by Cassie Arner, Illinois Sports Information

Recently Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley's name appeared in The Sporting News as one of the top-five minority candidates that should be atop athletic directors' lists for head football coaching opportunities at the Division I level. And while his main priority lies with the improvement of the Illinois football program and its return to national prominence, he is also a man who strives for the highest level for himself as well.

Throughout the history of college football, only 25 African-Americans have been selected as a head coach of a NCAA Division 1-A college or university. Currently, less than 2.7 percent of head football coaches in all NCAA divisions are minorities, with only five African-American head coaches in Division 1-A and two in Division 1-AA.

In order to raise awareness of the shortage of ethnic minorities in head coaching positions and to enhance the knowledge of the vast variety of talented and qualified coaching candidates, the NCAA created an annual coaching academy to address the issue.

This past May, Locksley attended the seminar called the NCAA Expert Coaches Academy. "As a coach, your first priority is making your team the best it can be," Locksley said. "But it is also our responsibility to make sure we are always pushing ourselves to get better." Now, being the head football coach at a college or university may at first seem like fun and games - running drills, calling plays and developing strategic game plans. And although this is part of the job, the challenges of

At the academy, Locksley was drilled with questions and concerns, and learned the X's and O's that should be broken down when applying for such a sought-after job. "Why do you want to be a head coach?" This simple and straight-forward question was one of the first asked during the academy. A head coach spends his entire year preparing over 100 student-athletes for game day, hires a staff that will believe in and support the game plan, works with a huge network of people who have their own goals and objectives for the program and deals with press and media relations day-in and day-out, all the while still trying to enjoy the game they have learned to love.

Sounds like all fun and games, right? There is more that goes into this game than the time spent on the green turf. In order to better prepare minorities for the transition and tasks that await them, and to ease employment barriers, the 25 coaches that attended the academy endured sessions and seminars throughout the course of three days. They were drilled on communications, fiscal responsibility, building a successful football program, compliance and academics.

First and foremost, 'it's not what you know, but who you know' came into play. At a session on networking and mentoring, Locksley, along with 24 other coaches, talked about how to 'connect their dots.' Football coaches have to know their game, but learning about their industry is just as important as cultivating new contacts and nurturing their network.

Mentoring was also stressed as a building block to a successful career and prominent football program. Mentors come in all forms: a teammate, fan, parent or coach. They are important in every stage of the game. In this seminar, skills were taught on how to deal with stressful situations and put an emphasis on the importance of player bonding, working together and helping one another.

Now back to the basics: goals. Ambitions and objectives were emphasized in the academy when discussing job strategies on how to advance in the coaching world. It focused not just on a coach's individual goals, but team goals as well. What kind of offense should be run? What kind of coaches should be on staff? How should they relate to the athletes and other coaches? How does a head coach develop his coaches and players?

A head coach must picture the program and the effect he wants it to have on the school and surrounding community. Ways to formulate ideas and structure staff were discussed, not only in one seminar, but throughout the three-day event. Hiring a head football coach is not an easy task. Applying for the job is by no means any simpler. To get to 'the head of the class,' these coaches talked about building relationship skills and handling all of the different issues that could come their way.

In fact, a football coach is no different than a CEO of a corporation. His business plan must deal with securing a staff that not only knows the game but one that can market the team goals to others, in this case to players, faculty and fans. The head coach must know and understand the budgetary process and have effective fundraising abilities. He must have strong personal and time management skills. Effective communication skills, both oral and written, are essential as well as being able to accept his position in the best of times and the worst of times. The ability to interview and to be interviewed is required and an entire seminar was devoted to this area alone. Transitioning into a position such as this is not easy or painless, but in the long run the victory on game day is the reward too sweet to be forgotten.

Although this crash-course had no conditioning workouts or plays to review, it was an intense, concentrated and to-the-point program that has proven to be successful. Not only does its recent success demonstrate the worth of the program, but it directly correlates to the quality of minority coaches who participate.