Intro: 

Jake Knoeller: 00:00-00:32

This is Jake Knoeller reporting for Golden Gate Xpress on the Chomp Pod today. Today, I will be interviewing Vince Inglima, the men’s basketball head coach at San Francisco State. We’re just gonna be talking about what it’s like to be a men’s basketball coach. He’s entering his seventh season now, and the season just started a bit ago, so he’s gonna be talking about what it’s like to be the head coach here for so many years. He was even the assistant coach here before that, so yeah, he’s gonna be talking about those experiences as well as this season today, so stay tuned.

Interview:

Vince Inglima: 00:39-00:46

My seventh season, so I’ve been here for 11 years at the university.

Vince Inglima: 00:47-00:57

I was assistant for three, then I took over. So, I’ve been technically the head coach — this is my eighth year, but we had the COVID year, so it’s like my seventh season, over a decade. Man.

Vince Inglima: 00:58-00:59

Adds up, my hairline is showing it. 

Jake Knoeller: 01:00-01:10

That’s how it goes, that’s how it goes. But I mean, that sounds like a lot of fun. I mean, obviously, if you’re staying here, something must be going well. What is that like to stay at the same university for such a long time and see the growth?

Vince Inglima: 01:11-01:21

In coaching, you don’t get a lot of longevity typically, right? You have to move to advance, you know, there’s just a limited number of schools.

Vince Inglima: 01:22-01:48

So to have the experience to be somewhere is kind of rare and it’s fun. Like, you know, you really — like at this point I really know this school and the academic side and the logistics, all the parts to it that make the job challenging at first. Those kind of have kind of been set aside, like I can handle that stuff.

Vince Inglima: 01:49-02:10

And it really helps in being able to focus on the craft and the actual basketball part of it, which, you know, like when you think about if you’re a sports coach, you think, well, you know, you got your two hours of practice and that’s the most important. But really that’s, you know, it’s the most important part, but it’s probably like 15% of my job.

Vince Inglima: 02:11-02:30

And so to be able to be in one place and know all the people and housing and financial aid and admissions and to be able to work through a lot of those other things easier really helps you focus on the fun part of the basketball side. And so it’s been good. And there’s a lot of changes, though.

Vince Inglima: 02:31-02:50

I mean, you know, as 11 years here, you get like, there’s turnover, people change in positions, and the university is kind of going through the changes right now. So there’s always challenges everywhere you go. But as far as places to be, it’s pretty, pretty great one, I’m happy to be here. 

Jake Knoeller: 02:51-02:59

Yeah, yeah. It’s absolutely a great place. What made you choose this school to begin with in terms of becoming an assistant coach here in the first place?

Vince Inglima: 03:00-03:13

It was Paul Trevor. He was the head coach here at the time. I knew him. He coached at Sonoma State where I played. We weren’t there at the same time. He was there before. He left, before I got there.

Vince Inglima: 03:14-03:40

But we had some, you know, connections there, mutual connections that we’ve been in touch and together. And his assistant was leaving and I was at Cal State Monterey Bay at the time, and they were kind of going through some tough times. There was an athletic director change. We weren’t winning a lot of games. And so it looked like a little precarious position, and Trevor reached out and the timing was good.

Vince Inglima: 03:41-04:00

My wife worked, well, at the time, worked in the Bay Area, so she was kind of commuting up and I was commuting down to Santa Cruz a lot. So logistically for the family, it was a good fit and basketball wise and knowing Trev, I thought it was a good fit there and so yeah, that’s kind of how it started and it just kind of rolled on at that time.

Vince Inglima: 04:01-04:07

I certainly didn’t think I was going to be here and then moving up when he moved on. But, you know, you just got to be prepared for whatever opportunities come.

Vince Inglima: 04:08-04:21

So I played at Sonoma. I graduated there in 2006 and it was great. I was a junior college transfer, so I went to Cabrillo College, and so I did that and then went to Sonoma and it was a phenomenal experience.

Vince Inglima: 04:22-04:52

We were successful. We won a conference championship. I went to the only one in school history and we went to the national tournament and did all that stuff. It was a great experience and really some smaller town schools. So the community was really behind us and it was a great relationship. My best friends to this day are the guys that played with those teams there.So after that I kind of did not know what I was going to do next.

Vince Inglima: 04:53-05:16

And then the opportunity to play in Australia came up and went down to the Melbourne area. Dandenong Rangers, played there for four years in the second division of Australia, so I wasn’t making a ton of money, but it was a great experience. I learned a ton about basketball, getting in a different culture and a different style of play and playing with older guys, right?

Vince Inglima: 05:17-05:40

Like you’re playing with men, you know, 28, 29-year-old men that have played a lot of games. And so I got to see the game from a different angle. I think it helped me a ton in my transition to coaching, having that experience and being able to bring some of that in. And that was kind of getting to that point after four years where, I’m not getting rich off doing this right like I’m doing.

Vince Inglima: 05:41-06:07

It’s a great experience, but at some point it’s like, are you just, am I going to lean into this? Am I  going to move to Australia, get a regular job, keep playing basketball as well, and kind of do that in my next chapter? Or am I going to come back and pivot and get off of playing? And so on that cusp there in that last year and right at the end, Rob Bishop at Monterey Bay, his assistant, left in late July.

Vince Inglima: 06:08-06:20

And so he was scrambling. And so I got in touch with him and it just kind of clicked, had an opportunity. So I jumped on it and then kind of went into the coaching realm and it’s worked out pretty good.

Jake Knoeller: 06:21-06:22

That just worked out perfectly. 

Vince Inglima: 06:23-06:41

Yeah. You know, so much of life is opportunity. Whatever path you think you’re going on, it’s never going to be that way. And you’ve got to have plans and you have to have strategies. But really the most important thing for me in my life is just being prepared for when the opportunity comes.

Vince Inglima: 06:42-07:05

Are you doing the work that you do so that when you get your chance you’re ready to take advantage of it?  And you don’t know where it’s going to come. I didn’t know Cal State Monterey Bay was going to be where I went, but when that was there, I was prepared to take it and try to achieve as best I could there and grow every day in the job so that when the next thing comes up, I’m ready for that.

Vince Inglima: 07:06-07:17

And yeah, it’s hard about, you know, like staying in the moment and just being okay to go a path that you didn’t think you were going to take and make the most out of It can go a long way sometimes. 

Jake Knoeller: 07:18-07:23

Yeah, it can. That’s like a good general life lesson, and I’m sure anyone watching this can relate to that, yeah.

Vince Inglima: 07:24-07:48

Yeah. I mean, I know, like when I was, shoot, when I finished playing in Sonoma, I was 23, I had dedicated my entire life to the game of basketball. That’s all I had. I had a computer science degree, but I knew I didn’t want to be a software engineer and I was just kind of in neutral. I wasn’t planning on playing professionally, but I just was like, okay, now when am I going to — what’s next in my life?

Vince Inglima: 07:49-08:12

But I was staying in shape. I was still working out. I was helping the team out. I was doing all this stuff so that when that came up and I had that opportunity to go, I was able to be successful there and carry on and then into various other steps. But yeah, I mean, the best-laid plans are when you’re young, they never kind of come out that way.

Vince Inglima: 08:13-08:16

But, when you do the work, you know, hopefully good things happen.

Jake Knoeller: 08:17-08:19

Was Monterey Bay where you ended up meeting your wife as well? 

Vince Inglima: 08:20-08:30

We actually went to high school together, but we weren’t together at that time. But yeah, actually, we kind of started reconnecting in my off-seasons when I was playing in Australia.

Vince Inglima: 08:31-08:54

And so that was another factor in that timeline. Like I need to either make a change where we go down there or I come back. And so that was one of the other reasons on what made it important for me to really decide what path I was going to go on. And, and so, yeah, again, it kind of worked out and she was working in the Bay Area so Monterey, it was obviously close.

Vince Inglima: 08:55-09:14

I had a couple other things where I was maybe going to have to go out to Kentucky. Kentucky Wesleyan assistant position was available and there’s a couple of things out east, even farther than that. So like when Monterey came up, I really jumped on it because that was a professional and personal win for me.

Jake Knoeller: 09:15-09:22

Yeah, exactly. It was like you got the best of both worlds. I mean, that’s a great reason. Yeah. To just set up your life out here. I mean, S.F.’s  a great city, too.

Vince Inglima: 09:23-09:40

It gets a little bit of bad publicity lately, but I mean, really like when you’re especially your age, you know, in your late teens and twenties, there’s nowhere better to be, you know, just the access to the world that you have here.

Vince Inglima: 09:41-09:58

And so it’s a great, yeah, a great place to recruit to. It’s an easy sell. As you get older and I have a nine and a six-year-old, I live down in San Bruno now. It’s, you know, you got a little yard and a little bit more for a family kind of stuff.

Vince Inglima: 09:59-10:10

But yeah, when you’re young, man, like, there’s always something to do and there’s always something to see and learn. And so, yeah, it’s, it’s a blast being here and our guys love it.

Vince Inglima: 10:11-10:13

In Humboldt, up in Arcata, like, you know, like everything closes at about eight.

Jake Knoeller: 10:14-10:15

Yeah, yeah.

Vince Inglima: 10:16-10:25

We don’t have that problem. We got the other problem. Nothing closes around here, you got to get, you could solve that easily with a, you know, a few 7 a.m. workouts, that gets them to bed early. So yeah. 

Jake Knoeller: 10:26-10:30

Yeah. You know, they’re not going to be out late partying if they have to be there the next day.

Vince Inglima: 10:31-10:34

Well, they might do it once, but I know they won’t do it again, that’s for sure. 

Jake Knoeller: 10:35-10:37

Yeah. Once they experience that, they’re like, I don’t want to do that. Yeah,

Vince Inglima: 10:38-10:59

Yeah, but it is tough. I mean, like, shoot, college kids are college kids. And so there are those challenges, but that’s part of growing up, right? Like, you know, that’s learning how to balance those things. As you get older in life, you have more and more balls that you’ve got to keep spinning. And so it’s great. 

Vince Inglima: 11:00-11:27

You can get out in San Francisco seven days a week. There’s something going on. But can you regulate yourself? You know, like we talk with our guys. If you’re truly passionate about being an athlete, if you’re truly passionate about being on a team and being and having success, well then you’re going to make those decisions that put the team and your athletic success above what might be fun to do on Wednesday night.

Vince Inglima: 11:28-11:46

And you know, those are good life lessons to get because those carry forward into everything else you’re doing. You know, as you get older and have bigger responsibilities on your plate, we hope that the lessons you learn as a student, as an athlete, can translate and make you better in those times, too.

Vince Inglima: 11:47-12:06

The pain of regret outweighs the pain of discipline. And so what’s more important to you is that they take a little bit of pain to be disciplined and stay focused on your task, or do you take the big pain of in the future having this regret that I never achieved what I could have as a student?

Vince Inglima: 12:07-12:15

Or I never achieved what I could have as a basketball player? We never achieved what we could have as a team, and that you live with the rest of your life.

Vince Inglima: 12:16-12:19

To get where you want to go, like if you want to be a great basketball player, it takes what it takes.

Vince Inglima: 12:20-12:40

There’s no shortcut to it. You can’t just, well, I showed up and all of a sudden I’m really good. No, you got to put in the work. You got to watch the film, you got to lift the weights, you got to be in great shape, you got to get in the gym. You got to work on your handling, you gotta shoot the ball, you gotta watch the film and adjust and learn how to do all these things and there’s no other way to do that.

Vince Inglima: 12:41-12:54

When your body is part of you, is your tool as an athlete, well like if you’re hungover or you’re only getting four hours of sleep or whatever, you’re not going to be able to do those things at the level you could have.

Jake Knoeller: 12:55-13:06

Yeah, those are concepts that it takes like years for most people to learn, but I mean, when you’re having it taught to you in this setting, it’s definitely got to be a lot better because it’s like you’re seeing in real time how it affects you and how it can change. 

Vince Inglima: 13:07-13:15

Yeah, I mean, that’s what the nice thing about having this being a sport coach is everybody is there voluntarily.

Jake Knoeller: 13:16-13:17

Yeah. 

Vince Inglima: 13:18-13:35

Right, Right. And I get to speak to them through the conduit of basketball, which is something that they love. And so to use that is an easier way to teach it than maybe if I’m trying to teach these lessons in algebra class. Right? With a bunch of kids that don’t want to be there.

Jake Knoeller: 13:36-13:37

Yeah.

Vince Inglima: 13:38-13:52

And so, you know, that’s one of the advantages that you have this thing that you’re trying to do. You have a limited amount of time that you get to do this basketball thing in your life and like, let’s make the most of it. And so, yeah, hopefully we do. 

Jake Knoeller: 13:53-13:54

Yeah, yeah, let’s hope so.

Vince Inglima: 13:55-14:05

But what we have done is played really well together. We’ve played really hard and we have guys that want to do it for each other and want to make you better.

Vince Inglima: 14:06-14:25

I want you to succeed and you want me to succeed. And that’s been the key for us. And when we’ve kind of had our best seasons, when we’re winning 20 games and doing those things, it is when those things click for us. That’s the fun part of, well, you know, one of the fun parts of coaching is trying to put that puzzle together, right?

Vince Inglima: 14:26-14:41

And finding the right combinations of personalities and skills that can make the sum bigger than the whole or the product is bigger than the sum of the parts. I think that’s what I’m trying to say. 

Jake Knoeller: 14:42-14:43

Yeah, no that sounds right, I’ve heard that before.

Jake Knoeller: 14:44-14:52

Yeah, it’s like you said. Still, despite not being a big budget team, I mean, one year you were projected to finish last in the conference and then you ended up finishing third, was that?

Jake Knoeller: 14:53-15:03

That was what I heard recently. I mean that’s crazy, you know,  it really goes to show that it’s all about when you put that finished product on that court, like, how are these guys playing together? How committed are they? 

Vince Inglima: 15:04-15:27

Yeah, I mean, even in that year, on January 2nd, we were in last place and, you know, we went to Monterey Bay right before Christmas and we — I think we shot 19% from the field or something and we got blown out and it was like we were at rock bottom.

Vince Inglima: 15:28-15:57

And in that time, it’s very easy for it just to, you know, like, you’re down, you’re out and you just coast down to the end of the season and it blows up and you finish last and everybody’s miserable. But the credit to those guys is they weren’t going to let that happen. And they just kept showing up to work every day and getting better and doing all the steps. And then we get one and then we get another one and we get another one.

Vince Inglima: 15:58-16:22

And then we, you know, we won seven out of eight and 12 out of 15 to end that season and really skyrocketed up. And by the end of the year, we’re playing as good as anybody. We had an injury and foul trouble issue in the playoffs. It cost us. But, you know, like those things, those things happen. But yeah, but that kind of gets back to, just reinforces for us as a coaching staff you got to have the right people.

Vince Inglima: 16:23-16:31

Because the wrong people in that situation, they fracture and that season ends up in the bottom, it’s down the toilet and you’re moving on.

Vince Inglima: 16:32-16:46

But instead of going away, they came together and it was a super fun, great run. And we got to the point, like early in the year, like we were going into games like, man, I don’t see how we can win this game. And then four weeks later it’s like, I don’t see how we can lose this game.

Jake Knoeller: 16:47-16:48

Yeah, yeah. 

Vince Inglima: 16:49-16:53

Those are fun things. Watching a group grow like that.

Vince Inglima: 16:54-17:13

It’s, again, a lesson where you’re at right now is just where you’re at right now. And as humans, we project out, well, like, I feel terrible right now. I’m going to feel terrible forever, you know, or I feel great right now. I’m going to feel great forever. And neither of those is right. Yeah, neither of those is true.

Vince Inglima: 17:14-17:30

And like, that’s, you know, using sport as that way to teach lessons in life is like, yeah, we were at the bottom of the bottom. It was the worst, it can’t be any worse than that. And we found a way to get to the top and so that, you know, hopefully, that’s something that can translate into other situations in your life.

Vince Inglima: 17:31-17:47

You lose your job or whatever. Like, okay, what’s next? And yeah, you know as long as you keep the right mindset and keep focused and open to opportunities, you can hopefully you can, you know, give yourself a chance to dig yourself out of some of those last place holes. 

Jake Knoeller: 17:48-17:53

Yeah, it’s a good analogy. It’s like you can be having the worst day, but you don’t know where you’re going to be at a couple of weeks from now.

Vince Inglima: 17:54-17:55

Or a couple of hours.

Jake Knoeller: 17:56-17:57

Yeah, just hours.

Jake Knoeller: 17:58-18:00

I think last season, wasn’t it a similar thing as well where you went on a late-season run. 

Vince Inglima: 18:01-18:02

I know, we’re forming a habit, aren’t we?

Vince Inglima: 18:03-18:41

We were 1-5 in conference, and then again, we found our stride and we had a great end-of-season run. And you know, we’ve been in the conference tournament, of my ten seasons here, we’ve been in the conference tournament seven times, which is the third most of any team in the conference. So it’s a really challenging league that we play in. And so I’m proud of that. I mean, obviously, you know, we haven’t won a conference tournament championship yet, so we’re still working on that. But, you know, the journey is the journey.

Vince Inglima: 18:42-18:53

And, you know, we’re striving to win, and we’re going to win. It’s going to happen. We’re going to, we’re showing up every day. I don’t know when. Yeah, right. But we’re going to end up on top.

Vince Inglima: 18:54-19:03

The process of putting this effort in consistently is what builds up that callus that allows you to have those successes in the games and for this span of a season.

Jake Knoeller: 19:04-19:17

Yeah, no, that optimism and also just enjoying the process is so important. You can’t just be like looking ahead to the destination. It’s all about enjoying every minute of it, and then before you know it, you know you can find yourself at the top.

Vince Inglima: 19:18-19:44

I was talking about that with Drew, our assistant coach. We play 30 games a year. That means we have 335 days of not game in a year. If, if we’re putting all of our eggs in those 30 days and those other days are irrelevant like that, that’s going to lead to a pretty miserable life, right? You’re going to be unhappy a lot. 

Vince Inglima: 19:45-20:04

By far, I like practice more than games. s my favorite day of the week right? Like, we play on the weekend, and so Sunday I’m watching the film, I’m thinking about it, and then Monday we get to come back in and we get to fix the problems we have.

Vince Inglima: 20:05-20:29

We get to prepare for the next team and get back to work. And I’m truly fortunate to have a job where Monday is my favorite day. Yeah, where I’m looking forward to getting back to work and the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday practice for Thursday, right. You know, that’s the fun. ur guys don’t always see it that way.

Vince Inglima: 20:30-20:38

The process, like you said, enjoying getting ready for the game helps you enjoy the game. 

Jake Knoeller: 20:39-20:53

Yeah, yeah. And that’s got to be really fun too. Kind of like you’re watching that film on Sunday, you’re picking out all those little things and then you come back Monday with sort of an agenda. You’re like, This is what we need to work on. And then it’s got to be, you know, lead to a lot of optimism for the next game.

Jake Knoeller: 20:54-21:01

I was going through the Memphis Grizzlies roster the other day, and I noticed that someone who recently played in the CCAA is a pro now? 

Vince Inglima: 21:02-21:08

Jaylen Wells. I’m glad we’re not playing against him anymore. He was a special player.

Vince Inglima: 21:09-21:15

Sonoma got him, and he had a really solid freshman year, but he ended up growing two more inches.

Vince Inglima: 21:16-21:26

And then his sophomore year, he was unbelievable, like MVP of the league, 23 points a game and single-handedly carried them through the year. 

Vince Inglima: 21:27-21:28

And then he ends up transferring up to Washington state.

Vince Inglima: 21:239-21:40

Got on in the Grizzlies, and yeah, pretty remarkable story from basically a kid who was hardly recruited out of high school.

Vince Inglima: 21:41-21:57

Two, three or four years later being on the Grizzlies. Yeah, yeah, pretty wild. But I mean those, those stories happen and it’s fun. Credit to him he really blossomed and grew and got a lot better and, and credit to Sonoma, they really developed him.

Jake Knoeller: 21:58-22:06

Yeah it’s got to be just really cool as someone involved with the CCAA just to see that happen because it’s like, you never know who the next player that’s going to be is.

Jake Knoeller: 22:07-22:13

You know it could be anyone. As they continue growing, they can just all of a sudden be a professional basketball player. I mean. 

Vince Inglima: 22:14-22:19

Yeah, yeah, right. There’s a ton of guys that end up playing overseas like myself.

Vince Inglima: 22:20-22:26

There have not been in my, you know, I’ve been that I’m coming up on 20 years of my affiliation with this conference.

Vince Inglima: 22:27-22:47

There’s, you know, three or four guys that have ended up making it to the NBA at some level. Not really necessarily guys that have been long careers, but there’s a handful of Division Two guys that make it out periodically. So it’s fun and it’s exciting to be able to see those guys that, like, I remember trying to run a scouting report against that guy.

Jake Knoeller: 22:48-22:51

Oh, yeah.  

Vince Inglima: 

But yeah, so it’s pretty cool.

Vince Inglima: 22:52-23:25

Last summer, we went to two weddings, Coley Apsay and Nick Calcaterra, of guys that played here. And to be able to go there and, you know, be invited there is nice and to see these guys full circle as they become men and parents and husbands and, you know, obviously like we’re very passionate about basketball and winning basketball games.

Vince Inglima: 23:26-23:47

The human side of it is really where the long-lasting joy and fulfillment comes from. And to see those things. I mean, Justice Howard works in the city and he coaches, ah, he’s a PE teacher and he coaches a flag football team.

Vince Inglima: 23:48-24:23

He was here about ten years ago, and you know, he’ll text me their trophy. They when they won their seventh grade flag football championship and Israel Hakim played it, he’s now the Mills High basketball coach. And still, you know, he’s kind of gone from the player to now he’s coaching high school kids and coming up to and watching our practices and, you know, just yeah like it’s a real treat to feel like you had a hand in these guys’ story.

Vince Inglima: 24:24-24:48

You know, like, I mean, you go through school and there’s a teacher or two usually that you kind of connect with and, but coaching is really full on, your every day, multiple hours a day and you’re taking road trips and you know, your offseason workouts and you know, all these things where you get you get pretty connected.

Vince Inglima: 24:49-24:59

Like I still love reconnecting with my coaches,Pat Fuscaldo at Sonoma and Tony Marcopulos at Cabrillo and Bruce Barnes in high school, and like all these guys, they had a big impact on me.

Vince Inglima: 25:00-25:09

You want to be able to have some impact on others and kind of pay that forward. And now hopefully, we’re doing a little bit of that.

Outro:

Jake Knoeller: 25:10-25:16

This has been Jake Knoeller reporting for Golden Gate Xpress with the Chomp Pod. Thank you for tuning in today.