It's not every day a basketball team gets the opportunity to hire someone with 35 years of head coaching experience as an assistant.
The Jefferson City Jays got that chance and acted on it as quickly as possible, hiring former Edwardsville (Ill.) head coach Mike Waldo, who has 727 wins on his résumé.
"I think it says a lot about him after coaching that long he's willing to take an assistant's job at a place that he doesn't really have any connections with," Jays head coach Mark Anderson said. "But he's also been an assistant baseball coach for 30 years so he understands what it's like to be an assistant coach. It's like finding money with us. When we saw his résumé, we interviewed one person. You're not going to get anybody that has a better résumé."
The Jays announced the hiring May 17. Waldo will also be a special education teacher for Jefferson City High School.
"The first thing we kind of did was ask him to come in and evaluate our team and give us his look and his impressions of who we are and what we can do," Anderson said. "Coach (Jordan) Chapman and I have talked about being open to his ideas, we have to accept a lot of things and listen to a lot of things that he's bringing to the table for us."
And why not? Anderson has 11 years as a head coach under his belt but welcomes the wealth of knowledge Waldo has.
"He brings, not just experience, but a lot of ideas and fresh ideas," Anderson said. "We've sat down about three different times now and just kind of talked basketball. He's just a basketball junkie. He's obviously been in a lot of situations that will help us."
This past week, Waldo has gotten some one-on-one time with players at the team's camp at Lewis and Clark Middle School.
"There's a lot of times he's pulling a kid aside and talking with them," Anderson said. "You can tell he's built a rapport with players and has a way of getting them to perform, but also building relationships with him."
The Jays went 11-13 in Anderson's first season with the Jays, the team's second straight season without a winning record.
"I think he will push coach Chapman and I in ways that we probably need to be pushed sometimes and hopefully we'll throw some ideas at him as well," Anderson said.