By John Denton
May 21, 2016
ORLANDO – In today’s world, there are dreamers and there are doers, but rarely are they one in the same. Many have the passion, but few couple it with the persistence and dedication needed to turn their dreams into reality.
Having a big, toothy smile and a perpetually positive disposition can sometimes help, too, when those dreams fizzle and it looks like they will never materialize.
New Orlando Magic coach Fran Vogel is living, X-and-O-ing proof that dreams come true as long as you are willing to make sacrifices, remain persistent and positive and put in hour upon hour of tireless work.
Some 22 years ago, Vogel gave up his college basketball playing career at Division III Juniata College (Pa.), packed everything he owned into a beat-up old clunker of a car for an 11-hour drive and talked his way into a miniscule role with the University of Kentucky’s monolithic basketball program.
Intrigued and obsessed with the dashing coaching style of then-Kentucky mentor Rick Pitino – someone he had briefly met at a Five-Star basketball camp years earlier – Vogel showed up unannounced on the UK campus in Lexington, Ky., in 1994 looking to somehow, someway be a part of one of college basketball’s most storied programs.
It didn’t matter what it took, Vogel was going to get Pitino to notice him – even if it took him three weeks of being on campus before he summoned the nerve to approach his coaching hero face-to-face. If it meant mopping up sweat off the floor, washing and folding towels or even stretching the truth a little bit to put himself in a position to pour over hours of monotonous video tape, Vogel was determined to do whatever it took to jump-start his coaching career and learn at the feet of Pitino.
``I knew once I got my foot in the door (there at Kentucky) that my work ethic, my personality, my character – all of that stuff would shine and I’d be able to show it,’’ Voegel recalled. ``So I basically set up shop down there at (Kentucky’s) Memorial Coliseum and said, `Hey, I’ve got a room over there at the dorm in Wildcat Lodge, but I’m not going to be there very much. I’m going to be over here at the gym.’^’’
Fast forward to today, when Vogel has become one of the most highly regarded coaches in the NBA, and the work ethic and positive approach remain. His rise is an unlikely one, but his success is not because he’s always been a driven and focused person determined to make his dreams a reality.
The Magic saw the passion and perfection that Vogel brought to the job and they jumped at the chance to hire the 42-year-old native of South Jersey to be their next coach on Friday. As devastated as the franchise was on May 12 when Scott Skiles resigned as head coach following just one season on the bench in Orlando, the Magic are even more elated with the appointment of Vogel as their next coach.
Orlando is confident that the persuasiveness and positivity of Vogel will mesh well with a young roster and help the franchise get back into the postseason for the first time in four years. That playoffs-or-bust mentality is not one that Vogel shies away from – not that that’s necessarily surprising considering his don’t-take-no approach to getting into coaching more than two decades ago.
``That’s what this group is about and a big part of what attracted me to this job is the feeling that this group is ready,’’ Vogel said of Orlando’s playoff push. ``It’s not just the talent, but it’s the stages of their careers that the core is in. This group is ready to make that next jump. My intention is to come in and make this happen for this group right away and make that jump (to the playoffs) this year. This is going to be a season about being on a mission and winning a lot of games.’’
MAN ON A MISSION
Vogel has been a man on a mission ever since he made that 11-hour car ride from Huntingdon, Pa., to Lexington, Ky., back in 1994 to pursue his coaching dreams. Upon first showing up at Kentucky’s practice facilities, he was initially turned away and considered just another in a long line of the fanboys who wanted to enjoy the warm glow of one of college basketball’s elite programs.
Little did those UK staffers know it at the time, but Vogel wouldn’t take no for an answer.
In many ways, he was the Rudy Ruettiger of college basketball what with his unlikely background and starry-eyed dreams of going from wiping up sweat to becoming a big-time basketball coach someday.
Always smiling, quick to offer up an introduction and a daily regular around the University of Kentucky’s practice facility, Vogel talked his way into being a student-manager for the Wildcats. He was used as a practice player and he was even a member of the school’s Junior Varsity squad – something that Pitino started back up – all the while studying the ways of the coach he had idolized for year. Whereas some saw Vogel simply living out some sort of childhood fantasy, he viewed it as a coaching reconnaissance mission to learn from the best of the best.
Before he ever approached Pitino about joining the staff he met associate head coach Jim O’Brien – a meeting that would go on to shape his basketball life much more than he realized it at the time. After pleading with O’Brien for a job of any kind, the assistant coach asked Vogel if he knew anything about computers and video editing equipment. Quite frankly, he didn’t, but that didn’t deter Vogel from accepting the challenge as long as it meant being a part of Pitino’s coaching staff at Kentucky.
``I had a persistent mindset that I was going to make something happen for myself,’’ Vogel recalled. ``Obviously, it’s so tough to get into the business when you don’t know anybody or have any prior experience, but for me it was about an initial connection and that’s where my persistence and energy lie – in that initial connection. I didn’t beg for an opportunity, but I showed them that I could be an asset and that I could be counted upon.
``I was able to make that connection first with Jim O’Brien at Kentucky and then furthering it Rick when he talked about bringing me onboard,’’ Vogel continued.
Vogel, a two-year student manager who ultimately got a biology degree, was on the Kentucky bench when it won the 1996 National Championship. And when Pitino left to become the head coach of the Boston Celtics in 1997, he made the decision to take Vogel with him as his video coordinator.
THE POWER OF POSITIVITY
Just three years after leaving Juniata College and heading to Kentucky without knowing a soul there, a then 24-year-old Vogel found himself in the NBA and a part of one of the most storied franchises in all of sports.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of 12-to-15-hour days passed with Vogel pouring over video tape and he was happy to do it. When O’Brien replaced Pitino as Celtics coach in 2001, he promoted Vogel to assistant coach. That would start the ball rolling on a professional coaching career that would earn him other assistant jobs with the Philadelphia 76ers and Indiana Pacers.
Along the way, Vogel realized that sometimes reality can exceed the dream. Never in his wildest dreams did Vogel think that he would someday be coaching in the NBA, much less pursued by multiple franchises when he hit the market this month as the most qualified candidate available.
``I was just thankful to be a student manager, and if that led to a high school coaching job or maybe I could stick at a small Division I school as an assistant, that would have been a success for me,’’ Vogel said. ``The NBA? Never in my wildest dreams when I was playing in Division III basketball.’’
When Pacers president Larry Bird phoned him in 2011 and told him that he was firing O’Brien as head coach and wanted him to take over as head coach, Vogel was equal parts hurt and stunned. He said he’ll always consider O’Brien ``family’’ because of everything that he did for him in helping him become a coach. At the urging of O’Brien, Vogel took the Pacers job and he was an instant success because of the way the players there responded to his encouraging style.
He won seven of his first eight games and the Pacers finished strong enough to get the franchise into the playoffs for the first time in four years. Two trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, 250 regular-season wins and 31 playoff victories followed, making Vogel the most successful coach in Pacers history.
The work ethic he learned as a do-anything student-manager and a hidden-away video coordinator is still there today even though he’s reached the dream of being a head coach. He always arrives at the office four hours before practice to fully familiarize himself with the next opponent and prepare for that day’s session. After games, he’s been known to re-watch them one and two times again – win or lose.
He is here today – as the coach expected to shape Orlando’s young roster and get this franchise back in contention for a NBA title – because of that bold step he made in leaving college and heading off to the University of Kentucky to jump-start his career. He still talks to Pitino and O’Brien now, and he invited Pitino and his family to Indianapolis earlier this year when two of Pitino’s prodigies – Billy Donovan and Vogel – squared off on the sideline.
Vogel said he somewhat accidentally picked up a powerful message from Pitino that has shaped his style of coaching. It is a style that he will use in Orlando to hopefully get the most out of the Magic’s players.
``One of the hidden benefits of me being a student manager at Kentucky was me having the responsibility of driving Rick Pitino to his motivational speaking engagements,’’ Vogel recalled. ``As I’d drive him, listen to his conversations about the book that he was writing at the time and watch him speak I learned a lot. I learned a lot about the power belief and instilling confidence in people and doing it in a positive way.
``(The positivity) fits my personality because that’s who I am as a person,’’ he added. ``Being around a coach like Rick (Pitino), it taught me that a player is going to be at his best when he believes in himself and when he’s shown confidence from his head coach. So I really believe in that style and it’s a big part of what we’ve accomplished in (coaching).’’
Vogel was once a dreamer and a doer, making his wishes of becoming a head coach a reality through his work ethic and persistence. One other dream still exists and he’s vowing to do everything in his power to make it a reality, too, in Orlando.
``I’ve had some individual success along the way, but my dream is still to win a NBA championship,’’ he stressed. ``My whole life is centered around my family and my pursuit of that professional excellence. I feel like this is a good situation with the Magic to be in and fulfill that pursuit.’’
People around the NBA would be wise not to doubt Vogel. After all, he has a knack for finding a way to make his dreams come true.
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