The Patrick Callahan Story: Starting from Zero

[SteveVictory]

Patrick Callahan adjusted the knot of his new purple-and-white tie—a gift from the athletic director—and took a deep breath as he approached the podium.

To think, 72 hours earlier Callahan had never even heard of Stonehill College, a small, private Catholic school from Easton, Massachusetts, population 25,000. Now, he was being introduced as the Skyhawks’ next men’s basketball coach.

It was a preposterous proposition.

A 25-year-old, with a mere three years of experience as a part-time high school coach in North Carolina—albeit with impressive results—taking over a Division I hoops program a long way from home. Yet, here he was.

Providentially?

His faithful Catholic grandmother might think so. She had prayed hard that Patrick would return to the faith she had tried to instill in all of her many grandchildren, but which Patrick had abandoned while in high school. To get him on a Catholic campus full-time was a start at least.

“This morning, I read an article in NXT Hoops magazine calling Stonehill College a program with zero basketball prestige,” Callahan said to open his presser “Well, I’m here to tell you: we’re about to change all that.”

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Patrick’s mother always told him that he would win every job interview. He had natural charisma, thought well on his feet and could convince you he knew all the nuances of a subject, even if he had no clue.

Callahan turned on the charm and dazzled at his first press conference as Stonehill’s head men’s basketball coach. The Boston area media ate it up. For a day at least, Stonehill owned above-the-fold real estate on websites and newspapers.

A story on the school’s official Web site trumpeted the athletic department’s “Bold Hire To Forge A New Era of Stonehill Basketball.” The social media team whipped up a series of sharp “We Got Our Man!” and “Welcome Home!” graphics to fill up Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feeds. It was good to be a Skyhawk.

But behind the scenes, all was not rosy with Stonehill’s new hoops hire. Athletics director Jack Doherty had gotten an earful from school boosters and high-ranking officials about picking Callahan. There had been several much more qualified candidates. All of whom had actually coached college basketball before.

“We’re only a few years into our transition from Division II to Division I. We need an experienced head coach, someone who knows D1, someone who knows New England. Not some southern kid from parks and recreation.”

To his credit, Doherty gave a passionate defense of Callahan and refuted all the discord publicly. But the night after the press conference, he too was starting to have reservations.

Had he been too hasty in making the hire? Had he gotten caught up in the moment while on his trip to North Carolina (also thinking that meeting Callahan was providential)? Was he really following the Holy Spirit’s lead or just the emotions of the moment (and the desire to end a coaching search that had been dragging on)?

He wasn’t so sure all of the sudden. His livelihood now depended on whether an out-of-the-box hire could actually lead a college basketball program out of the Northeast Conference cellar. Oh boy.

[SteveVictory]

Patrick Callahan woke up the day after the press conference still astonished at how quickly his life had turned upside down. Or was it right-side up?

A week ago, he’d been at the post-season banquet for the St. Thomas Academy high school boys basketball team, shaking hands with proud parents and reliving the team’s magical run to the state final four in the “small schools” 1A classification. The moms adored him, making him cookies and showering him with praise for a season well-coached. The boys treated him like a hero, even though he wasn’t technically part of the school’s full-time staff.

With hoops season over, Patrick had planned to pick up more shifts at Home Depot and finally put together a plan to finish his Master’s degree in finance. This year was going to be the year! he’d told himself … for the third year in a row.

But now, here he was in a hotel in a small Massachusetts town in the suburbs of Boston, preparing to lead a Division I college basketball program—one that magazines like NXT Hoops had called “zero prestige.” He had a coaching staff to hire, a roster to meet in a few hours and a community to win over.

Patrick was scrolling through the hotel breakfast menu when his phone chirped. The number made his stomach drop. It was Brian, his supervisor from Home Depot.

Oh no. Oops.

“Patrick, where are you? You were supposed to open this morning and help with inventory. Sheila in paint is ticked that she had to cover for you…”

Patrick winced and pulled the phone away from his ear. He could imagine Sheila’s glare from 700 miles away.

“Brian, I, uh—yeah. About that.”

[SteveVictory]

Meeting the team later that afternoon didn’t go nearly as well as Patrick had anticipated.

At St. Thomas Academy, he had been a rock star to his players. His reception as he walked into the Stonehill auxiliary gym proved lukewarm at best. A few of the guys, like freshman guards Charlie King and Gene Flannery, were downright hostile. Was it his age? His lack of experience? The fact that the head coach who wooed many of them to campus had been let go in an unceremonious fashion?

It’s not like Callahan was taking over an all-star team. He had watched a lot of film from the 2022-23 season the night before. It was a mixed bag at best. There were flashes of greatness and the occasional Sports Center highlight. But a lack of cohesion as well. And dumb turnovers and mistakes. His St. Thomas players had seemed more disciplined, and some more athletic.

Callahan had tried to model his high school coaching style after UNC great Roy Williams. He loved to go up-tempo, crash the boards, play through the bigs, bury opponents with scoring runs.

The new coach was shocked that no one on his roster had much familiarity with a simple motion offense. The previous staff had been a proponent of freelance hoops – sometimes some Five Out, with some Flex and Triangle thrown in.

Patrick faced his first decision: adapt to his personnel, at least for this first season, or bite the bullet and force-feed his new players a heavy dose of motion even if it meant going 0-30?

As he walked out of the practice gym following the 90-minute meeting, Patrick wondered for the first time if he had bitten off too much? Would he have been better off sticking with Home Depot morning shifts and finishing his Master’s?

He was just about to get into his rental car when three of the Stonehill players came jogging up behind him.

“Coach Callahan?”

“Yeah.”

“We got your back, sir. We’re ready to work for you and lift this program.”

Callahan nodded at the trio standing in front of him. Relief swept over him. Screw lawn and garden. And Master’s degrees. He may have been a long way from home – and way out of his depth – but he was going to be a college basketball coach. He was going to make this work. He was all-in.

He also made a mental note: senior Anton Monroe and juniors Will Lucas and Byron Washburn would be his team captains when practice began a few months later.

Let’s go!

[SteveVictory]

All three assistants from the previous regime let Callahan know they would be willing to stick around for his first season. Athletic director Jack Doherty had politely urged Callahan to keep them, as they had experience recruiting the region and understood the nuances of Northeast Conference basketball (“please, please keep them!”).

Patrick would have preferred the math teacher and dads who helped him at St. Thomas, truth be told.

He spent a good hour with each assistant. Five minutes in he knew he was getting rid of Nick Matson. No enthusiasm. Preferred a snail’s pace offensive style. Sagging defense. Conservative on the boards. Virtually no offensive sets. “Do you even like basketball?”

In the end, Callahan opted to keep two of the holdovers, Herschel Jenkins and Jason Karys, though mostly for financial reasons. After releasing Matson, Callahan put himself in a hole by spending WAY too much on his replacement, 46-year-old Andre Gray.

Despite the steep price, he liked Gray’s tenacity and professionalism – and the fact he lived by man-to-man defense and wanted to own the boards. Patrick knew he needed someone with some recruiting moxie to help on the trail, too. Time would tell whether he overpaid and whether Gray even represented an upgrade from the previous No. 1 assistant.

[SteveVictory]

Patrick spent his first few weeks on the job driving around Massachusetts, popping into high schools and trying to build relationships with coaches. He reached out to dozens of recruits and tried to expand his social media presence (1,000 followers!).

He only had two scholarships to fill. Unless players bailed on him en masse at the end of the season, he wouldn’t have a chance to remake the roster right away. He’d have to be selective with his offers.

Callahan quickly discovered that most ballers in New England knew as much about Stonehill as he had known the week before taking the job. “Aren’t you guys Division II or something,” Massachusetts’ reigning Mr. Basketball, four-star point guard Matt Lopez from Northampton, had said during one of their conversations.

Patrick wasn’t deterred. He aimed high with his recruiting pitches. He reached out to guys who had offers from places like Syracuse, Temple and Boston College. He didn’t care that most wouldn’t answer or return his calls or texts. You don’t upgrade your team by getting the same ol’ same ol’ level of talent.

Shoot for the moon, and if you come away empty you won’t be any worse off than you would have been by settling for zero star guys in the first place. They will still be there.

[SteveVictory]

While most players laughed Patrick off, one player in particular did not: Stacey Clyburne, an outspoken 6-foot-6 wing from Trinity Catholic in Newton, Mass. He and Clyburne clicked from the first conversation.

Clyburne was quirky. He filled up Patrick’s DMs with highlight reels and images of himself in crazy poses with Stonehill gear (“got this cool hat when mom and I visited campus last week!”). He answered every call and text with enthusiasm. He got choked up when Callahan invited him and his family for an official visit (his parents were just as amiable). He soaked up every step on the campus and treated his first tour inside Merkert Gymnasium (humble capacity of 1,560) like it was Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. Is this guy for real or a caricature?

“Wow. Just wow.” Stacy kept saying, looking around at the purple and white surroundings.

Clyburne wasn’t a superstar on the court but he certainly appeared better than most current Stonehill material. Patrick couldn’t understand why bigger programs weren’t on him more. Maybe the quirky personality? Clyburne appeared to be a grinder and contributed in multiple ways - 14.5 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 2 steals in his previous prep season at Trinity. Blue collar and a glass-half-full attitude. Two qualities the coach wanted.

Patrick offered Clyburne a scholarship in September on the eve of a home visit. The young player didn’t say much that night but reached out the next day. “I’m announcing my decision this Friday at my school. Stay tuned.”

Clyburne got concerned as the week wore on. Holy Cross had been involved with Stacy long before Callahan showed up. They weren’t letting up. And Boston College was making a late push.

In the end, though, Clyburne put on a Stonehill hat during his announcement - the hat he had bought and showed off on social media.

Patrick smiled. He had his first commitment – the first building block to help turn Stonehill College into a non-zero prestige basketball program.

[SteveVictory]

Patrick thought he had the perfect compliment to Stacey Clyburne for his first recruiting class. He dipped into his North Carolina roots and reached out to a player his St. Thomas squad had faced a few times in Christmas tournaments. His name was Eddie Fowler, a gentle giant from Henderson Collegiate, a charter school from Vance County.

Fowler was 7-foot-2 and raw as a basketball player. But you can’t teach being a giant, and Callahan envisioned running his offense through the tallest player in the Northeast Conference for multiple seasons.

Fowler took all of Patrick’s calls. Answered all of his texts. Listened attentively to every pitch. But he also made it very clear that his aim was to play close to home. He wanted his mom and grandma to be able to see him live as much as possible. Grandma’s health wasn’t all that good (Patrick understood all about that). Long trips to New England weren’t ideal for the family.

Fowler politely declined an official visit to Stonehill but welcomed Callahan to his modest home in Henderson. “A solid visit overall. Thanks for coming out,” Fowler texted afterward. “Feeling good about the program and the team.”

Callahan kept turning on the charm. He convinced Fowler that he would dominate the Northeast Conference. That he and Clyburne would help Stonehill earn the school’s first ever NCAA Division I tournament berth.

Patrick asked for another in-home. Fowler said yes. It went even better than the first.

“I had a good time, coach,” he said. “My family did as well. I could see myself at your school.”

Callahan was confident – he was going to steal a prospect out of North Carolina to follow him to Easton, Mass.

[PointGuard]

Great to have another new CB2025 dynasty on the boards. Good luck at Stonehill.

[SteveVictory]

Decision day for Eddie Fowler came in late September, just a few weeks before college practices started around the nation. Callahan needed this, to get his first recruiting class locked up before beginning preseason workouts. That way he could focus on getting his bunch ready for the opener against George Washington.

Stonehill was the only out-of-state team among Fowler’s contenders, which also included schools like Elon and UNC Greensboro.

Alas, Fowler chose the Elon Phoenix.

Callahan understood. The kid wanted to play close to home. He adored his mom and grandmother. He wanted them in the gym for every home game. Callahan couldn’t deliver that, no matter how charming he was or how much he made Fowler feel like the second coming of Shaq.

Patrick was encouraged just to get into the conversation. But now it was back to the drawing board. Prospects were committing fast and furious, and he had to find one more player to fill out next year’s roster.