Rising Coaches Report: Florida Gulf Coast's Michael Fly
Michael Fly, Asst. Coach - Florida Gulf Coast University
I have been fortunate in my short career in this business to work
for some true legends of the game. My first boss, Happy Osborne,
won an NAIA National Championship in 1998 at Georgetown College and
as NAIA fans will attest, was one of the most sought after figures
year in and year out in Kansas City at the NAIA national
tournament. The second head coach dI was fortunate to work for,
Bernie Bickerstaff, has been in the NBA for almost 40 years in
multiple capacities such as president, general manager and head
coach. Most recently, I apprenticed under Leonard Hamilton, who
helped Kentucky Basketball maintain its dominance in the
1970’s and 80’s before rebuilding three programs
into national powers (Oklahoma State, Miami, Florida State), and is
currently leading his nationally ranked Seminoles toward their
4th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.
Needless to say, in each professional opportunity I have had, my goal and expectation has been to hold onto the baton that was passed to me, not to mess up the rotation so to speak. Georgetown College, The Charlotte Bobcats, and Florida State Basketball did not need Michael Fly’s input, they needed me to learn the culture, adapt quickly, and make sure things ran as smoothly as they had before I got to each program.
After a run to the Sweet 16 last season under Coach Hamilton’s tutelage, Florida State Assistant Coach Andy Enfield was afforded the opportunity to become the second head coach in the history of Florida Gulf Coast University. After working closely with Coach Enfield at Florida State for three seasons and sharing in the successes we had (3 NCAA tourneys, 4 NBA Draft picks, 2 seasons atop the nation’s field goal percentage defense charts), I was privileged to join him as an assistant coach at FGCU. (The school with the beach on campus as my colleague Coach Marty Richter described in his last College Chalktalk Diary).
All of a sudden, I was not following a blueprint anymore. There was no established culture. The program was coming off a 10 win season and a transition from Division II to Division 1. My mind was quickly focused on best available players, camp dates, and where exactly Fort Myers was on a map! “Changing a culture” made sense to me as a general concept, but I was not exactly sure what that meant in the details of each day.
After signing five players in the 2011 class, Brett Comer (Winter Park), Bernard Thompson (Rockdale County), Dante Holmes (Oldsmar Christian), Filip Cvjeticanin (Croatia), and Eric McKnight (Iowa State transfer), we settled in to figure out, what we were going to do daily to turn the program into a winner.
There were the obvious issues of setting summer recruiting schedules, putting together camps quickly, and getting on top of academics, but there are so many little things that you take for granted when you are in an established program that have to be decided as a newly constructed staff. How are we going to handle film? Scouting? Scouting report templates? What meal plan are we going to have our players on? How are we going to manage academics? What offense are we going to run? These were all details I had taken for granted in my previous stops and all of a sudden each question was staring us squarely in the face.
As a first time head coach who is determined to be successful, I am sure Coach Enfield had already answered many of these questions in his own mind, but in order to help us to bond as a staff and allow us all to feel a part of what we are building, he gathered us in a room for a number of days and we put together the blueprint for success at FGCU. As a basketball junkie, it was one of the most special and unique experiences I have been a part of. We discussed, debated, diagrammed, watched film, and compared experiences until we had the infrastructure of what our program would look like.
Fast forward a few months and we have two wins, a pair of one point losses to TCU and SMU, and a six point defeat at the hands of Maryland in College Park. Though we are disappointed in the losses, we are encouraged with our players’ effort and their grasp of what we are trying to accomplish on and off the court. As I watch our players grow and mature on the floor, my mind often returns to the first few months we were on the job and the hours we spent in that room as a new staff. Though I hope that there are many more FGCU highlights in the years to come, I will always remember fondly what it was like to transition from a cog in a successful machine at Florida State and my previous stops, to a moving part in the engine that is FGCU Basketball.
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