A Career - Hamish Hutchens

[ticktock]

Hamish Hutchens was born and raised in Statesboro, Georgia, son of academics who taught at Georgia Southern. The Eagles were best known for their football prowess, but Hamish had always passionately loved and played basketball and one day dreamed of playing for their varsity side.

At the beginning of high school though, his parents transferred to the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. By the time he had finished high school, he had made new friends and though and he happily enrolled in South Alabama so he could stay close to his parents.

A feisty point guard on the court, it was during his high school years that his friends started out-growing him physically. Hamish seemed to stop growing at 5'7" while all his friends seemed to hit growth spurts. His court smarts and leadership could only compensate so much however, and he eventually had to admit to himself that playing competitively was no longer in his future.

By the time he enrolled in South Alabama, playing for the Jaguars was a pipe dream. He still loved basketball though, and seeing as his high school friend Jules Abraham had made the varsity squad as a small forward, Hamish signed on as an equipment manager so he could still be involved. And hey, at least he'd be getting prime courtside seats in the yearly Sun Belt conference match-up against Georgia Southern!

His obvious passion for the game and his ability to understand the minds of the players and to communicate effectively with them led to a unique opportunity in Hamish's junior year. Under the tutelage of legendary South Alabama coach Marek Stanfield, he was given a unique opportunity to sign on as a 3rd assistant coach when ill health forced the long-serving incumbent into retirement at the start of the 2013 season.

Coach Stanfield had observed just how effectively Hamish could communicate strategy to the players, but more importantly, how he had earned their respect by replaying the coaching lessons for Jules and a few others after practice. Due to the small size of the program and the limited funds available, both the 2nd and 3rd assistant roles were part-time, so this wouldn't interfere with completing Hamish's degree. If he couldn't play, coaching was the next best thing, and this now represented a dream come true for Hamish.

Marek's ability to sniff out talent had always been his strongest trait as a coach, and he saw the chance to mentor Hamish as just such an opportunity. Given his current assistants had always been weak in sniffing out talent for themselves, Marek took Hamish under his wing and gave him his first assignment to help in this area.

And so at the tender age of 21, Hamish embarked on what he hoped would now be a career in coaching basketball. While he still didn't really know a lot about the often complex offensive and defensive schemes needed to play ball at a collegiate level, he figured his ability to just understand what made a good player would be enough to make a go of things. And he could always learn the rest!

[To Be Continued...]

[ticktock]

South Alabama (P:19, F:C, A:C) 3rd Assistant (2yr,$17,000)
Stats: (O:6 D:19 R:31 S:7 PD:46) Rep:8 Job Security:10

Hamish was fighting back an increasing feeling of being overwhelmed. He sat across from Coach Stanfield who was peering at him intently, waiting for his answer.

"Umm... yeah... small forwards I guess."

"Right", Marek replied noncommittally.

He had asked Hamish for his assessment of recruiting needs for next year. He was right of course, but he also couldn't really be wrong since they needed help at every position. In fact, they had 5 scholarships to fill next year, as 3 starters and the 6th and 7th man were all seniors this year.

But he also acknowledged that this was tough for Hamish. He was now being forced to look at the team in a whole new light, especially his friend Jules. Marek was actually impressed that he picked small forwards as the number one need, given that would bring in extra competition for his friend. It showed early signs that he maybe could make the hard decisions when required.

He was certainly on to something though. There were currently only two small forwards on the team; Jules and fellow junior Jesse Engstrom. Jesse was probably a bit stronger skills-wise, but had reached the limit of his capability. Jules was the exact opposite. He'd always been a bit hard to get to know and like, and constantly rubbing his team-mates the wrong way had probably contributed to staying well down the depth chart. But he had some great potential. If he didn't establish himself this year though and Hamish brought in some good high school talent next year, Jules might never make the most of his opportunity to play at the collegiate level. That could certainly test the friendship.

Hamish sat back and wondered whether recruiting for 5 spots was a blessing or a curse. On the one hand it felt like a mammoth task and was certainly being thrown in the deep end. On the other, it sort of released the pressure a bit since they would have to spread themselves pretty thin, and it wasn't so much about letting some steal get away, but making sure they got decent recruits for all those spots so they could start to rebuild.

Coach Stanfield asked Hamish to go away and consider what sort of team he thought they should rebuild into, and what was important to look for in players that would help that type of team. He'd soon start giving Hamish the task of going through the scouting reports, and requesting game tapes for anyone who caught his eye. Coach Stanfield wanted them evaluated, and then put them on a list for his later review. Hamish didn't know it then, but he'd be watching hundreds of game tapes this season...

He thought about his philosophy when it came to basketball and the type of team that he wanted to help Coach Stanfield build.

Mostly he thought about the way he used to play. High intensity, full court pressure, all the time. Force your opponents to panic, make mistakes, and then capitalise. To do this you needed an extremely tight unit who instinctively understood where their team mates would be on the court. Subs were only for when you had to. By extension, this meant you needed extremely fit and energetic players - any sign of tiredness or jadedness and you'd lose your coveted spot to someone younger and hungrier than you. Hamish believed that encouraging this level of competitiveness and hunger within the team was how you built championship calibre teams.

So he set himself some rules for how he'd start going through the lists of promising high school players:

• No JUCO players - if you weren't good enough to come straight in at this level, you're probably not hungry enough for this team.
• The recruit must be able to play average defense, and only if they are exceptional in something else. Everyone else must be able to play above average defense.
• He'd give preference to those players who had familiarity with full court defenses.
• Prefer small forwards, but look for the best player available at all positions.

Over the following weeks Hamish puts many players on the short list. He's somewhat surprised with how often Coach Stanfield disagrees with his assessments, and as time wears on he notices a number of players appearing on the watch lists that weren't put there by him. Players that he had explicitly ruled out as not being suitable in any way, shape, or form.

But he also knows he has to learn, and he's ultimately not sure of what players that Coach Stanfield offers scholarships to. Whoever they are, the test will be when they eventually get into practice and hit the court for the Jaguars. Only then will Hamish know if his or his coaches assessment was better.

Ultimately, they recruit PG Ramal Church and SG Jermaine Owens; a duo that Hamish thinks could be a 4 year starting pair for the team. He was extremely excited that Coach Stanfield seemed to listen and go after these two.

However, bafflingly, Coach Stanfield also offers a scholarship to another SG called Tory Gladieux. Hamish did not think he would fit in at all and shouldn't have been offered a scholarship. Tory is the only out of state recruit for the entire team (hails from Mountain Home, AR).

The two remaining recruits - SF Brett Harris and SF Greg Jackson - also baffled Hamish. Neither could play defense to save their lives, and he wasn't sure what Coach Stanfield saw in either of them. Perhaps these two would provide him with the greatest learning experience of all if they ended up being good contributors?

[JMD]

Well?

[Wayne23]

Nice start. Very readable. I wouldn't assistant coach but I will look forward to Hutchins' adventures here. Keep writing!

[Wayne23]

Oops, Hutchens' adventures.

[PointGuard]

Yes, it's good to see some ass't coach dynasty reports.

[ticktock]

Sorry guys, I lost a bit of desire to keep writing this up with the 0 attributes bug that I've encountered (which means this dynasty is dead in the water at year 4). Given that I still haven't had a single response to any of the emails I've sent to the Wolverine Studios support address (and no official response on the forum), I'm very wary of investing more time in this game. I've now got very little confidence that I'll ever see it fixed and be able to continue.

In saying that, your kind words are absolutely inspiration and motivation indeed! I'll look at writing some more up later today.

[Wayne23]

Hang in, ticktock. Probably wise to back away for now but Gary does get to these things. He is a VERY busy guy. This is a labor of love and it doesn't feed his kids so he does what he can when he can. As I say, check in occasionally and sooner or later you'll be up and running. It is a fantastic game. I have been addicted since spring of 2007. Early on the game hated my computer or vice versa but eventually it all got sorted out. Hope to have the chance to read more from you at some later time.

[ticktock]

It was an extremely tough year for the Jaguars.

This was to be expected in some ways due to the rebuilding required, but Hamish got to experience what a 8-19 (3-13) and finishing dead last in the conference season felt like in a way he'd never been exposed to before. To rub salt into the wounds, they lost twice to Georgia Southern who went on to finish the year 23-8 and be ranked #22 in the nation. In previous years that would have made him ecstatic; now it just made him feel hollow.

They didn't even qualify for the Sun Belt conference tournament, who only take the 8 highest placed finishers in the conference. Hamish could still only dream about what it felt like to take part in a tournament.

The only bright spot was Jules forcing his way into the starting lineup, and he was able to get some really good minutes while starting 26 of the 27 games.

After the year was over, Hamish took stock of what he had learnt. He had really only been involved in recruiting in his first year, but he felt like he had learnt a lot [R:31->37, S:7->9, no other attribute increases].

He had had limited involvement during practices and game time, but given the move from equipment manager and his age similarity with the players, this was probably a wise move on Marek's part. The incoming recruits next year would see Hamish as more of an authority figure since he was very visible and involved during their recruiting process. Within a year or two, Hamish should be able to do a lot more for the team.

On a nice personal end to the season for Hamish, he did field a few enquiries from other small programs to see whether he'd be interested in coming over as a 3rd assistant [no offers better than P:23 schools]. None of them really offered a better opportunity compared to South Alabama, so he politely thanked them for their interest and started preparing for next year...

[ticktock]

South Alabama (P:15, F:C, A:C) 3rd Assistant (4yr,$17,000)
Stats: (O:6 D:19 R:37 S:9 PD:46) Rep:8 Job Security:10

Hamish walked into Marek's office in early May to officially start their 2014 campaign.

"I've got some good news and bad news; which did you want first?" asked Marek as Hamish took a seat.

"I'll go for the good Coach."

"Well, I've recently had a very encouraging meeting with our athletic department. The AD understands that this is a process of rebuilding we started last year, and what we need more than anything is time. So he's decided to extend all our contracts out by 4 years in a show of good faith and support."

"Wow, that's fantastic news!"

"Yeah, he pretty excited by Church and Owens coming in, and he thinks they could be two of the best players to play for the Jaguars for some time. He's hoping they'll form a potent back court duo for many years."

Hamish was quite pleased with this news, and the implicit recognition that he'd done a good job last year even during such a tough season.

"Err, so what's the bad news coach?", enquired Hamish.

"You got an extension, but no extra pay. He only gave a small increase to the full-timers; myself and Geoff. I tried to wrangle a bit more cash from him to get yourself and Mayce a few extra dollars, but he wasn't in THAT good of a mood".

"That's alright coach; you can pay me the big dollars when we win the conference!" joked Hamish as he grinned at Marek.

Marek smiled. "Well, I like your enthusiasm. I think we're going to need it again this year. Though at least the AD also gave us some realistic goals; he just wants us to try and win 10 games and see if we can avoid finishing last again. I really did catch him in a good mood!", grinned Marek back at Hamish.

"Anyway, get your head back in the game and start thinking about who we should be going after in recruiting this year. You had a good year last year, but you've still got lots to learn", continued Marek.

"Sure thing coach", replied Hamish as he left the office.

From a needs perspective, he figured this year was a bit easier. He felt they were looking ok at guards with the recruitment of Church and Owens, and last year freshman C Louvon Swoger turned out to be as good as expected and led the team. With the impending graduation of both starting SFs and two walk-on senior PFs who provide good minutes, the focus must be on SFs and PFs this year for the 3 scholarships available.

He also saw no reason to change his basic recruiting criteria that he used last year (no JUCO and must be at least average on Defense), no matter what Marek thought.

As the months rolled on, recruiting turns out to be a much more difficult exercise than last year. Last year's horrendous season is still pretty fresh in everyone's minds and the school's reputation had taken a bit of a battering.

Marek continues to apparently ignore candidates that Hamish thinks would be a good fit, and potentially have been misrated by others, but overall does seem to be considering his suggestions more. Hamish can't help but think that the condition of the two questionable SF recruits from last year (Brett Harris and Greg Jackson) might have something to do with it - they really aren't in good shape and Marek decides to redshirt them. Hopefully a year on the practice squad might help.

In what Hamish hopes is not a sign of things to come, the Jaguars have no verbal committments leading into the first game of the season...