching search.

A coach who sees campus support areas as obstacles will eventually create strain. A coach who sees them as partners usually strengthens the department. You can often hear that mindset in how coaching candidates describe past colleagues.

Almost every coaching candidate can talk about leadership. The better question is: Can they provide evidence of it? Stories about people they've developed are usually more revealing than polished leadership statements.

Many coaching candidates can explain their philosophy. Fewer can give specific examples of when that philosophy was tested. Stories are usually more revealing than slogans.

If your coaching interview answers could work at 100 different schools, they're probably too generic. The best candidates explain why their experience and philosophy fit this specific institution.

A bad team culture quickly becomes a recruiting problem. A recruiting problem quickly becomes an enrollment problem. Everything is connected. It starts with making a great coaching hire.

Great talkers can often be great leaders. But, not always. Athletic Directors need to conduct their interviews so that they can identify who are the real leaders and who might just be a good interviewer but surface level leader: linkedin.com/pulse/how-tell…

A strong resume answers three questions quickly: Where have you been? What have you accomplished? Why does that matter for this role? The faster an AD can answer those questions, the better.

One of the biggest mistakes in coaching searches: building the interview around interesting questions instead of the actual competencies the job requires. Start with the job. Then write the questions.

Don't ask a coaching candidate, "Are you a team player?" Ask them about a real disagreement with compliance, academics or sports medicine. Then listen for blame, defensiveness, empathy and how they preserved the relationship.

WHAT SIGNALS ARE YOUR COACHING RESUME GIVING? When you send in your coaching resume and cover letter, how is it being perceived by the athletic director, hiring committee, or search firm for that job? Article by @RecruitWithDan 🔗 linkedin.com/pulse/what-sig…

The strongest coaches aren't just strategists. They're recruiters. Culture builders. Retention leaders. And in many cases, enrollment drivers.

Structured coaching interviews don't eliminate judgment. They improve it. The goal isn't to ask, "Who did we like?" It's to ask, "What evidence did we hear that this candidate can lead our program well?"

The wrong school name in a cover letter isn't just a mistake. To many hiring committees it signals: Carelessness. Lack of preparation. Lack of genuine interest. It's one of the easiest mistakes to avoid.

You're not interviewing to prove you're a good coach in. your sport. You're interviewing to prove you're the right leader for that institution. Those are two different conversations.

Excited to be working with Arizona Christian University to find the next great leader of their men's lacrosse program. If you or someone you know is a strong, Christian lacrosse coach ready to take over a program with great, new facilities and in an awesome location, DM me.

Applying for a job because it’s a “step up” matters to you, not the hiring committee. They care about fit. Can you clearly explain why you belong at that institution, in that role, right now?

In recruiting, we all know you can’t just wait and hope the right people show up. Same thing in hiring coaches. Great searches require pursuit.