The women\u2019s basketball program at Stony Brook has become something of a clearing house and stepping stone for coaches trying to move up to the next level in the sport. Beginning with Beth O\u2019Boyle\u2019s final year, the 2013-14 campaign where the Seawolves went 24-9, Stony Brook has had just two seasons with a losing record since and they\u2019ve gone to the postseason six times \u2014 including the NCAA tournament in 2021.<\/p>\n
In that decade-plus stretch, bigger programs have come calling for the Seawolves\u2019 coaches, offering larger paydays. O\u2019Boyle went to VCU, Caroline McCombs departed for George Washington, and last year Ashley Langford took her talents to Tulane after guiding the Seawolves to a program record-tying 28 wins.<\/p>\n
Through each of those changes, Shawn Heilbron has been the athletic director at Stony Brook. And every time he\u2019s had an opening, he\u2019s called \u2013 and then hired \u2013 one of Brian Stanchak\u2019s clients. When Langford left last spring, he hired his third consecutive coach represented by Stanchak in former Tennessee assistant coach Joy McCorvey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with Brian is like working with a teammate,\u201d Heilbron told SB Nation. \u201cEven though I know that his job is to represent the best interests of his clients, my experience working with him has always felt like a partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanchak is an agent who represents women\u2019s college basketball coaches almost exclusively. The roster for his BDS Agency, which he founded, includes more than 70 coaches in the sport.<\/p>\n
When the coaching carousel in women\u2019s college basketball gets going, Stanchak is one of the people at the control board with the power to make it stop or spin even faster. Put more simply, when any athletic director has an opening for a head women\u2019s basketball coach, chances are that they \u2013 or the search firm they\u2019re using \u2013 are going to have a conversation with Stanchak about who might fill it.<\/p>\n
In the past calendar year, three of Stanchak\u2019s clients landed their first head coaching jobs in the Power 4 ranks: Megan Duffy at Virginia Tech<\/a>, Gavin Petersen at Utah and Kim Caldwell at Tennessee. His other clients include a wide range of coaches, from Michigan State<\/a>\u2019s Robyn Fralick to North Carolina A&T\u2019s Tarrell Robinson to Division II Ashland\u2019s Kari Pickens to Texas assistant Elena Lovato.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how other agents operate because I\u2019ve never worked for another agent. Contract negotiations and promoting them, that stuff is critical. But I\u2019m also a sounding board. I\u2019m able to kind of give people peace of mind,\u201d Stanchak told SB Nation. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of agencies that don\u2019t prioritize women\u2019s basketball. That\u2019s part of the reason why I\u2019ve stayed focused on this niche.\u201d<\/p>\n Stanchak\u2019s road to becoming an agent wasn\u2019t a straight and easy one though. There were some twists and turns along the way before he became the man whose phone never stops buzzing in March, and the one that has helped countless coaches maximize their value and find their right fit in the sport.<\/p>\n A native of New Jersey and a graduate of Seton Hall, Stanchak, 42, began his career as an assistant coach in men\u2019s and women\u2019s college basketball with stops at Penn, Fairleigh Dickinson and his alma mater, piling up a decade\u2019s worth of experience in coaching. Around the time he was 28, Stanchak says he felt \u201cburnt out\u201d by coaching and was searching for more of a work-life balance.<\/p>\n He was ready to try something new, and he found it in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on the campus of Penn State Wilkes-Barre, where he would become the athletic director of the tiny school in northeast Pennsylvania. He hired four coaches while he was there \u2013 including one in women\u2019s basketball \u2013 and oversaw programs that won five conference titles.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I just fell into it,\u201d Stanchak says. \u201cI knew nothing about being an athletic director, but I tried to figure it out and it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n After learning that he had become an athletic director, Stanchak\u2019s friends in the women\u2019s basketball coaching community started asking him for favors. They wanted perspective from someone in athletic administration and asked for his help in preparing for interviews, reviewing and negotiating their contracts, and handling unique situations.<\/p>\n Following a few of those informal consultations, one of Stanchak\u2019s friends asked him point blank, \u201cDo you want to be my agent?\u201d<\/p>\n A bit taken aback by the idea of becoming anyone\u2019s agent at that point in his life, Stanchak initially said no to his friends\u2019 inquiries. But then they kept asking. And he gave it some real thought and consideration. He was a former coach, now working as an athletic director, and he cared a lot about women\u2019s basketball and the people who worked in the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s really no one advocating for women\u2019s basketball coaches out there, and I was one, and I\u2019m invested in it, and my experience on both sides of the table could be valuable,\u201d Stanchack thought to himself. \u201cLet\u2019s give it a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n Stanchak didn\u2019t exactly know where to begin and he knew he couldn\u2019t learn how to become an agent by simply watching Jerry Maguire<\/em>. He just trusted his instincts, and used what he learned from both his time as a coach and experience as an athletic director. In that way, Stanchak is uniquely qualified to be an agent in that he\u2019s sat on both sides of a negotiation.<\/p>\n \u201cI just learned to be an agent by thinking about what I would want from an agent if I was still coaching,\u201d Stanchak said.<\/p>\n He embarked on the journey in 2013 and started BDS Agency, signing a few friends he knew from his coaching career who wanted to climb the ladder as clients. That first offseason, he had five clients become Division I head coaches, including McCombs at Stony Brook. Stanchak\u2019s reputation spread through word of mouth in coaching circles and more prospective clients came calling. At the time, he was still working as the athletic director at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, but he felt like he had found his purpose, that being an agent for women\u2019s basketball coaches could be his full-time job. He resigned from Penn State Wilkes-Barre in February 2015, just before the coaching cycle started that year. He then had five more clients get Division I head coaching jobs, and some of them still have those gigs today, like Jada Pierce at Niagra. Two years later, he helped one of his former players, Gayle Coats Fulks, get hired at Davidson.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t looked back since,\u201d Stanchak says. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a better networker than a coach. At the end of the day, being an agent, you want to make people feel comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo by Dylan Buell\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n It\u2019s all worked out pretty well for Stanchak and his clients. In recent years, he\u2019s helped several of them get some pretty high profile jobs. Perhaps none were more surprising than Kim Caldwell \u2013 with just one year of Division I coaching under her belt \u2013 landing the coveted posting at Tennessee last year.<\/p>\n Caldwell, 36, spent seven seasons at her alma mater Glenville State in West Virginia, leading the Pioneers to a Division II national title in 2022. In 2023, she jumped to Division I by taking the reins at Marshall and coached the Herd to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1997. And Caldwell wasn\u2019t necessarily looking to leave Marshall, but when the Tennessee job opened, a person working for the search firm that Tennessee athletic director Danny White used of course asked Stanchak about her.<\/p>\n \u201cKim has been a winner at every level she\u2019s coached at. It\u2019s not about Kim \u2013 it\u2019s what\u2019s best for her program and her players. She\u2019s the type that just puts her head down and gets to work,\u201d Stanchak said. \u201cShe also runs an extremely potent, high-powered offense. Kim being able to play that style, that\u2019s just entertaining, and that was a draw to Tennessee.\u201d<\/p>\n Caldwell, to the shock of many, got the job that was once held by the legendary Pat Summitt. She\u2019s now tasked with restoring Tennessee to its status as one of the sport\u2019s signature programs. Year One has gone well, as the Lady Vols are NCAA tournament-bound with the nation\u2019s second-best scoring offense. A win over rival UConn<\/a> in February felt like proof of concept that Caldwell was the right hire.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was appealing for (Tennessee) to go outside the family this time. And if you look at Danny White\u2019s track record of hires, he\u2019s taken some risks. He\u2019s kind of always gone outside the box. This gave him the opportunity to do that on the women\u2019s side,\u201d Stanchak said. \u201cFor Kim, it\u2019s a great fit. It\u2019s not going to make sense for some people who don\u2019t know her, but she can really thrive there.\u201d<\/p>\n The second high-profile opening filled by a Stanchak client last year had a very different process. There was no search firm. Stanchak dealt directly with the athletic director whom he had previously never met before.<\/p>\n In Kenny Brooks\u2019 seven seasons leading Virginia Tech\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team, the Hokies reached heights in the sport that they had never seen before. With players like Elizabeth Kitley and Georgia Amoore, Brooks led Virginia Tech to an ACC Tournament<\/a> title and a Final Four appearance in 2023 \u2013 both of which were firsts for the program. Last year, the Hokies won the ACC regular season title and sold out seven home games, averaging a program-high in attendance in Cassell Coliseum.<\/p>\n When Brooks left Virginia Tech for the riches of the SEC at Kentucky, athletic director Whit Babcock cast a wide net in his search for the program\u2019s next leader, searching carefully for the right hire that could keep the momentum rolling in Blacksburg. He had never heard of Stanchak, but quickly became acquainted with him during the search process and admired his forthrightness and thoroughness.<\/p>\n \u201cBrian certainly represented his client well. He was firm yet fair,\u201d Babcock told SB Nation. \u201cHe seemed to care deeply for his clients, and to find the best school or fit for them. He was very professional and approachable \u2013 a straight shooter.\u201d<\/p>\n Babcock\u2019s search ended with him hiring one of Stanchak\u2019s clients, Megan Duffy. A former Notre Dame<\/a> player, Duffy climbed the coaching ranks with three stops as an assistant coach, a two-season stop as the head coach of Miami Ohio, and then five seasons at Marquette where she won 110 games and made three NCAA tournament appearances. While Brooks took some of his top players with him to Kentucky \u2013 including Amoore and center Clara Strack \u2013 Duffy assembled a competitive roster and went 18-12. The Hokies now find themselves on the bubble of the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are thrilled with Coach Duffy and her work,\u201d Babcock said. \u201cI can see why Brian has had such a high level of success with clients and placement.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo by Ryan Hunt\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n Stanchak is once again in the thick of his busy season. Currently, there are openings at seven Power 4 programs: Missouri, Auburn, Arkansas, BYU<\/a>, Houston, Arizona State<\/a> and Wisconsin. Chances are that a Stanchak client will be in the mix for most of them.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of my relationships and my track record, I\u2019ll get a lot of calls before things start moving,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n![\"basketball](\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/Aj7HvoFQimMyWTBItLQ__NzBrq0=\/0x0:5980x3987\/1200x0\/filters:focal(0x0:5980x3987):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/25911748\/2202563748.jpg\")
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