What is a Director of Basketball Operations?

director of basketball operations

We get a lot of messages at Hoop Coach via email and social media asking what Director of Basketball Operations do and what the job actually entails.   Below we copied one of the best Director of Basketball Operations job descriptions we have come across in our daily job posts.   If you read through the job description you will see it is basically all of the jobs and duties that coaches do NOT want to do.  Booking travel, dealing with parents, liaising with the Academic people and the grunt work pertaining to running camps.  While the position has certainly opened up many doors for many coaches, Celtics General Manager Brad Stevens  comes to mind, it is definitely not the same as being an assistant.  In fact, DBO’s are not even suppose to be on the floor during practice.    Read the description below to get an accurate depiction of what a Director of Basketball Operations does for their program.  I should also mention that unless you are at a big time school they don’t get paid exceedingly well for all the work they do…..

Position Summary
The Director of Basketball Operations will oversee the daily operation of the recruiting office, as instructed by the coaching staff.  This position will also plan and coordinate Community Relations and work with different areas in the community and create volunteer opportunities for the student-athletes. This person will oversee all aspects of recruiting within the sport program. This includes planning and coordinating recruiting visits, coordinating the recruiting database and mailing system. This position will travel with the team and assist with all logistics as it relates to travel and coordinate team video needs.

Essential Duties, Tasks and Responsibilities
Recruiting

Official and Unofficial Visits
Organize official and unofficial visits of recruits; Organize and coordinate recruit game-day logistics; coordinate meals, activities, seating, etc. for recruits during visits to BGSU.  Coordinating on campus visits and events, which includes:

Official Visits: coordinate all hotel and travel accommodations for the prospective student athlete, Meetings with: professors on campus, athletic director, coaching staff, student-athlete and academic services, Create schedules for each prospective student athlete along with itineraries for the visit, Coordinates all events throughout the visit.

Unofficial Visits:  Coordinate prospective student-athletes schedule with coaches’ schedule, schedule meetings with coaching staff, send out invitations to all home games, gather information about prospective student-athlete, give tour of campus and facilities, etc.

Coordinating logistics for events, which includes:  paperwork, compliance, itineraries, meetings, lodging, transportation, food, location, etc.

Recruiting Travel/ Accommodations
Responsible for scheduling meetings with coaches and prospective student-athletes, setting up appointments for coaches, speaking engagements at specific events, travel reservations for Coaching staff during recruiting period and for prospective student-athletes during visits.

Responsible for initiating the “who and when” of our recruiting efforts, which includes: present team to coaching staff, managing assistant coaches’ travel destinations, providing list to recruiting department of top prospects to visit, organizing head coaches’ travel schedule, maintaining master travel schedule and calendar, distributing travel dates and locations to office personnel, provide assistant coaches with travel itinerary, provide assistant coaches with high school profile sheets, provide assistant coaches with recruiting materials for the road: blank DVDs / return envelopes, media guides, questionnaires, camp brochures

Maintaining the prospective student-athlete pool
Establish data bank of prospects utilizing varied recruiting services, distribute prospect lists to coaches, maintain the film log system, update recruiting boards in staff room, ensure that all top prospects have film profiles on the network, analyze national trends in recruiting, research new target areas, review each area with individual coaches on a regular basis, maintain combine results, prepare tapes for staff meetings, respond to any position needs on the board, work with coaches on recruiting needs and depth

Daily Operations
Work with the coaching staff with the flow of daily correspondence and day to day operations of running a sport program.  Work with supervisor to develop short and long range planning.  Make recommendations to supervisor to improve/change current policies/procedures.  Responsible for developing a manual for recruiting, academics and athletes, etc. Responsible for coordinating the Head Coaches calendar in regards to recruiting and appearances in the community.

Player/ Parent Contact
Disability Insurance for Players: Educate players/ parents on disability insurance, Provide assistance to players/parents with application procedures to acquire disability insurance
Liaison between coaches and parents – main parent contact

Academic Liaison
Serve as the liaison to the Director of Compliance for admission procedures and assist in filing with the NCAA Eligibility Center for all prospective student-athletes.

The Director of Basketball Operations is responsible for compiling and processing academic information on prospects, which includes: preparing pre-application binders for: Admissions, Athletic Director, Head Coach, Recruiting Coordinator, Director of Compliance; this includes: pre-application binders containing the following: pre-applications for admission, transcripts, test scores, progress reports, high school profile

Responsible for maintaining academic paperwork, inform coaches on needed items, maintaining individual files for all offered players, transcript breakdowns for top prospects or by request of coach

Assist with the monitoring of academic progress of student-athletes. Establish and maintain an environment conducive to the welfare and academic success of the student-athlete. Establish and maintain effective interactions with students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and the public.

Assist with Summer Camps
Work with staff in order to develop a senior camp, youth camp, team camp, and the logistics of each

Responsible for all recruiting aspects of summer camp
This includes: providing lists of prospects attending camp to coaches, separating prospects from general campers on day of camp, providing recorded times to coaches during camp

End of Year Banquet and “Senior Send-Off”
Coordinate and organize the end of year banquet and senior send off for each season.  Schedule and oversee all logistics of event.

Liaison for Compliance
Distributing compliance bulletins to all staff for each recruiting cycle, informing compliance of coaches’ travel schedule, maintaining and turning in phone logs to compliance, proactively identifying and resolving any walk-on eligibility issues, staying up-to-date on all new legislation and inform all staff, preview official and unofficial visit compliance paperwork

Team Accommodations
Coordinate team travel for home and away games; help set up rooms and meals; logistics of team travel itineraries, registration lists, manage, locker room, coaches and compliance with NCAA, conference, and Bowling Green State University rules and regulations

Compliance, Recruiting, Team, etc.
Prepare reports, records, and other related documents; preparing paperwork for national letter of intent and applications, monitor grant-in-aid lists and numbers, all with a sensitivity to numbers and counters

Community Relations Director
Coordinate and plan visits to schools, hospitals and working with our players in the community. Making sure the players volunteer and help out in the community within the school system, Big Brothers/ Big Sisters, visiting children in the hospital, etc.

This list of essential duties, tasks and responsibilities is not all-inclusive; individual will perform other related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills or Abilities 

  • Strong knowledge of intercollegiate athletics
  • Effective communication both written and oral
  • Ability to work with diverse groups of student-athletes
  • Ability to multi-task
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Ability to understand simple budgeting principles
  • Understanding of video editing software specific to sport application
  • Knowledge of NCAA rules and regulations

Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree required.  One year of experience in a collegiate sport specific program required.  Must have and maintain a valid driver’s license and comply with the university’s vehicle use policy.

Pre-Employment Background Check
Final candidate(s) are required to authorize and pass a background investigation prior to an offer of employment.  Offers of employment are conditional until a background investigation has been successfully completed and all other pre-employment requirements are satisfied.  The University reserves the right to determine and confirm suitability for employment and to end any employment already begun if the background check reveals disqualifying information.

Salary
Full-time, 10-month, 217 days administrative staff position.   Salary is commensurate with education and experience.  Full benefit package available.

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