Reprinted from Basketball Times The day will come,
Elwyn McRoy hopes when he becomes a head coach at a four-year school, but whether that time arrives or not, the guy is a good example of a coach's seemingly infinite struggle in climbing to the top of the ladder in his profession.
To be sure, the 5-foot~6 former point guard has more than paid his dues in simply staying afloat. His calling card as a player was an all-out style of play, and in his quest to land a head-coaching job, he's going all-out again. Thus far, he has drawn nothing but airballs.
McRoy played collegiately at Butler and Hutchinson, Kan., jucos and then at Cleveland State in the late 1990s before he began a coaching odyssey that equals any other in the USA, He has had 14 jobs, six as an assistant coach at NCAA-level Division -I schools, in 16 years. He began his coaching career as a $300-a-rnonth assistant at Butler from 1997-99 and today is an assistant at Coppin State.
Is he a job-hopper or are those in the know at four-year schools just not connecting the dots?
"Unless I was let go, every move I have ever made has been a better move," McRoy said. "There
aren't any guarantees in this profession. You are a free agent until someone gives you a multi-year contract."
"This profession is complex, so every coach and situation is unique," said North Carolina State assistant coach Bobby Lutz. "In a perfect world it is not best to have 14 jobs in 16 years, but to remain in the business, sometimes it simply is the reality if you want to be a college coach. The fact that Elwyn has been hired that many times speaks well of him. Most of us (coaches) have been turned down many more times than we are offered jobs, so it is a tribute that many different (head) coaches have hired him."
Along his journey, McRoy has experienced What 99 out of 100 major-college coaches most likely would have walked -- maybe even run away from.
It bottomed out when he became an assistant coach at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in 2012-13. After all, how many coaches in that short stint:
Would work for $3,000 and room and board for seven months as McRoy did when he went to Stillman in the middle of football country? He split nights sleeping in a campus dorm room and in a 20-yeaI-old RV parked 10 miles away in a hotel parking lot.
Would put their pride aside and buy a scooter for transportation. McRoy did it. He cared about is that it only cost $7 to gas it up and that that gas lasted at least a couple of weeks.
"The worst feeling," McRoy said "is having no money and being away from home and my Wife (Carmen) and four kids (who live in Seattle). After all the work I had done, the name I had made for myself, l was (at Stillman) eating in the school cafeteria because I couldn't afford to buy food."
Would go virtually flat broke - as McRoy did at age 40 - just to keep his name in the coaching mill?
Would collect an unemployment check, as McRoy did? With money scarce, he applied for jobs at Target, the YMCA, as an airline front desk worker, as a health service worker, a night attendant and as a Circle K cashier.
"I guess from their point of view, it's hard to look at a resume that only has basketball on it," he said.
A11 along he kept fishing for jobs. A text here. An email there. A telephone call now and then. He found it doubly tough to swallow that he was passed over recently for head coaching jobs in his home state of Kansas - at Allen and Dodge City jucos.
Would accept a handout from one of his colleagues - as McRoy did in 2013? The $350 came from coach Gravelle Craig of Bethune-Cookman, who had his hands full trying to get his ducks in a row in his first go-round as à head coach at a Division I school.
As if that isn't enough to deal with, McRoy has had to market himself, given that he does not have a name coach such as a Thad Matta or Sean Miller - behind him. It has been said countless times before that it's best to let your work do your talking, but what happens if the right person isn't listening?
"He was a tough little kid who worked hard as a player, and now he's a tough little guy who's working hard at being a head coach," said Rollie Massimino, who coached McRoy at Cleveland State, coached with him at Northwood, Fla. & led Villanova to an NCAA title in 1985. "Not many people work harder. He has definitely worked his way up the coaching ladder."
Said Arkansas State coach John Brady: "Great basketball programs are built around great coaching and great players and he brings both of these components to every program he coaches. Elwyn is able to use his extensive network of contacts to attract some of talent."
"Elwyn has a passion for the game, recruiting and players," Lutz said. "That combination seems obvious, but few actually possess all three in the amounts that Elwyn displays. I don't think he is ready to be a head coach at the Division l level at this time, but he certainly could take an NAIA or lower-level NCAA job. If he assists a program to great success, he will be ready to be a four-year D-I head coach."
California coach Cuonzo Martin seconds that.
Said Martin: "He's battle-tested and a relentless recruiter. He's worked in a lot of cities and states, so he's built relationships. His personal hardships, because of some of the things he has experienced, will help in his relationship development with players."
McRoy hangs his hat on being/able to recruit quality junior-college players no matter the four-year school.
"There are people who say you can't get it done (win) with juco players," he said. "I say you can."
If- nothing else, McRoy is a walking, talking picture of perseverance. A two-year school guy through and through who says what he means and means what he says. He loves the game and now, he contends, he needs some love back.
"The chance to be a head coach at any college level would be a blessing," McElroy said.
Tony Jimenez has been covering junior Colleges longer than anyone in America.
