Jordon Klein is in his first season as a Women’s Basketball Assistant Coach at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. Klein spent the previously served as a Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach at Cornell College in Iowa under Dave Schlabaugh.

Klein began his coaching career at the high school level while still working as a CFO in the business world. Jordon has also worked as a camp clinician at Snow Valley Basketball School and USA Basketball Gold Camps.

On this episode Klein shares his unique journey from the corporate world to coaching, highlighting the importance of building genuine relationships in the sport. With a background in finance and experience coaching at various levels, Klein emphasizes that coaching transcends merely teaching skills; it involves fostering an environment where players feel valued and empowered. He discusses the significant influences in his life, including his friendships with notable coaches and the impact of programs like Snow Valley, which have shaped his coaching philosophy. The conversation touches on the challenges and joys of transitioning to women's basketball, including the nuances of recruiting and developing players. As Klein embarks on this new chapter, he reflects on the importance of authenticity, adaptability, and the support from his family that enables him to pursue his passion for coaching.

Follow us on social media @hoopheadspod on Twitter and Instagram and be sure to check out the Hoop Heads Podcast Network for more great basketball content.

Grab your notebook before you listen to this episode with Jordon Klein, Women’s Basketball Assistant Coach at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith.

Website - https://uafortsmithlions.com/sports/womens-basketball

Email - jmklein12@gmail.com

Twitter - @coachjklein

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Jordan Klein: 00:00:13

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Jordan Klein: 00:00:24

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Jordan Klein: 00:00:27

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Jason Sunkel: 00:00:34

Jordan Klein is in his first season as a women's basketball assistant coach at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith.

Jason Sunkel: 00:00:40

Klein previously served as a men's basketball assistant coach at Cornell College in Iowa under head coach Dave Slobaugh.

Jason Sunkel: 00:00:46

Klein began his coaching career at the high school level while still working as a CFO in the business world.

Jason Sunkel: 00:00:52

Jordan has also worked as a camp clinician at Snow Valley Basketball School and USA Basketball Gold Camps.

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Grab your notebook before you listen to this episode with Jordan Klein, Women's Basketball Assistant Coach at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith.

Jason Sunkel: 00:02:50

Hello and welcome to the Whop Heads Podcast.

Jason Sunkel: 00:02:52

That's Mike Klinsling here with my co host Jason Sunkel tonight and we are pleased to be joined by Jordan Klein, Women's Basketball Assistant Coach at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith.

Jason Sunkel: 00:03:03

Jordan, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

Jordan Klein: 00:03:05

Hello Mike, thank you for having me.

Jason Sunkel: 00:03:08

Thrilled to have you looking forward to diving into all of the interesting things and twists and turns that you have had in your career in coaching and otherwise.

Jason Sunkel: 00:03:19

Let's start by going back in time though to when you were a kid.

Jason Sunkel: 00:03:22

Tell me about some of your first experiences with the game of basketball.

Jason Sunkel: 00:03:25

What you remember, what made you fall in love with it.

Jordan Klein: 00:03:28

I fell in love with basketball really when I was in fifth grade.

Jordan Klein: 00:03:34

My mom started putting me in some YMCA basketball way back and I remember watching.

Jordan Klein: 00:03:41

I was born in the early 90s so I remember watching some of the later years of MJ play and I fell in love with it from there.

Jordan Klein: 00:03:53

That might be a typical poop head story, but watching him play, see how he competed and I just loved how beautiful the game was.

Jordan Klein: 00:04:04

I thought it was fun get to be around other people and run around like burn some energy as a little kid.

Jordan Klein: 00:04:11

So that was always fun.

Jason Sunkel: 00:04:12

Absolutely, there's no question about that.

Jason Sunkel: 00:04:14

Did you play other sports as well?

Jordan Klein: 00:04:16

Yeah, I played basketball, football and baseball.

Jordan Klein: 00:04:19

I went to a smaller high school so I was fortunate to be to play all three.

Jason Sunkel: 00:04:23

What's it like growing up at that time and just playing multiple sports?

Jason Sunkel: 00:04:27

How do you go about getting better as a basketball player?

Jason Sunkel: 00:04:30

What's the, what's the basketball scene look like for you?

Jordan Klein: 00:04:34

I had, I was fortunate in seventh grade so I'm sure at some point I'll share a little bit that I moved around quite a bit as a kid and growing up.

Jordan Klein: 00:04:45

But in seventh grade I was.

Jordan Klein: 00:04:49

My mom put me in a private school from kindergarten to eighth grade.

Jordan Klein: 00:04:53

There were 95 kids in the entire school and one of the kids ended up being one of my best friends.

Jordan Klein: 00:05:00

His name's Nate Zastro.

Jordan Klein: 00:05:02

He was ended up being the all time leading scorer and all time leader in assists in his Division 1 high school.

Jordan Klein: 00:05:11

We ended up going to separate high schools and then he had a full ride to North Dakota State and played there for four years.

Jordan Klein: 00:05:17

So that was a great.

Jordan Klein: 00:05:20

That was eye opening for me.

Jordan Klein: 00:05:22

Just his work ethic and spending time around his family and what it took to be successful in the game.

Jason Sunkel: 00:05:28

Yeah, when you have somebody like that, that really I think that you can look up to and then be around and just inspire you to even be, you know, take, take the game even more seriously.

Jason Sunkel: 00:05:39

I think that's always an advantage.

Jordan Klein: 00:05:42

Yeah, I never like you talk about, you can like you like something, you love something or you live it.

Jordan Klein: 00:05:51

And I, he definitely taught me how to live it.

Jordan Klein: 00:05:54

There was never a moment in my life where I thought waking up at 4am to go lift or run on a football field in northern Wisconsin with dew on the field was normal, but he taught me that that's what it takes.

Jordan Klein: 00:06:10

So it was.

Jordan Klein: 00:06:10

It was a great friendship to build and definitely helped me out.

Jason Sunkel: 00:06:15

Absolutely.

Jason Sunkel: 00:06:16

As you are growing up and experiencing that from a playing standpoint, what.

Jason Sunkel: 00:06:24

What are you thinking about at that time?

Jason Sunkel: 00:06:26

Because obviously we're going to get to some of the twists and turns and different things that you've done in your career, but.

Jason Sunkel: 00:06:31

But what are you kind of thinking about when it comes to what you might have wanted to do?

Jason Sunkel: 00:06:35

Did you see yourself at.

Jason Sunkel: 00:06:37

As a high school.

Jason Sunkel: 00:06:38

As a high school kid ever being interested in coaching?

Jason Sunkel: 00:06:41

Was that something that was even remotely in the back of your mind, or was it not even on the radar at all?

Jordan Klein: 00:06:48

It was not.

Jordan Klein: 00:06:49

It wasn't on the radar for me because I was so focused on playing.

Jordan Klein: 00:06:55

Yeah.

Jordan Klein: 00:06:57

As a younger.

Jordan Klein: 00:06:58

As a younger kid, I was just more focused.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:00

I was more focused on me.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:02

And I didn't learn.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:05

I just didn't have the awareness of how engaging and how much purpose and how rewarding it can be to coach.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:12

I didn't know that aspect of the game.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:14

I thought it was, let me teach you how to run a ball screen.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:18

And had nothing to do with those life skills.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:20

Like, I just wasn't aware of that at the time.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:21

So that developed over time.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:24

I.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:24

I did in high school.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:27

I would.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:27

I would coach our grade school, middle school, summer league stuff, and I enjoyed it and I thought it was fun from a competitive standpoint, but it wasn't really on my.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:39

On my list.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:40

My.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:41

My parents were both business owners, and they talked to me a lot about money growing up.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:47

And so that was my focus on what.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:49

Like, that was my version of what success looked like, was having money.

Jason Sunkel: 00:07:53

Right.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:54

Or making a lot of money.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:55

And that's pivoted and really grown.

Jordan Klein: 00:07:58

That's really changed, actually, as I've grown up and matured.

Jordan Klein: 00:08:03

So that's where coaching really fits in with just my purpose.

Jordan Klein: 00:08:08

Every day, waking up and just who I want to be as a person.

Jason Sunkel: 00:08:12

What's your favorite memory?

Jason Sunkel: 00:08:13

And that makes total sense to me.

Jason Sunkel: 00:08:15

I mean, I think, again, it's interesting how much we're influenced by our parents, the people that are around us, and sort of what is important to them becomes what's important to us because that's what we're exposed to all the time.

Jason Sunkel: 00:08:29

I often say, like, my kids, we played every sport, but my kids got a lot more exposure to basketball because that's the sport that I liked, and that's the one that I wanted to be around all the time.

Jason Sunkel: 00:08:40

So even though they got an opportunity to be involved in lots of sports, at least two out of the three of them eventually ended up gravitating to basketball.

Jason Sunkel: 00:08:49

And just again, thinking about your experience with your parents and as business owners and people who again, were focused on growing that side of it, you can totally see where that's sort of the direction that it steers you.

Jason Sunkel: 00:09:03

What was your favorite memory of playing high school basketball?

Jason Sunkel: 00:09:06

Do you have one memory that sticks out for you?

Jordan Klein: 00:09:08

You're doing a good job right now.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:10

Making me feel old.

Jason Sunkel: 00:09:11

I'll tell you, man.

Jason Sunkel: 00:09:12

Come on, you're a young guy, man.

Jason Sunkel: 00:09:16

I'm 54.

Jason Sunkel: 00:09:17

Jordan, come on, man.

Jason Sunkel: 00:09:19

You're making me feel old, man.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:20

Sure.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:21

No, I'm going to take it a little different direction.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:27

It's a memory and it's fun.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:29

Now when I go back to my hometown.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:32

At the time, it was a challenging situation, but we were playing my sophomore year, we were playing the number one team in state and they happened to be in the same city as us.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:47

So it was a big game.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:51

And we were down by two with eight seconds left.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:56

I'll never forget it.

Jordan Klein: 00:09:57

And I was a starting shooting guard, but I was the third option on offense.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:03

We had a senior point guard that was first team all conference and a junior guard that was second team all conference.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:11

So we had an inbounds play, got the ball in, I sprinted to the corner and between the two other guards, they had four defenders on them and I was wide open.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:24

So senior guard makes the right play.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:27

He passes me the ball in the corner with two seconds left.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:30

There's thousands of people in the gym in this smaller town.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:34

And I shoot the ball off the pad off the side of the backboard and we lose by two.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:42

And there were extra bleachers on the baseline.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:45

It was, it was the.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:48

Even between now and college, it was the most packed, loud gym I've ever been in, in my life.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:54

Outside of, of course, NBA games.

Jordan Klein: 00:10:56

But now I go back, even now, 15 years later, I go back home and they're like, hey, Klein, watch this.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:04

And this little, this little 12 year old that, I'm not sure, I mean that his parents, I mean, his, his siblings have to tell him about it.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:11

They're like, jordan, watch this.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:12

And they'll shoot it off the side of the backboard.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:14

Like, come on, man.

Jason Sunkel: 00:11:16

So, so, so the pandemic P did that in the bubble.

Jason Sunkel: 00:11:22

threw it off the backboard in: 2020

Jordan Klein: 00:11:27

100%.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:28

I don't think about that.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:29

Okay, brings up, brings up some PTSD for me then.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:35

So that was in high school.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:36

In College, I played two years at a junior college.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:41

We were 48 and 4 over my two years there.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:44

And so I don't really have one specific memory from that.

Jordan Klein: 00:11:49

But being around a culture, just a competitive culture, they say, I mean, everyone says winning fixes a lot of things, but it was amazing while we were winning how close we got as a team.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:01

e, I still talked to my coach: 1412

Jordan Klein: 00:12:07

So some of those relationships you can build in a short period of time.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:09

That's the most memorable stuff for me.

Jason Sunkel: 00:12:13

What was the recruiting process like for you?

Jordan Klein: 00:12:16

It was, I'll be honest, it was minimal.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:18

I'm a six foot.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:21

I was a good shooter.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:22

The scouting report on me was get a hand up and he, you can attack him on defense.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:31

So the recruiting process was.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:34

I just, I went to a private high school and I knew that I wanted to keep playing.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:38

So I had a couple of junior college offers and those schools ended up actually being just less expensive than my high school.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:46

So my parents were supportive of that and I could stay within a couple hours of home.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:52

So I chose to stay closer to home.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:53

I had an.

Jordan Klein: 00:12:54

I had an offer from York in Pennsylvania, but it was just too far away from home.

Jason Sunkel: 00:13:00

Yeah, understood.

Jason Sunkel: 00:13:01

Completely got.

Jason Sunkel: 00:13:02

Completely understand that.

Jason Sunkel: 00:13:03

So what are you thinking about career wise as a college student?

Jason Sunkel: 00:13:10

What are you studying?

Jason Sunkel: 00:13:11

What are you thinking about?

Jason Sunkel: 00:13:14

And what do you end up doing at first after graduation?

Jason Sunkel: 00:13:17

Because I think this is kind of where your story takes some, takes some interesting turns.

Jordan Klein: 00:13:21

Yep.

Jordan Klein: 00:13:23

My.

Jordan Klein: 00:13:25

Ended up meeting my eventual wife when we were both at Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Jordan Klein: 00:13:32

I was studying finance and I got a job my sophomore year of college.

Jordan Klein: 00:13:39

Just needed some extra money, so I started selling phones at US Cellular.

Jordan Klein: 00:13:45

And in my eyes at the time, I was making good money and that, that steered my focus away from school.

Jordan Klein: 00:13:55

And so I ended up getting into the workforce.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:00

Took an opportunity to.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:04

I did that for a little while.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:05

It was just for.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:06

Just for some extra sales money.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:08

I was a finance director at a Lexus dealership in the suburbs of Milwaukee also.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:16

It was just, just kind of fell into that.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:20

It was good money.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:21

I didn't love what I was doing every day, but I made some really good connections from my time at US Cellular.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:28

I had a friend that left.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:31

He left the industry.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:32

He started a media company, real estate media.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:37

So they did, you know your drone photos listing photos 3D walkthrough videos, et cetera.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:44

And the company outgrew him.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:47

He was, he just needed help with his finances.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:52

And again, I had background from studying finance and both my parents with business.

Jordan Klein: 00:14:59

And so right out of the gate, he offered me a position to be a cfo.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:04

Help him with.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:06

Help him with taxes and reorg and get the company from red to green.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:12

And so I did that for two years.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:16

Was successful.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:16

I was just wearing, I was, I was just working, working a lot.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:20

Didn't have a ton of purpose.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:22

I found myself not having a lot of purpose.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:24

At the end of the day, it was fun being around a team, but it, I just didn't go to bed saying, yeah, I accomplished X today and I feel really good about it and I'm pumped to do it the next day.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:35

And that's, no, that's not saying anything bad about the industry, the company, the people that were there.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:43

Yeah, it was just me in my stomach.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:45

I just had a little pit that said, you know, I think I played basketball.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:49

I.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:49

I started coaching high school part time on the side.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:53

While I was doing that, I fell in love with it.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:55

I didn't realize how much I would love it.

Jordan Klein: 00:15:57

And my wife and I, you know, if you.

Jordan Klein: 00:16:00

I'd love for you to ask about my wife.

Jordan Klein: 00:16:02

I'd love to touch on that for a second.

Jordan Klein: 00:16:04

But if you.

Jordan Klein: 00:16:05

We just talked about the support system and being able to create a plan and figure out solutions and ways to actually put plans in action instead of talk about it.

Jordan Klein: 00:16:18

Made a plan to coach college.

Jordan Klein: 00:16:19

So I was a CFO for two years and then put a plan together to pursue coaching college basketball.

Jason Sunkel: 00:16:27

All right, well, let's talk about your wife and give her a little credit, because as anyone who is coaching and has a spouse knows that if you're going to pursue a coaching career, and I don't care at what level, and especially for someone like you who's making a career change, who is making good money as someone who's working in the business world to say to yourself, I'm going to start trying to pursue the idea of becoming a college coach.

Jason Sunkel: 00:17:01

I can't even count the number of podcasts that we've talked to or the number of guests that we've talked to on the pod about, hey, I'm starting my career and I'm making $0 or I'm making $2,000 for this entire year.

Jason Sunkel: 00:17:16

And so you're not making the change to go in and have it be a lucrative financial decision.

Jason Sunkel: 00:17:22

And obviously, if you are with a partner at that point, There, there's a, there's a sales pitch that has to be made in order for that to be a palatable decision.

Jason Sunkel: 00:17:33

So talk a little bit about your guys planning what those conversations were like and then tell me about the plan that you put together.

Jordan Klein: 00:17:41

Sure.

Jordan Klein: 00:17:41

We were.

Jordan Klein: 00:17:45

So when I was, when I was working at Lexus and then eventually onto being the cfo, the media company, my wife was working just, she was out of college and she was working a front desk job as a manager and she just wasn't happy on a day to day basis.

Jordan Klein: 00:18:05

So I had the money coming in to be able to support her to leave that job.

Jordan Klein: 00:18:11

And she pursued opening a social media and marketing company and it took her 12 months to get her first client.

Jordan Klein: 00:18:23

So there were ebbs and flows in that, but it was an opportunity for me to be able to support her, to be able to do something that she loves and she was passionate about and give her the flexibility to work from home.

Jordan Klein: 00:18:38

And then after about three years, she was, she was doing that full time and she was bringing in enough money to pay our bills.

Jordan Klein: 00:18:52

We weren't, you know, we weren't maxing out our 401k, but our bills were paid and if, if we needed to live on one income.

Jordan Klein: 00:19:00

And we started talking about trying to have a kid after being married for two years and we said to each other, if we're going to pursue a family, I can't be working 60 hours a week at that time and being outside of the house.

Jordan Klein: 00:19:19

So I gave her essentially the opportunity to pursue her, her passion for a few years.

Jordan Klein: 00:19:27

She has it up and running, she still does it full time.

Jordan Klein: 00:19:30

And now that plan was she's willing to move around the country with me and support me while I pursue this career path.

Jordan Klein: 00:19:44

So there's been some, and we've been married for five years and there's been some pretty big ebbs and flows, but it's, it's just about the foundation that you have together.

Jordan Klein: 00:19:52

And I'm sure coaches say this all the time, that they couldn't do what they do without their wives, but I would be, I'd be living in a studio apartment right now if it wasn't for my wife.

Jordan Klein: 00:20:03

So.

Jason Sunkel: 00:20:04

All right, so in the plan, from working a quote unquote regular job to the first step of becoming a college coach, what's step one?

Jason Sunkel: 00:20:17

What do you guys do first?

Jason Sunkel: 00:20:18

What's the first move?

Jordan Klein: 00:20:20

From my finance background I had, I pulled out a spreadsheet.

Jordan Klein: 00:20:26

My parents have, they live in, my dad has a house in Iowa.

Jordan Klein: 00:20:33

My mom has a house in the Denver area in Phoenix, and then she ended up recently just buying a house in Iowa.

Jordan Klein: 00:20:41

So I made a spreadsheet of 50 colleges that were near those three areas and then filtering them down by head coach tenure, just so I didn't go with my first.

Jordan Klein: 00:20:54

It's.

Jordan Klein: 00:20:55

It's.

Jordan Klein: 00:20:56

We have some real estate, we have some investment properties, and the first one that you buy is very important.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:03

After that, they're still important, but the first one is crucial to your success.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:08

It can really hinder you.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:09

So I had that same mindset going into coaching.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:13

So step one was creating a spreadsheet.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:16

And then I just cold emailed.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:18

I didn't have a lot of great relationships, and I.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:20

Great.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:20

I just didn't have a lot of relationships with college coaches.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:23

So I sent a lot of cold emails and.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:28

But was very targeted in who I reached out to and who I would truly be willing to relocate for with my family, and was fortunate to get an email back from Coach Dave Slaughball at Cornell College.

Jordan Klein: 00:21:41

And then that led to a world of networking that I could not have imagined.

Jason Sunkel: 00:21:49

Absolutely.

Jason Sunkel: 00:21:49

I mean, Coach Law and the connections that he has, and we're going to dive into the whole Snow Valley piece of this and everybody that's connected with that, and Jason and I have been fortunate enough through the podcast and our relationships and get an opportunity to go out to Iowa.

Jason Sunkel: 00:22:05

Jason's been out there once, and I've been out there.

Jason Sunkel: 00:22:07

I think three.

Jason Sunkel: 00:22:09

I've been out there three times, and just again, great opportunity to be able to go out and to network and to be a part of it.

Jason Sunkel: 00:22:19

So.

Jason Sunkel: 00:22:20

So tell us a little bit about your relationship with Coach Slobaugh, just what that's meant to you and how it kind of led to.

Jason Sunkel: 00:22:28

Led to these opportunities that you were.

Jason Sunkel: 00:22:29

That you were able to earn at the college level.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:33

Sure.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:33

So when I was looking at colleges in the area, I pulled up Cornell.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:40

They have a new $23 million renovation that they did.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:45

It was beautiful, just looking at the pictures.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:48

And I'm.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:49

I was a high school coach, so this was.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:51

It just looked incredible.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:52

And it was really just a reach.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:54

I just sent an email to say, hey, you know what?

Jordan Klein: 00:22:55

It can't hurt to send this.

Jordan Klein: 00:22:57

And he emailed me back within 30 minutes and said he'd be interested.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:02

And we set up a time for me to come down and visit my dad, who lives about 25 minutes away from campus.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:09

And I just told him I'd drive down, make a long weekend out of it.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:14

We Had I met.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:15

I was scheduled to meet with him for.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:17

This is something people.

Jason Sunkel: 00:23:18

This.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:19

This is a big takeaway for me was I was scheduled to meet with him for one hour and I ended up being there for three.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:27

And he said at the end of it, he said, I think it's important for our wives to meet each other.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:31

Let's get dinner tomorrow.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:34

And we did that and just hit it off from there.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:37

And I, after talking to him, did not.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:42

I told everyone else that said they were interested that I had found my place.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:47

The amount of time and how genuine he is and authentic and just.

Jordan Klein: 00:23:53

There's a public speaker named Jordan Montgomery, and he says that love is spelled T I M E.

Jordan Klein: 00:24:00

And I was blown away by how much time Coach was willing to spend with someone that would come in and just be a.

Jordan Klein: 00:24:06

Not just, but to be a stipend assistant for his first college opportunity.

Jason Sunkel: 00:24:11

Tell me what that first experience was like.

Jason Sunkel: 00:24:14

What do you remember about just the difference between the experiences that you had had to that point with coaching in high school versus coaching in college?

Jason Sunkel: 00:24:24

Just what were some of your first impressions?

Jason Sunkel: 00:24:26

What.

Jason Sunkel: 00:24:27

What did you really enjoy and love about the college experience?

Jordan Klein: 00:24:31

I.

Jordan Klein: 00:24:31

So for me, I really enjoyed the challenge of recruiting because I had a sales background, sales and finance background.

Jordan Klein: 00:24:43

I really.

Jordan Klein: 00:24:45

I enjoyed being able to put together the puzzle of what does this class size look like?

Jordan Klein: 00:24:51

What do we need next year?

Jordan Klein: 00:24:52

Especially at the Division 3 level, where you don't deal as much with the transfer portal, you can put the puzzle pieces together on what you need.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:01

And then in addition to that, It's a top 100 academic college in the country, and it's not inexpensive to go to school there.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:12

So I appreciate the challenge of finding the right fit, meeting with parents, and putting that process together.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:21

So recruiting was.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:23

Was big for me.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:24

And then in addition to that, what I loved about college was that you recruit the type of players that you're looking for, which we all know.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:34

But it.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:35

It helps a lot with.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:37

You give yourself chess pieces now instead of checkers.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:40

And then instead of so much dealing with how you play the game, it's a lot more of what can we do with the assets that we have or with the people that are around us?

Jordan Klein: 00:25:50

So that was.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:51

I just love the challenge of.

Jordan Klein: 00:25:56

Let me put it this way, when you're in high school, a lot of it has been in the past.

Jordan Klein: 00:26:00

There's a lot of systems and you have a youth program and they run the same thing from sixth grade up.

Jordan Klein: 00:26:05

And that just doesn't fly in college with Scouting and etc.

Jordan Klein: 00:26:08

So I love the challenge of having to be an expert and, you know, multiple offenses, culture, coverages, etc, and then figuring out what's worked best for the personnel that you have.

Jason Sunkel: 00:26:20

Tell me a little bit about recruiting and what you like about that process.

Jason Sunkel: 00:26:28

What's a challenge when it comes to that process?

Jason Sunkel: 00:26:32

Obviously at the Division 3 level, you have a certain academic profile of player that you have to be able to recruit depending.

Jason Sunkel: 00:26:39

Depending upon what your school is.

Jason Sunkel: 00:26:41

But just tell me about building relationships with recruits, how you go about doing that and then just again, how you kind of take them from the beginning.

Jason Sunkel: 00:26:51

Introductory stage of, hey, we're just trying to identify whether or not a kid can play and academically be a good fit for our institution to, okay, this kid's actually going to walk on campus and become a part of our program.

Jason Sunkel: 00:27:03

Take me through those steps.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:06

We emphasized, we emphasize character just as highly, if not more than your talent.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:16

If we're going to spend 40 hours a week together.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:19

I want to make sure I like you and I want to make sure you like me and you're a good fit for the culture.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:24

And that's a trigger word, but that's such a cliche thing to say.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:28

But that came from my background and in business, if I don't, I think there's someone out there that can type numbers into a spreadsheet and balance things for me.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:38

But if I don't like you and don't want to see you walk through the door every day, it's hard to.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:43

It's hard to go after you and put my best foot forward when I'm recruiting you.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:46

So.

Jason Sunkel: 00:27:47

Right, right.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:47

We look at character a lot.

Jordan Klein: 00:27:49

But that process at Cornell, 70% of the students are from out of state, international.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:00

So we spent a lot of time through, I mean, different software we used.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:07

I actually, I use Twitter a lot.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:09

Every, Every kid needs to have X.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:13

But we would meet, we would.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:16

We never sent an offer or we never offered a kid unless we met with his parents first and we had to gauge.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:25

I mean, finances are important, but I'm, again, I'm.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:29

I'm gauging character and eye contact respectfulness.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:34

It's just in this, you know, in the age that we are in, that's so important to us.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:40

And I mean, you know, high character education is important.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:49

And then we'd get them on campus, meet with the family, take them out to eat and just decide if it was a good fit.

Jordan Klein: 00:28:57

I mean, you can feel it in your gut whether this is a good person in front of You.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:01

But I think to pivot a little bit, I think it's so important as coaches to be authentic, genuine, be yourself.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:10

People can smell BS from a mile away and there's just no time for it.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:16

Again, very similar to my business background.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:18

Your competition is right down the street and there's no time for fluff.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:24

The.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:25

We're the best university.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:26

We're the best university.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:28

It just doesn't work.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:29

It's like the push and promote things don't work.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:32

You have to be able to share with them how you're, how you're different as a person.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:38

Because school to school for the majority, you got, you have class Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you have different classes Tuesday, Thursday, you'll get your degree.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:46

And in a way we go.

Jordan Klein: 00:29:48

But I think who you are and being trustworthy, respectful, showing someone that you care for, who they are authentically people, I mean, I just, it's, it's massive in building trust.

Jordan Klein: 00:30:00

So thanks for listening to my belabored, long winded response, but I think that's so important.

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:06

No, I think you're 100% right.

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:08

I mean, I think that any relationship that you have, once a kid is in the program, it all starts on the recruiting trail.

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:16

Right?

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:16

You're trying to build that relationship with, first of all, the player, but, you know, getting to know their family because it's a package deal.

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:23

And you're trying to figure out again, what, what kind of a person is this beyond what kind of a basketball player are they?

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:32

Because as you said early on, one of the things that's nice about college basketball is you get to be the gatekeeper of who comes into your program and who doesn't.

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:42

Obviously, when you're coaching at the high school level, you don't have nearly as much control over what that looks like.

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:48

And you, you're limited to who walks through the doors of your school.

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:53

And those are the kids that you got to figure out and try to coach.

Jason Sunkel: 00:30:56

And when you're coaching at the college level, you have some ability to control and figure out who's going to be a part of your program.

Jason Sunkel: 00:31:02

And so you're trying to make good decisions when it comes to who you bring in and who you want to be around and who you want to work with.

Jason Sunkel: 00:31:09

Right.

Jason Sunkel: 00:31:09

I mean, it's a long time, four years and four seasons of working with a kid and being around them and pouring into them and building that relationship with them.

Jason Sunkel: 00:31:18

And you just want that to be a situation where it's a good fit for everybody all around.

Jason Sunkel: 00:31:26

Tell me about the experiences that you had working with Coach Slaw just on the court.

Jason Sunkel: 00:31:34

What are some things that you learned from him?

Jason Sunkel: 00:31:36

From.

Jason Sunkel: 00:31:37

Let's start with just a basketball perspective, and then we can maybe dive into kind of what he.

Jason Sunkel: 00:31:41

What he taught you more specifically about the coaching profession in general.

Jordan Klein: 00:31:46

He was, if something's not working, he is willing to pivot immediately the next day and fix it.

Jordan Klein: 00:31:57

He is not willing to beat his head against the wall with something that's not working or that the team is not picking up on.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:04

So within the first, we had.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:06

We had some injuries early last year.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:08

And so within the first.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:13

I want to say within the first eight games, we had tweaked our offense about three times.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:21

And not just simple actions.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:22

It was just different.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:23

It was different philosophies.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:25

And that was.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:26

That was the first time I'd ever seen that.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:29

A willingness to change and be humble enough to.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:32

And aware that you need to change.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:34

And it's.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:35

It's good to grow in that way.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:39

Like, humility allows you to be teachable, and it allows you to continue learning.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:44

And he.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:45

There was no ego about that.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:47

It was not.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:47

My system fits, and I'm going to put, you know, fit the.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:52

Fit the squares into the circle situation.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:58

So that was a big take.

Jordan Klein: 00:32:59

That was a big takeaway as far as on court.

Jordan Klein: 00:33:02

Some things specifically that I learned from him was very personnel based and putting players in the right position to be successful based on their strengths.

Jordan Klein: 00:33:14

I used to coach players and you think you know how to do that, and then you see it done at a higher level and you realize that there's always things to learn.

Jordan Klein: 00:33:26

And so just some of his actions, things that we ran on the floor to get kids open, were so simple, but they were effective.

Jordan Klein: 00:33:34

So there's some things I could share, I'm sure, but those were.

Jordan Klein: 00:33:38

That was.

Jordan Klein: 00:33:39

Those.

Jordan Klein: 00:33:39

Those two things were big for me.

Jason Sunkel: 00:33:42

All right, let's dive into what the Snow Valley piece of this has meant to you.

Jason Sunkel: 00:33:49

Just go through some of the people that have had an impact on you and just, again, what that experience.

Jason Sunkel: 00:34:00

And clearly anybody who has been affiliated with Snow Valley in any way knows just what an incredible network of people have been connected to Snow Valley.

Jason Sunkel: 00:34:12

But just tell us a little bit about your experiences and maybe highlight a couple of the individuals that you feel have been especially impactful.

Jordan Klein: 00:34:20

Absolutely.

Jordan Klein: 00:34:20

I'm happy to do it.

Jordan Klein: 00:34:25

So I recognize Coach Showalter's name in Coach Slava's bio.

Jordan Klein: 00:34:33

So I didn't know much about Cornell College, and I didn't recognize the name Dave Slobaugh.

Jordan Klein: 00:34:39

But I, I knew who, at least on paper, from his track record, I knew who.

Jordan Klein: 00:34:44

So Walter is right.

Jordan Klein: 00:34:47

So that was a, that was a big thing for me is why I reached out to coach Slava.

Jordan Klein: 00:34:51

And so, I mean, it all starts with him.

Jordan Klein: 00:34:55

And he says, he says in order to be different, sometimes you have to do things a little bit differently.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:01

And so I took, I took that to heart when I started going to Snow Valley.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:06

And he teaches you.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:11

He talks a lot about having no ego.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:13

We're all here to teach.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:15

You have to be a teacher of the game.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:17

Whether you're, whether he's with his junior national team and coaching Jason Tatum or Scotty Barnes or he's in a gym, in a cornfield in Iowa talking to sixth graders.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:28

He is the same person.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:31

So consistent, he's genuine and he knows he's very, very smart when it comes to.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:40

It's.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:41

It's an appropriate time to push you a little bit, get on you.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:45

And then when it's time to pull back and you need a different type of motivation.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:48

So I took a lot away, took a lot of that away from him.

Jordan Klein: 00:35:54

At the same time, the, something I have learned and seen is that you are.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:05

Everyone is.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:06

Everyone's treated like you hear this.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:10

Probably everyone's treated fairly but not equal.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:13

Like you are still anticipated to come in and work.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:17

So the first, first when I did Soul Valley Last year in 23, we talked a little bit and then he saw my work ethic.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:27

He saw some things that I was doing with Cornell, picking people up from the airport at 1 o'clock in the morning, et cetera.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:33

And then with that comes some, some respect level where he sees who you are, that you might be a little bit different or willing to go the extra mile.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:43

And then opportunities come from that.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:44

I was able to work USA Gold Camps.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:49

He offered to be a reference on my resume.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:52

It's just you don't know.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:54

You just don't know the possibilities until you put your best foot forward.

Jordan Klein: 00:36:59

So he's been unbelievable.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:02

I was just texting him earlier today.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:04

He's a great guy.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:06

From that I will name a couple other people would be Dave Severns, formerly player development coach of the LA Clippers.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:15

I took his player development course which I would recommend to anybody.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:20

It's great.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:23

And so he took us through a six week course on player development.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:28

Learned a lot from him.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:29

But again, that comes from the network at Snow Valley.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:33

And then, I mean, I'll just share that.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:35

It just keeps leading into will twig is the reason why I'm on this podcast.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:42

Great friend of mine, the academy coach for the London Lions.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:48

And that friendship means everything.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:52

His wife's amazing.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:53

Him and his wife are.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:55

Or his, her name's Rose.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:57

Rose and my wife are best friends.

Jordan Klein: 00:37:59

We've been to their house in London, they've been to our house in Iowa.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:03

So you're creating lifelong friendships.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:05

Again, as cliche as that might sound, it's genuine.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:08

And you never know where those relationships or people in their career are going to go.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:12

Snow Valley is just a special place.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:15

Last I'll mention that Bayoudo, former NBA player, he was at Snow Valley.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:21

Quinn Snyder actually sent him there, which is unbelievable when you think about it.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:26

Former NBA player being sent to a cornfield in Iowa to come work a youth camp.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:32

But yeah, he, he was able to get me into a Atlanta Hawks practice.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:37

You talk to me after practice for 45 minutes.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:40

Like, the people that come to Snow Valley are just so genuine and want to help.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:45

And it's not a passive, hey, let me know if I can ever help you in the future.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:51

Like, these people respond.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:53

They're there for you.

Jordan Klein: 00:38:54

They're good people because they are absolutely psychotic about the game of basketball.

Jordan Klein: 00:39:00

am until: 11:00

Jordan Klein: 00:39:12

So Snow Valley's meant everything to me.

Jordan Klein: 00:39:15

That's where I also met Coach McAdams.

Jordan Klein: 00:39:18

So Coach Show Walter talks about if you want to be better as a coach, you have to go to camps and clinics.

Jordan Klein: 00:39:22

Go to camps and clinics.

Jordan Klein: 00:39:24

And so I've done that.

Jordan Klein: 00:39:26

That's where I met Coach McAdams.

Jordan Klein: 00:39:28

He had an opportunity, a rise on his staff and I was down here about a month later and that all came from Snow Valley.

Jason Sunkel: 00:39:39

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Jason Sunkel: 00:39:50

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Jason Sunkel: 00:40:00

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Jason Sunkel: 00:40:04

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Jason Sunkel: 00:40:07

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Jason Sunkel: 00:40:10

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Jason Sunkel: 00:40:14

Learn more@gc.com hoopheads that's gc.com hoopheads your story is a testament to how powerful a coaching network is it.

Jason Sunkel: 00:40:35

It also speaks to just what we discovered from doing the podcast for the last six years.

Jason Sunkel: 00:40:43

And I guess I.

Jason Sunkel: 00:40:45

I sort of knew this before we started, but I don't think I fully comprehended the just willingness of people to share their knowledge, to share their connections, to invest in something that they feel is worthwhile.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:08

And then probably the most overwhelming thing is just the love for the game of basketball that's out there.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:16

And I know you can probably speak to this as well, but I grew up just loving the game of basketball.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:23

And in my little area of Strongsville, Ohio, here, suburb of Cleveland, I was.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:31

You know, I mean, I loved the game, felt like I loved it more than.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:34

More than anybody.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:35

And sometimes you get caught up in it, and it's maybe not as easy to get caught up in it as it is, you know, back then as it is now, because with social media, you can see lots of things and whatever, but back in my day as a.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:48

As a young kid and then as a young coach, you know, you were kind of isolated in your own sort of.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:53

Sort of little world.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:54

And I just.

Jason Sunkel: 00:41:56

The love for the game of basketball and the willingness of people to share and your story does a tremendous job of illustrating that.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:01

That, you know, here's a bunch of people that obviously, at the time you're meeting them, had.

Jordan Klein: 00:42:09

Are.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:10

Have tremendous, tremendous accomplishments in the game and have done so many things, and yet they're not just walking by you and looking down and go, oh, there's Jordan Klein.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:21

Like, what does this guy want?

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:22

You know?

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:23

Instead it was, hey, there's Jordan Klein.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:25

Like, look at how hard this guy's working.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:27

How can we help him?

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:28

You know, how can we help him to be better so ultimately we can help game of basketball be better.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:35

And a word that you said that keep flashing in my mind as I think about what you just shared is just that idea of just being genuine, right, and genuinely caring about somebody else.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:49

And too often in this world today, you don't see people.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:52

You see a lot of, I guess, window dressing of people who say, hey, you know, yeah, I'll, you know, I'll help, whatever.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:58

But the.

Jason Sunkel: 00:42:59

The number of people that actually will set something down, set something aside to.

Jason Sunkel: 00:43:05

To help someone, that's when you really start talking about those genuine relationships.

Jason Sunkel: 00:43:09

And I know that Jason and I, when we went out together for the first time to Snow Valley, we certainly felt that.

Jason Sunkel: 00:43:15

And then I went back a couple times with my son and felt it even stronger and just the number of people that we've had on the pod from, from Snow Valley.

Jason Sunkel: 00:43:25

And of course it all starts, as you said, with Coach Showalter and Coach Slobaw and just how gracious they were to be able to first of all invite us to come on the podcast to be a part of it.

Jason Sunkel: 00:43:36

And so I can completely understand the reverence that you have for those two guys and what they've been able to do for you in your career.

Jason Sunkel: 00:43:49

When you think about this plan that you started that we talked about a few minutes ago with you and your wife, kind of putting it together and you see kind of where it's taken you, what have been, the things that kind of have gone according to plan and what are.

Jason Sunkel: 00:44:06

Is there a thing or two that maybe has been a surprise or a twist that you didn't see coming when you put together that original plan?

Jordan Klein: 00:44:14

That is the most relevant question you could ask me at this time in my first 72 hours down in Arkansas.

Jordan Klein: 00:44:23

So I now have, we have a two year old daughter, happy, healthy, amazing.

Jordan Klein: 00:44:30

I've been able to spend a lot of time with her for the last, with, with her at home with the last two years.

Jordan Klein: 00:44:35

Coach Slapaw was very understanding.

Jordan Klein: 00:44:38

He allowed me to do scouting reports and film for my home office so I could spend more time around my daughter.

Jordan Klein: 00:44:45

And like I said, this opportunity arose very quickly.

Jordan Klein: 00:44:49

So I am in, I'm currently sitting, I'm, I'm 32, I have fortunate to have two houses and an investment property and I am sitting in a college dorm room on campus right now.

Jordan Klein: 00:45:05

I just had three meals in the cafeteria today and my wife and 2 year old daughter are back in Cedar Rapids for the next, you know, for the foreseeable for this season.

Jordan Klein: 00:45:18

My wife is the head dance coach at Cornell College and she committed to the season prior to this opportunity arising.

Jordan Klein: 00:45:25

So again, going back to Coach Sowalter, you know, in order to be different, you have to do things differently.

Jordan Klein: 00:45:34

I would also share from my finance days with Dave Ramsey says if you live like no one else later, you can eventually live like no one else.

Jordan Klein: 00:45:44

And can't tell you how hard the last 72 hours have been and making this decision and not just me collectively with my wife as a, as a unit, but I am for the first time not living with my wife and daughter for potentially six months.

Jordan Klein: 00:46:04

So yeah, there's been some twists and turns and there's been some conversations that have ended in tears and I've also been really excited over the last few days to be back in the gym, working with great talent, having established relationships.

Jordan Klein: 00:46:17

There's no, no way that I would be sitting in the, that I would have chose to sit in this dorm room right now if it wasn't for relationships with Coach McAdams that were built off of Snow Valley.

Jordan Klein: 00:46:30

So it's not all doom and gloom.

Jordan Klein: 00:46:33

I'm happy to be here.

Jordan Klein: 00:46:34

It's a really great opportunity.

Jordan Klein: 00:46:36

But as far as personal life goes, absolutely.

Jordan Klein: 00:46:38

There have been some twists and turns.

Jason Sunkel: 00:46:42

What was the discussion like with your wife when this opportunity is presented to you?

Jason Sunkel: 00:46:50

What were some of the things that you guys talked about?

Jason Sunkel: 00:46:53

What was your process?

Jason Sunkel: 00:46:54

Because I think this is a, an interesting conversation.

Jason Sunkel: 00:46:58

It's an interesting situation that I think a lot of coaches who are at the college level, who are at the early stages of their career have to make similar decisions.

Jason Sunkel: 00:47:09

They have to decide, am I willing to move, am I willing to be separated from my spouse, my kids for a certain period of time, am I willing to work for less money to be able to take a step forward in my career?

Jason Sunkel: 00:47:26

So I think that whatever you're willing to share about that conversation, maybe how you structured it.

Jason Sunkel: 00:47:31

Did you talk pros and cons?

Jason Sunkel: 00:47:32

Did you just.

Jason Sunkel: 00:47:33

How did you go about having that discussion so that it would be productive and you could ultimately make what was going to be the best decision for you and your family?

Jordan Klein: 00:47:42

Yeah, I mean we, I had a great, I had a great year, great time at Cornell building those relationships.

Jordan Klein: 00:47:50

I love everything about both slob odds that are there.

Jordan Klein: 00:47:56

And so, yeah, absolutely, we made pros and cons.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:02

We had conversations about, you know, when you make a decision, they're good and bad, there's positive and negative consequences to everything.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:12

And so we, we listed those things out.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:16

For what it's worth, I'm not set on this.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:21

Like the division that you're in and coaching is nice.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:25

I'm happy to be at Division 2 level.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:29

I also really, I was excited to be you mentioned in the intro, but I'm excited to be on the women's side because I have a two year old daughter.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:38

So we talked about the pros and cons of the opportunity.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:42

I think that exists in the women's game right now, being in Iowa for the last year, the Caitlin Clark effect and the rise of women's basketball and the awareness.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:51

So.

Jordan Klein: 00:48:54

And then personally, I'm thinking big picture about how temporary this is in the scheme of our, our marriage and our lives and then how that's going to impact.

Jordan Klein: 00:49:06

I'll just say personally, how that can impact my daughter later.

Jordan Klein: 00:49:09

On in life, being able to be around, you know, strong minded women.

Jordan Klein: 00:49:16

And I, I mean that's very genuinely.

Jordan Klein: 00:49:19

So if there's anything that I can do to help my daughter be in a better place or help her succeed later in life, if this is one thing I can do to do that, I am, I'm willing to drive nine hours down to Arkansas and live in a college dorm.

Jordan Klein: 00:49:33

So yeah, we talked about the pros and cons again with her flexibility of work and having family nearby and sort of and you know, having a support system to where she might not love her day to day, it's not optimal but you know, she, we can make it work.

Jordan Klein: 00:49:50

And so she gave me that blessing 12, 15 months after moving from Milwaukee, Wisconsin down to Iowa for Cornell.

Jordan Klein: 00:50:00

So again, you're, you're, I think it's so important to note that you can have the best plan, you can be willing to put it into action.

Jordan Klein: 00:50:10

You can make pros and cons lists, but if you don't have a support system, whether it's through your spouse, your family, whatever that is, I just can't, in my, in my reality, in small corner of the world, can't imagine being able to do something like that.

Jordan Klein: 00:50:27

So I just, I want to reiterate that because it's, I think that's big for coaches if to find people around you that have genuine care and love for you, that are willing to go through you.

Jordan Klein: 00:50:37

It's, it's like when you start dating somebody, you go on a first date and it's awesome.

Jordan Klein: 00:50:41

The conversation's great and then you have your first argument and the test comes out of I don't know if I like you that much or yeah, I'm willing to, I'm willing to fight for you.

Jordan Klein: 00:50:53

I'm willing to work through this.

Jordan Klein: 00:50:55

And it's just been, it's been incredible.

Jordan Klein: 00:50:58

So that's where we're at.

Jason Sunkel: 00:51:01

Had you ever set foot in the state of Arkansas before this?

Jordan Klein: 00:51:05

No, sir, I had never.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:07

It was funny when I was walking into the first practice, I was walking in with Coach McAdams, he opened the door to the arena and it was, it was 15 minutes until practice.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:19

And I said, hey, this, you know, this is my first time walking into the arena, right.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:24

I had just got there, had my room set up.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:26

Practice was the next morning and I didn't have an opportunity to even tour the facility.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:30

I saw pictures, I knew them, but.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:32

And it was game time.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:33

The lights were on, the clock was ticking down, and it's time to, time to get to work.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:38

So I will tell you, I'm not making a recruiting pitch for anyone listening to this, but northwest Arkansas is a lot more beautiful than I anticipated.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:47

There are some, there are some rolling hills here, there's waterfalls, there's national park.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:52

I had, I thought I was moving.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:54

I thought I was moving to.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:56

I'm, you know, I thought I was moving to the plains of Kansas.

Jordan Klein: 00:51:59

So it's nice.

Jason Sunkel: 00:52:00

Gotcha.

Jason Sunkel: 00:52:00

Understood.

Jason Sunkel: 00:52:01

Understood.

Jason Sunkel: 00:52:02

All right.

Jason Sunkel: 00:52:02

So as you get there and you get on campus and obviously you have the relationship that you Described with Coach McAdams and before we jump down, you said basically you've been swallowing information for lack of a better way of saying it since you got onto campus.

Jason Sunkel: 00:52:20

What are some of the things that this first 72 hours there that you've, that you've done, that you've taken in, the things that you're trying to assimilate sort of into your experience here in this early part of taking this job.

Jordan Klein: 00:52:35

They had their first, the first Official practice was October 4th and I showed up three days ago.

Jordan Klein: 00:52:43

So, you know, it's late in the process.

Jordan Klein: 00:52:46

It's not something I've experienced before.

Jordan Klein: 00:52:48

So along with learning players and their strengths and weaknesses and you know, trying to do your on court coaching, the biggest thing over the last 72 hours has been learning what, you know, doing my best in every way to be a good assistant coach and have understanding his philosophy in transition offense.

Jordan Klein: 00:53:17

How are we going to be.

Jordan Klein: 00:53:18

Do we force baseline, do we force middle?

Jordan Klein: 00:53:21

Because it's not necessarily about what I've been exposed to in the past.

Jordan Klein: 00:53:26

I think it's really important for us as a staff to have, we can all have our own opinions and if, hey, if this was solely my call in a summer league game, this is what we would do.

Jordan Klein: 00:53:37

But I think it's important for us to have a common message when we address the team.

Jordan Klein: 00:53:41

So understanding his philosophy, sharing input, he's, he's been unbelievable at empowering us to make, to make decisions.

Jordan Klein: 00:53:54

And again within 72 hours to be, for me to be able to lead things in practice and coach his kids that he spends time recruiting and they can be in the transfer portal in four months or tomorrow is unbelievable.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:08

And that all goes back to the relationship from so Valley.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:11

So, you know, I would say learning his philosophy and then Billy is as quickly as possible, you're building relationships with kids.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:24

So I'm just, I'm trying to bring in every day bringing in an energy in something that they might not expect.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:30

Just, it's called a pattern interrupt I like to throw people off their game a little bit.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:34

Um, so they remember you.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:37

It's a lot about who you are as a person instead of what you do.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:40

And I think that goes a long way.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:41

People remember you for that.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:43

So I've been doing that over the last three days.

Jason Sunkel: 00:54:46

All right, what's that look like?

Jason Sunkel: 00:54:47

What's an example of a pattern interruption?

Jordan Klein: 00:54:50

We have the Gatorade player of the year from Missouri last year.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:56

She's a freshman.

Jordan Klein: 00:54:57

Um, we were in transition.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:01

She got stuck in the short corner, and instead of spacing the floor, she was just.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:05

She was lost in the short corner.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:08

So she subbed out like it was just another team's rotation.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:13

And I walked over to her and I said, hey, can you shoot the ball?

Jordan Klein: 00:55:20

And just an inquisitive, you know, hey, are you.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:23

I.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:23

I just got here.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:24

I don't know anything.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:25

Are you able to shoot?

Jordan Klein: 00:55:26

I don't know.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:26

I haven't seen it on film.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:29

And she looked at me a little bit confused and said, yeah, she's a Gatorade player of the year.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:37

So I said, you know, I know the answer to that question.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:41

Right?

Jordan Klein: 00:55:41

And she laughed and I said, so if you had the choice between being stuck in the short corner and being quiet, or spacing the floor to the corner using your voice and knocking down an open shot, which one would you choose?

Jordan Klein: 00:55:56

And she's like, use my voice in space.

Jordan Klein: 00:55:58

I was like, I think that's the correct answer.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:00

I'm happy you came to that conclusion.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:02

And I don't say it sarcastically.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:04

I'm just smiling.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:05

And in the next possession down, she faces the floor and hits a three and looks at me and she runs back on defense, takes a little glance.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:13

And to me, that was a good coaching moment of instead of saying, I could have walked over to her and said, hey, I need you to space the space, the floor.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:23

You can't get lost in the short corner.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:25

And I just don't think that resonates as well.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:27

I don't think.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:28

I think there's a learning aspect to that where people need to come to their own conclusions or have the perception that they come to their own conclusions based on how you coach and lead and communicate.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:38

So that's a.

Jordan Klein: 00:56:39

That was a quick one that happened yesterday, right out of the gate.

Jason Sunkel: 00:56:42

Yeah.

Jason Sunkel: 00:56:43

Sort of bringing something unusual.

Jason Sunkel: 00:56:45

Right.

Jason Sunkel: 00:56:45

An approach where you're getting across the same message, but maybe doing it in such a way that it's more memorable.

Jason Sunkel: 00:56:53

It's different.

Jason Sunkel: 00:56:53

It's not an out of the box strategy that somebody can Say, hey, I've heard a coach say that to me before.

Jason Sunkel: 00:57:00

Maybe you just approach it in a slightly different way.

Jason Sunkel: 00:57:02

And to your point, I think that does maybe make it more memorable and make it more impactful to say.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:08

To say it short and sweet.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:10

I just.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:10

And this is to keep it short and sweet.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:13

Telling is not teaching.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:16

And I think.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:17

I think a lot of times coaches make a lot of statements.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:23

They talk a lot because they want players to know how much they know.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:28

But it doesn't matter what we say.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:32

It's what people.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:33

It's what people retain and understand.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:35

And so I think asking questions just activates your brain and gets people to figure it out for themselves, which they will remember.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:43

When there's fans and their parents are there and their boyfriend or girlfriend's there and there's distractions, you need to be able to retain and apply what you've learned based on your environment.

Jordan Klein: 00:57:54

So telling is not teaching.

Jason Sunkel: 00:57:58

Yeah.

Jason Sunkel: 00:57:58

Coaching with questions, I think is something that I didn't do hardly at all at the beginning of my coaching career.

Jason Sunkel: 00:58:06

And then I think as time has gone on, I've become better and better and better at that.

Jason Sunkel: 00:58:12

And to your point, it allows the player to come to their own conclusion or a conclusion that they.

Jason Sunkel: 00:58:20

Again, maybe there's the conclusion that your question is leading them to, but it gets them to the concept or the idea or the answer that you, as the coach, are looking for them to find.

Jason Sunkel: 00:58:34

And so that's again, another way to be able to.

Jason Sunkel: 00:58:37

To cement that learning that you're trying to do with players out on the court and trying to get that across to them as you're talking about relationships.

Jason Sunkel: 00:58:47

And obviously, very quickly, you've been there such a short period of time, so it may not even be necessarily put into practice quite yet at Fort Smith.

Jason Sunkel: 00:59:00

But when you think about building relationships with players, what does that look like for you in your mind?

Jason Sunkel: 00:59:07

You talked a little bit before about your relationships with some of the guys from Snow Valley and just the coaches and just how the relationship is genuine.

Jason Sunkel: 00:59:16

So how do you develop those genuine relationships with players so that a, they know that they're valued as people, but also so that you can get in there and they understand that the relationship that you've built with them off the floor allows you to push them and get the best out of them on the floor.

Jordan Klein: 00:59:39

My first practice, walked into the gym.

Jordan Klein: 00:59:42

I was quiet for most of practice for day one.

Jordan Klein: 00:59:46

Showing up after their first official practice, observing, not pushing anyone's buttons.

Jordan Klein: 00:59:55

I'm.

Jordan Klein: 00:59:56

I'm there.

Jordan Klein: 00:59:56

I'M the new guy.

Jordan Klein: 00:59:59

And today we.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:02

A couple things.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:03

We did a ball handling warmup drill.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:06

Coach McAdams let me lead that.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:09

And it was.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:10

And it was fun.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:11

It wasn't.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:12

We had two people arm arm's length away, just touch fingertips.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:17

There was a cone in between them.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:18

We would do a different ball handling series, and then whoever picked up the cone first, one very simple.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:25

We did about eight different variations.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:28

But it was great for me to be able to lead that in a fun, competitive way.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:36

So people were smiling out of the gate at the first thing that I had led.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:40

That was important to me.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:42

We also implemented today after meetings, the classic communication circle that USA Basketball uses.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:52

So I had the players.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:56

Players linked arms at the beginning of practice on the baseline.

Jordan Klein: 01:00:59

I went and talked to them, and I said, again, I like to ask questions, and I just want people to know that I'm genuine and I'm a real person that they can talk to and not just another coach that's going to harp on them all day.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:11

So I said, hey, guys.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:13

I said, hey, ladies, how long have I been here?

Jordan Klein: 01:01:16

And they said, one day.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:19

That's right.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:20

And I'm already switching stuff up, and I'm making you link arms.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:23

So here's what we're going to do.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:26

You guys are going to.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:27

With 30 seconds left before practice starts, you're going to link arms on the baseline.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:31

Whoever's a leader on the team, upperclassmen, I just want you to communicate something that you're excited about for today, what you're looking forward to.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:39

And when you're done, the coaches will be at half court.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:42

You're going to jog and clap to half court, where I'll link arms.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:45

And then Coach McAdams will talk about what we're doing for the day, anything we have coming up, any events we have planned, et cetera.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:54

And then I also mentioned if we had.

Jordan Klein: 01:01:58

If you were at the University of Iowa and you have a staff of 74 coaches, they will watch practice, film back, and they track touches.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:07

Um, and so we focused a lot today just on togetherness with the communication circle.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:13

I will share.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:14

Also, at the end of practice, we all went toe to toe in a circle because they're all sweaty and don't want to touch each other.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:21

And I had everyone look to the person to their left one at a time and say something that they did positive today, and I'll change that up, and it'll be fun.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:30

I might might ask, ask them who has the most pairs of Jordans, what's their Favorite parachute, what's your favorite food, Tell somebody something you don't know about that they don't know about you, et cetera.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:42

And I just think that builds relationships again.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:44

And just, again, it makes you seem human and authentic and there's.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:49

There's things to you.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:50

And I want them to know I have a wife and a kid and that it, you know, et cetera, I think.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:54

But we did all that in the last two.

Jordan Klein: 01:02:56

Two practices, so that was great.

Jason Sunkel: 01:02:59

I think that sharing things as a coach about your life outside of your basketball team is a really valuable piece because when you think about your experience as a player, or oftentimes I'll think about my day job as a teacher.

Jason Sunkel: 01:03:22

And so often kids have this perception of they only see you in that role that they're seeing you most frequently in, and they're.

Jason Sunkel: 01:03:33

They're oftentimes like, so I teach elementary PE during the day.

Jason Sunkel: 01:03:37

And obviously those kids are a lot younger than the girls that you're coaching now, but they'll still sometimes say to me, like, you have kids or, you know, you're married, and they have no idea that there's a life beyond the four walls of the school.

Jason Sunkel: 01:03:55

And I think the more that you can open up and be vulnerable and share things about your family, about your life, about your hopes, your dreams, then that sort of frees up them to feel comfortable to be able to do the same thing.

Jason Sunkel: 01:04:09

And before you know it, now everybody's sharing things.

Jason Sunkel: 01:04:13

And people know a lot more about their teammates.

Jason Sunkel: 01:04:16

They know a lot more about their coaches.

Jason Sunkel: 01:04:18

Coaches know a lot more about their players.

Jason Sunkel: 01:04:20

And again, how do you build those genuine relationships that we talked about?

Jason Sunkel: 01:04:24

It's by getting to know someone and investing in them and learning about them and caring about them, not just as a basketball player, but as a person.

Jason Sunkel: 01:04:35

I think that those examples that you just gave are really powerful ways to be able to build those relationships that you need, obviously, to be able to have a cohesive and successful basketball program, no matter what level of basketball you're talking about.

Jason Sunkel: 01:04:52

Let's talk a little bit about your role and what you and Coach McAdams have talked about specifically day to day.

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:02

Do you have.

Jordan Klein: 01:05:02

What.

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:02

What's your job description?

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:04

Is there.

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:05

Do you guys break it down by.

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:07

We have somebody.

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:09

Are you in charge of a specific aspect within practice?

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:13

Is it.

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:13

Everybody's kind of coaching everything?

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:15

Just how does he break it down in terms of what your on court responsibilities are?

Jason Sunkel: 01:05:21

Let's start there.

Jordan Klein: 01:05:22

On court description, I would say, is developing and ongoing.

Jordan Klein: 01:05:28

He's Figuring me out.

Jordan Klein: 01:05:30

I'm figuring out what he needs.

Jordan Klein: 01:05:34

So today I did a small group workout with three players.

Jordan Klein: 01:05:42

I did some ball handling, I did a finishing at the rim with guards and then I think tomorrow it'll flip flop and I'll work with post players and do some shooting drills as well, put them in some situations.

Jordan Klein: 01:05:58

But he had, he had one assist, one, he had a full time assistant, has one along with myself.

Jordan Klein: 01:06:08

And so it's just been a lot of learning each other.

Jordan Klein: 01:06:12

But I can tell you he had the biggest smile on his face today when he was able to have each of us on one half of the floor when we did position work and he was able to get half court and just observe and then critique and sound bites on what he saw.

Jordan Klein: 01:06:31

But he didn't have to be engaged with the drill and setting it up.

Jordan Klein: 01:06:35

So the support aspect of just being able to come in and help help a program just by having a body in another set of eyes I think has been pretty valuable.

Jason Sunkel: 01:06:49

What was your previous experience with coaching on the women's side of the game?

Jason Sunkel: 01:06:54

Had you done any of that prior to this opportunity?

Jordan Klein: 01:06:59

No.

Jordan Klein: 01:07:00

What sparked my interest, I coached boys in high school men for a year at Cornell.

Jordan Klein: 01:07:07

But having my 2 year old daughter was, it made me, it made me look and consider.

Jordan Klein: 01:07:15

But I can tell you it directly came from Snow Valley.

Jordan Klein: 01:07:18

There are three boys camps and one girls camp and without compare, the girls camp is by far my favorite to coach from a coachability standpoint.

Jordan Klein: 01:07:35

You know, not every kid thinks that they're LeBron and can shoot 45 foot step back threes.

Jordan Klein: 01:07:44

And I also really like, I will share, I really like the challenge of coaching women and I mean it from the standpoint that I think it's a, I think it's a good reflection, it's a great reflection on who you are as a coach.

Jordan Klein: 01:08:02

From my experience, having girls and now women around me that are so coachable and eager to learn and they want to get better if it's good information in good results on the floor, bad information in bad results on the floor.

Jordan Klein: 01:08:17

So I really appreciate the challenge of having to be detailed with what I say, when I say it, how I say it.

Jason Sunkel: 01:08:27

I think that's really.

Jason Sunkel: 01:08:30

I've had an opportunity to coach, you know, two of my daughter's teams and there definitely is a, there's a difference, I think in, I don't want to say coachability because it's not that necessarily boys aren't coachable, but I do think your point of in the boys Game, there's a lot more of.

Jason Sunkel: 01:08:50

Everybody thinks they're really, really good.

Jason Sunkel: 01:08:54

And I think sometimes on the girls side, it's almost the opposite.

Jason Sunkel: 01:08:56

Like you have to convince them sometimes that hey, you know, you're really good.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:00

Right.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:01

And so it's about, I think, you know, building that confidence and giving them that opportunity to be able to sort of shine and express those, you know, express the talents that they have that sometimes the guys are maybe too, too willing to express talents that maybe they don't have.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:18

Versus, versus.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:20

Sometimes the girls, you gotta, you know, you gotta be able to give them a little bit of confidence to show what they can do.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:25

And there's definitely a different dynamic when it comes to, you know, it comes to coaching on the guy side and coaching on the girl side.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:32

I will say I can agree with you 100% when it comes to a camp setting.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:37

I have not worked the girls Snow Valley camp.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:39

My daughter, who is a freshman in high school, that is my goal in the next.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:44

Sometime in her next two summers, I guess three.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:48

I have three summers still left with her as a high school player that I'm going to try to get out there.

Jason Sunkel: 01:09:54

Just depending on my, my own work schedule and her AAU schedule and family vacation, everything that my goal is to get out there and work that session.

Jason Sunkel: 01:10:03

But working lots and lots of camps that I've done for, I don't know, 30 some odd years.

Jason Sunkel: 01:10:09

I can say that when you talk about girls in a camp setting as far as coachability and being enjoyable and the girls are much better listeners that whatever age you want to throw in there, they are much better listeners and pick up things much quicker than the boys do, especially in a camp setting as you describe.

Jordan Klein: 01:10:32

Yeah, I couldn't agree more with you.

Jordan Klein: 01:10:38

Can you still hear me?

Jason Sunkel: 01:10:40

Yes, yes.

Jason Sunkel: 01:10:40

We got you.

Jordan Klein: 01:10:41

Computer.

Jason Sunkel: 01:10:42

Yeah, got you.

Jason Sunkel: 01:10:43

There you go.

Jordan Klein: 01:10:44

So, yeah, I couldn't agree more with you.

Jordan Klein: 01:10:47

It's it that has been very.

Jordan Klein: 01:10:50

That's been a learning curve for me over the last 48 hours of.

Jordan Klein: 01:10:53

I like.

Jordan Klein: 01:10:54

There's a book I'm reading called the Art of Encouragement and just how do you communicate with someone that it, you know, like you said, it goes from potentially having too much ego to having not enough ego based on your capabilities.

Jason Sunkel: 01:11:14

Right.

Jordan Klein: 01:11:15

So I mean, it's going to.

Jordan Klein: 01:11:17

That it's improving me as a coach regardless of what side I'm coaching on, it's 100% going to translate to being a better dad.

Jordan Klein: 01:11:28

And you know, there's just.

Jordan Klein: 01:11:32

You're capable, you're worthy, you're valuable.

Jordan Klein: 01:11:36

And how do you express that in a non cliche way that they say, okay, this guy just got done reading a tweet and he just relayed it to me.

Jordan Klein: 01:11:47

And so no, it's been, but it's been, it's been really fun.

Jordan Klein: 01:11:51

And I've done that with a, with a couple of players already.

Jordan Klein: 01:11:54

And the feedback, because we did the communication circle, the feedback's been really good about just the energy and the positivity and who we are as people that we want to genuinely.

Jordan Klein: 01:12:05

Again, it goes back to the Snow Valley character, you know, your pillars and who you are as a person just being genuine and authentic and then they're willing to work and fight for someone that they know has their back.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:17

Yeah, no question.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:18

No doubt about that.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:20

All right, Jordan, before we wrap up, I want to ask you one final two part question.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:26

So I think this question is relevant at this point.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:31

I don't know if you're quite ready to answer it.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:33

It might be better answered a week from now, but let's ask it anyway.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:38

So the first part of the question is when you look ahead over the next year.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:41

So this is going to be your first season in a new job.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:46

You're going to be separated from your family during at least a portion of this.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:50

What do you see as being your biggest challenge over the next year?

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:54

And then the second part of it, and we touched on it throughout the podcast tonight.

Jason Sunkel: 01:12:59

But your biggest joy.

Jason Sunkel: 01:13:02

So your biggest challenge followed by your biggest joy.

Jordan Klein: 01:13:06

It's a good question.

Jordan Klein: 01:13:07

I'm thinking there's pros and cons to it, but I would say some of it will just be learning maybe some of the nuances of the women's game.

Jordan Klein: 01:13:19

And then I feel really comfortable talking to, talking to recruits.

Jordan Klein: 01:13:30

But I think there will definitely be a learning curve on.

Jordan Klein: 01:13:37

I think it's possible that women will make decisions earlier, you know, that might commit to a school their junior year, whereas some boys or young men will wait until the summer after their senior year and stress their parents out to no end to make a decision.

Jordan Klein: 01:13:55

Yep.

Jordan Klein: 01:13:55

Because they have zero college offers and it's possible that Duke might give them a call the next day.

Jordan Klein: 01:14:05

So I think there's some of that, but I'm.

Jordan Klein: 01:14:08

That'll be, that'll be a learning curve.

Jordan Klein: 01:14:12

But, you know, something I'm, I'm not afraid of or shying away from.

Jordan Klein: 01:14:16

And I definitely know I have a good support system around me with Coach McAdams.

Jordan Klein: 01:14:19

But something I'm most excited about is, you know, biggest thing I think from being Division 3 to Division 2 is I'll be able to have more time with players and maintain those relationships.

Jordan Klein: 01:14:35

So, you know, we can love or hate the transfer portal and it's there.

Jordan Klein: 01:14:41

But I actually, I love, I love the onus that it puts on coaches to be, again, authentic and genuine.

Jordan Klein: 01:14:49

I, I think it's really exciting, especially at the Division 2 level, to be able to, I have access to work with players much more than I did at Division 3.

Jordan Klein: 01:15:00

And then again, it's a, it's a great reflection on who you are as a coach and the culture that you have and the people and the people that are around you, whether they decide to stay or not, because they are much more empowered than they have been in the past.

Jordan Klein: 01:15:13

And I think that's a great thing.

Jordan Klein: 01:15:16

Truthfully, I think it makes, I think it just evens out the playing field and empowers people and gives them options.

Jordan Klein: 01:15:22

So I'm actually really excited to build relationships with the players and then work with them for multiple years.

Jason Sunkel: 01:15:34

All right, before we get out, I want you to share how people can connect with you.

Jason Sunkel: 01:15:41

Whether you want to share, email, social media, website, whatever you feel comfortable with.

Jason Sunkel: 01:15:46

And then after you do that, I will jump back in and wrap things up.

Jordan Klein: 01:15:50

Very good.

Jordan Klein: 01:15:51

-: 3176

Jordan Klein: 01:16:02

My ex handle is Coach J Klein K L E I N and Instagram is at Coach J M Klein.

Jordan Klein: 01:16:15

And then my email address is J M Klein K L E I N 12 Gmail.

Jordan Klein: 01:16:22

quick, again my cell phone's: 262505

Jordan Klein: 01:16:27

Feel free to call or shoot a text.

Jason Sunkel: 01:16:30

Awesome.

Jason Sunkel: 01:16:30

Jordan, cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight to join us.

Jason Sunkel: 01:16:35

Really appreciate it and to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode.

Jason Sunkel: 01:16:42

Thanks.

Jason Sunkel: 01:16:45

Your first impression is everything when applying for a new coaching job.

Jason Sunkel: 01:16:49

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Jason Sunkel: 01:16:59

The Coaching Portfolio Guide is an instructional membership based website that helps you develop a personalized portfolio.

Jason Sunkel: 01:17:06

Each section of the Portfolio Guide provides detailed instructions on how to organize your portfolio in a professional manner.

Jason Sunkel: 01:17:12

The guide also provides sample documents for each section of your portfolio that you can copy, modify and add to your personal portfolio.

Jason Sunkel: 01:17:21

As a Hoopheads pod listener, you can get your Coaching Portfolio Guide for just $25.

Jason Sunkel: 01:17:26

Visit coachingportfolioguide.com hoopheads to learn more.

Jordan Klein: 01:17:34

Thanks for listening to the Hoopheads podcast presented by Head Start Basketball.