Deserve vs Earn

In one of my stops in coaching, I ran into a “defining moment”.  A defining moment is one of those where you get to see firsthand the difference between two similar words.  

I had been coaching for a while when a situation in the athletic department arose.  A long-time head coach was moving up to an administration position within the athletic department.  This left an opening.  The three candidates were brought to interview for the head coaching opening.  I was part of the hiring committee because I dealt with this sport and the players. 

Candidate #1 was an in-house candidate; he had been an assistant on the staff for quite a long time.  His sister actually was on the administration side working in fundraising.  Everyone in the athletic department liked this guy.  He always had a joke and was liked by all of the players. 

Candidate #2 was a coach with a long career at a lower level of coaching, but he was very successful.  He was the oldest of the three candidates, but he had a boatload of experience in running a successful program with a limited budget.  Coming to this school would allow this coach to expand his staff and to recruit better higher-rated athletes.  He was a hard-nosed fundamentalist who believed you won games by outworking your opponent.  

Candidate #3 was the youngest of the three who made the final cut.  He was a fiery individual who had worked under one of the most successful coaches in the country.  This coach was in charge of recruiting and overseeing the daily operation of the program.  He had his hand in all aspects of the game.  He had no head coaching experience.  He had played for the team he was working with and had climbed the ladder from volunteer to graduate assistant, to quality control, to fourth assistant.  Eventually, the head coach made a new position for this coach which was where he was at when he came to us.    

As the interviewing process went along, we found the good and the bad for each of the candidates.  We weighed all of the information in front of us and were asked to make a vote.  Just then the athletic director in charge of fundraising and the sister of the first candidate knocked on the door and asked if they could speak to the committee.  The Director of Athletics said that would be fine.  

The two people went on a sixty-minute rant about how Candidate #1 was the only choice because he “deserved” the job.  They spoke to the time that he had spent helping to build this program and how everyone liked him.  They read letters from alumni and from former players about how much they liked this coach.  

When they were finished the vote was taken, with them in the room.  Which I thought was out of place but I was not running the meeting.  The person voting had to explain how they came to their decision.  

I based my decision on facts.