Head coaches at any level tend to be a bit weird. You probably have to be in order to manage a group of players, assistant coaches, expectations, etc.
For instance, James Franklin once said that assistant coaches needed to have beautiful wives or girlfriends to be on his coaching staff at Vandy, because if they can identify talent in one field, they can certainly do it in another.
New Georgia Tech basketball coach Josh Pastner is also picky when it comes to picking assistant coaches. His requirement? No golf.
“My first question to anyone I (might) hire is, ‘Do you golf?’” Pastner said this week. “If they say, ‘Yes,’ you can’t work for me, because that means five hours on a Sunday or on a Saturday. Can’t. Don’t want it. That’s for my assistant coaches. Any of my assistant coaches, if they’re golfers, not working for me.”
Pastner has banned golf because it takes up a lot of free time that can’t be spent on anything other than your job. That’s his work ethic and he expects it from his staff. Pastner himself admitted that even at home he’s thinking about work and not his family.
“It’s not always the best way to be at times, because you just go and go and go, but that’s just who I am,” he said.
I think Pastner could use a round of golf now and again especially because he’s obsessing about his work. If the last couple of years at Memphis are any guide, taking a break might be useful. He may have also forgotten that in Georgia, and most anywhere, golf is quite the fundraising activity.
“I know there are going to be some fundraising (golf events) you’ve got to drive around, but I couldn’t handle five hours,” he said. “I couldn’t handle it and I wouldn’t want my staff to do it, either.”
[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]