ONE ON ONE WITH JOE CALLERO (CAL POLY)
by John Parenti, CollegeInsider.com


Joe Callero is in the midst of his first season as head coach of Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. The school has had an up and down ride in the Big West the last ten years and after a 3-13 conference record in 2008-09, Callero was hired to build a consistent program.

Previously he helped rebuild the basketball fortunes of D-II Seattle University, turning the Redhawks into a 20-win per year program. Picked to finish last by the coaches and the media, Callero’s Cal Poly team is a very respectable 6-6 in conference play.

Callero grew up in a family of 16 children, so that led to CI’s first question...

CI: What’s it like growing up in a family of 16 children?

Callero: The most amazing thing about growing up in a family of 16 is that you don’t know any different. You don’t even think it is a big deal until you are about 15 or 16 years old and you go to church and you realize that everyone is looking at you because your family takes up two full pews.

We moved to a “hobby farm” in the suburbs of Seattle when I was about 10 years old. Dad was a general practitioner and he wanted to buy this 40-acre ranch on Mercer Island. We had an old barn and a new barn and dad put a basketball court in the new barn, plus we had an outdoor court, too.

I spent the next eight years of my life playing basketball in my spare time against my brothers. Two of my older brothers were very successful high school players, so my battles were against them. Then following me all of my younger brothers continued to play basketball throughout high school and several of them went on to play college basketball.

CI: Where did you play college ball? When and how did you decide to be a coach, and what is coaching to you?

Callero: I played at Central Washington for Dean Nicholson, who’s a Hall of Fame coach and a real expert at dealing with people. He was able to squeeze the most out of everybody. I learned a lot about player management and team management from him.

I redshirted one year between my junior and senior year, and that’s when I started to look at the game differently. As a point guard I looked at the game as being a leader; as a coach I started to look at the game as an evaluator. Should we do this? Maybe we should do that? I started watching game film, and as a result started viewing the game differently.

Coaching is not about coaching a sport, but coaching the people in the sport. As a coach, you get a feel for your team. The more I coach, I learn it is less about X’ and O’s, and more about the Jimmies and Joes. It is more about the art of coaching than the science of coaching.

CI: You were head coach at Seattle University for eight years, and the last four all resulted in 20-win seasons. What were some of the keys to that success?

Callero: The first year or two we tried to put together a good team. What we found out is that you can build a good team, but you also have to build a good program. We were able to improve our talent level and improve or won/loss total a little bit. We had some early success going from six wins to 16 wins.

However, we weren’t able to sustain it until we looked at it from a program perspective instead of a team perspective. That was one of my points in coming to Cal Poly; I didn’t want to build just a team but a program.

CI: Is there a difference in how you recruit for a D-I program versus a D-II program?

Callero: Not really. We always try, whether at Seattle or Cal Poly, to recruit student athletes who have the emotional stability and emotional stamina.

Most coaches don’t talk about this stuff. But we’ve found that at high academic schools like Seattle and Cal Poly, if we find a student athlete who is really emotionally stable, who is emotionally connected to the coaching staff and emotionally committed to the university, that they are able to handle the highs and the lows of the season along with the highs and lows of their career, academics, injuries and social life.

If you look at the high-major teams, they are going to get the top 100 recruits. We’re not going to get them…YET. But we’re going to get the slightly overlooked player who has the hunger and drive and stability to develop and contribute and graduate.

CI: Are the NCAA rules for D-II different than for D-I?

Callero: Yes! And that is a very good question. As a D-II coach in a metropolitan area, we had many more evaluation days. Our Summer Evaluation Period is longer. As an example, I was consistently in the Bay Area for a large tournament at Marin Catholic, and that was in mid-June. The D-I schools weren’t even allowed out during that time. D-I has a 21-day recruiting period; D-II has a 45-day recruiting period, from mid-June to the end of July.

I estimated that on an annual basis, we saw twice as many kids and evaluated kids twice as much as our D-I counterparts. That was a tremendous advantage because (in a metro area) we could go to a game every single night.

One of the biggest recruiting challenges for me and one of the biggest changes for me between D-I and D-II is the limits there are on our recruiting and how isolated we are in terms of getting to those recruits. The other big difference is in the number of scholarships. In D-II we could give out 10, but in D-I it’s 13. With 13 scholarships, a school is more willing to take more chances on players.

But at the D-II level we wouldn’t risk a scholarship on someone who was not going to be able to contribute. We didn’t have the luxury. We were always amazed at which players got scholarships to D-I schools, when we weren’t willing to give a scholarship to some of those same players. We were much more conservative, much more thorough and much more cautious.

CI: Remembering your first team meeting with your players at Cal Poly, what did you say to them?

Callero: I got a chance to meet with the whole team for about a half hour. I’m at an age when I’m aware of what and who I am, and what I can bring. I assured them that there are always differences when there is a new coach.

I stressed that I didn’t want to be hip or cool, but I am dying to care about them, teach them and embrace them. I think they understood that I wasn’t going to be anything but sincere and hard working and most people will embrace that. We really didn’t have any defections. One young man transferred to a JC to be closer to home, and another had some academic issues.

CI: Poly was picked to finish last in the Big West in every media and coaches’ poll but you’ve definitely exceeded expectations. Can you put your finger on it?

Callero: I think it starts off with a new coach and that made us the underdogs; you kind of get a couple extra points to start off with when you’re picked last. The opponents’ coaches and players have a tendency to look at those polls and think this should be an easy game, that the team picked to be last is not very good.

I think we’ve caught some teams in unfavorable positions or teams that were looking past us. But we had a lot of road games and that has helped to give us character, toughness and experience. Picking us last in the conference worked as a motivating factor for about one day. We have “one day contracts.” Don’t worry about what somebody said about yesterday or what someone is saying about tomorrow. Let’s just do our jobs today!

CI: What is your game day routine?

Callero: I have a pretty good routine. I try to get a little extra sleep, about 30 to 45 minutes extra. I have a decent breakfast, do a lot of reading in the morning and take care of details. That includes freshening my notes.

I usually meet the team in late morning or early afternoon for a shoot around that lasts about an hour. When the team goes to its pre-game meal, I usually go for a run for about an hour. Then I like to relax for a while, watch some more game tape, eat very lightly…it helps to calm me down.

We try to encourage the team to eat something that flies or swims. And to eat something they’ve eaten before. Don’t try something new on game day. We always try to arrive at the game site 90 minutes before game time, time enough for the players to get dressed at a casual rate, get taped, stretch, hang out and get to the court one-hour before game time.

They do some light shooting for about 15 minutes, then it’s back to the locker room to meet with me. For about 15 minutes, we’ll review the game plan one more time. Then I might meet with an alum or a potential recruit (if it’s a home game). The team returns to the floor for some pre-game warm-up drills and then it’s game time.

CI: Have you ever been in awe of an opposing team, or the surroundings of their home court?

Callero: There can be times, as a player or a coach, when a spectacular environment can catch you off-guard. I’ll tell you a little story about that. A couple of years ago, we scheduled a game between Seattle University and Kentucky to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1958 National Championship game. We were their first exhibition game of the year. They were starting their first game with Billy Gillespie as their new coach. We got down there a day early and got to practice on the court, and I invited some alumni down to the floor. Here we were in Rupp Arena, with 22,000 blue seats. We were definitely excited about the game.

The Kentucky fans packed the place and we were introduced. Then they turned off the lights for them, and I said, “OK great, I figured they would do that.” The spotlight was on their players and the music was playing and it was cool. And then they started shooting fireworks off the top of the backboard. It was like Vegas or the NBA.

As a coach I said to myself, “I guess this is the Big Time.” There were 22,000 people for an exhibition game in Kentucky for the start of the Gillespie era. We were a little shell shocked, got behind early, but fought back to make it a very respectable game for a D-II team to play a national power on their floor. It’s essential to have those experiences because it gives your team a chance to grow and develop.

CI: Is there anything you would like to add?

Callero: Coaching, to me, is like growing up in my family of 16 children. Staff and players are like family. It’s not about me but more about being part of a family growing and living as a unit. Finally, thank you having the interest in talking about the Cal Poly program.
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