By Lisa Zimmerman, Player Engagement Insider
For six years, the NFL and the NCAA have partnered to present the NFL-NCAA Coaches Academy for those -- including former NFL players -- who are considered through their current and previous endeavors to be high-level coaching prospects.
The 2016 academy was held in February in Tampa, Florida with speakers and experts including Charley Casserly, the former general manager of the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans, Rod Graves, the current NFL senior vice president of football operations and the former general manager of the Arizona Cardinals and senior vice president of football administration for the New York Jets, former Indianapolis head coach Tony Dungy, former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Sherman, University of South Florida Athletic Director Mark Harlan, and University of Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manual.
The purpose of the progam is to help train and educate these coaching prospects in order to further solidify their skills and position them for future opportunties.
Among the more than 50 attendees were 29 former NFL players, all of whom have transitioned into coaching careers following their years in the league.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver (1987-1988) Charles Lockett attended what was his first academy following many years of coaching in the high school in his hometown of Los Angeles. In addition, Lockett recently finished a stint at Bethany College, which he obtained through the NFL internship program and it whet his appetite further for a future to continue to pursue college or NFL coaching.
“I had three goals in my life,” Lockett said. “Play pro sports, be a police officer and coach.”
Lockett has already achieved all three. He spent two years with the Steelers before suffering a career-ending injury and then moved on to a 10-year career with the Los Angeles Police Department (during which he also moonlighted as a personal bodyguard to entertainment legend Frank Sinatra), retiring as a detective.
His years coaching have proved among the most rewarding. Lockett gets great satisfaction not only from hearing from his former players, but also seeing the impact he has made in their lives often in helping them make the transition from high school to college. He found the coaching academy invaluable in helping him take the next step, garnering the tools to coach in the NFL.
“The peer-to-peer model (of the academy) allows us to gain insights into coaches who’ve been successful at the highest level,” Lockett said. “Now you have someone you can bounce ideas off of. You always want to learn from experts. You have to be not only a great coach with x’s and o’s, but you have to be a CEO. You have to manage a budget, interact with different departments and think outside the box. Make sure you have the right culture. With the input and expertise of people like Rod Graves, Charley Casserly and Tony Dungy we wouldn’t be able to get the insight to navigate the process. It’s a great networking and mentoring atmosphere. No one gets to a high level of success by themselves. That’s in anything we do in life.”
Former wide receiver Thabiti Davis who spent time with the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Giants, as well as several years playing for teams in the Arena League was raised by a coach so that has always been top-of-mind for him. Davis’ father, James, spent 30 years as a high school coach in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina area and Davis knew it was something that interested him as well.
Initially, upon his retirement from football, Davis worked with other former players, helping them with their transitions into life after the NFL. But coaching continued to call him and currently, he is the special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach for Winston-Salem State University, a program he joined in 2014.
In addition to his father, and his uncles who were also coaches, Davis cites numerous people as being his inspiration and helping him lay the foundation for his future, including current Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell who was Davis’ coach when he played for Wake Forest University. Having been the recipient of their mentorship, his goal is to coach in the NFL then take that knowledge and expertise back to college where he can serve players looking toward their futures – whether transitioning into the NFL or into another career.
Davis talked about the messages conveyed by those at the academy, including Graves, Casserly, Dungy and Eric Kapitulik, a former Marine who founded an organization called “The Program” that focuses on leadership development, all of which he hopes to embrace and apply to his own future.
“We all have a purpose in trying to climb this coaching ladder,” Davis said. “What the academy did was feature individuals who’ve navigated the coaching waters unlike many others. It was a down-to-earth perspective on how to approach the profession. [They all] shared about how important it is for us, the next generation of coaches, to remain the caretakers of the game with respect to the fundamental aspects that are necessary to be taught.”
While the academy does not guarantee coaching success for any of its attendees, it does guarantee a solid set of tools and information for them to use as they navigate the road to it.