TeamSynced Customer Spotlight: Nick Goff, Director of Operations, Wright State Men’s Basketball

No matter what role you’re in, serving those around you goes a long way.

“Other duties as assigned” seems to be the theme when describing the responsibilities of many coaches and DOBO’s we’ve spoken with, including Nick Goff .

HOLD THE LADDER

“I’m going to hold the ladder here at Wright State. I’m going to let everybody else climb. If they know they can lean on me and are able to climb up to their potential, I know I’m doing my job,” said Goff.

There are few better feelings than climbing the ladder and cutting down those championship nets. However, we all know there’s much more that goes into a successful program than what the fans see. It’s not easy to stay motivated day in and day out to be disciplined with the small things, but serving others, having the “no task is too small” mentality, and doing everything with excellence often leads to success where it matters most.

“In a controlless job, live in the moment take care of business one day at a time. You have to be ready for everything because if you get distracted, you’re going to get blown away by the next guy that is working his tail off. I try to not let the next step consume me,” added Nick.

REMOVE THE NOISE

As a coach, it’s easy to look back on days, or even weeks, and feel like very little that was accomplished actually moved the needle with improving the program. Paperwork, academic meetings, compliance meetings, scheduling, talking with parents – there’s lots more to “coaching” than most people realize.

“You kind of get thrown into the fire with a few things… like ‘how did I get here?’, but anyway I can help is my job title,” said Goff.

One example came to Goff’s mind: “A player forgot his shoes on a road trip. I called a manager back at home to go to Fedex, and the player found the shoes sitting in his seat on the bus 18 hours later.”

“We try to treat our players as men and not hold their hand, but if I can help out in any way so our guys can focus on the court and in the classroom, I do it because that’s their most important jobs,” said Goff. In the same vein, “Anything that I can do to get our coaches back to their main goal of coaching and recruiting – I want to take care of that. No matter how small a task.”

An area Nick believes that empowers the players to be successful is by removing as much noise as possible. This comes from planning and setting clear expectations which leaves no questions or excuses with where they need to be or what they need to know. Goff knows that staying organized and making logistics easy has more value than what meets the eye.

“Everyone is so concerned about climbing the ladder. But who’s holding the ladder? I want to hold the ladder. In turn, success will come and I’ll be on the ladder with everyone else.”

Check out more articles by TeamSynced:

How 100+ Hoops Programs Gained An Edge in the Offseason

Coaches Find a Recruiting Edge by Building Winning Habits

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“Every guy looks at TeamSynced every night, which is remarkable to me. Having a crutch where you can fall back on when things get busy and you forget things. It holds guys accountable. It’s a no brainer for any staff.” – Nick Goff