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Bryan Fisher is an assistant coach for the Western Oregon University Wolves men’s basketball team in the GNAC in NCAA DII. In sharing his advice with me, Bryan wrote, “Coaching is an unbelievable profession. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from some great people and coaches at each stop through my career so far. From my experiences, I would say some important pieces of advice for young coaches would be: 1) Always use every opportunity as a chance to get better. Every stop you are at, try to take something from that experience. Either something you want to incorporate or something you don’t. Use every day as an opportunity to learn. 2) Master your role. There is no task too small. A lot of what you do as a coach isn’t seen, it’s a grind. Be prepared to do all you can to help your program and your head coach be successful. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received is to look at your role as if you are the Head Coach of that role. Whether your job is player development, travel, recruiting coordinator, offense, defense, video, etc. you are the head coach of that role. Take pride in your role and be outstanding in it. Once you do that, you’ll earn more responsibility. 3) Try to take as much off of your Head Coach’s plate as possible. Head Coaches have a lot of responsibilities that don’t have to do with coaching basketball. Try to think ahead and keep as much off their desk as you can. There is a lot that can come up from day to day, always be working to make sure that anything that comes up stays off your Head Coach’s desk unless it needs to be there. 4) Be who you are. I think understanding who you are as a coach is so important. From your coaching style, to your communication style, to building relationships both on and off the court. Be yourself all the time. There can’t be constant highs and lows in your personality. Always be consistent. 5) Network. Reach out to people and build relationships. Write handwritten notes, send emails, texts, phone calls, etc. This business is about relationships. Who you know and who knows you. Also, the people you work around are your best network. They see you day in and day out and your work ethic, they are your biggest resource for advancing. 6) Finally, enjoy the journey. This profession is a ton of fun but is a constant grind. Don’t forget to enjoy it and remind yourself why you got into coaching in the first place. You get to coach basketball for a living. Enjoy it.”