Coaches View: Martin Clapp
Martin Clapp is in his eighth season coaching alongside Sharon Versyp, first at Louisville, then at Indiana and now with the Boilermakers.
Each week in GBI EXPRESS - Gold & Black Illustrated's digital magazine that publishes on Mondays during the basketball season - we sit down with an assistant coach. Here's a portion of the interview with Clapp.
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GBI: Did you want to coach women or was it the first opportunity you got?
Clapp: ""First opportunity. I knew I was going to coach at some point. I didn't like anything else. My dad wanted me in business, and I just knew that was not going to be the (best) situation, and I felt like it was going to be college (coaching) because I did not want to sit behind a desk all day. The opportunity came my junior year of college. I had played two years of junior college, went to a four-year school in Arkansas (Arkansas College). They didn't have a men's scholarship, but they had an opening on the women's staff, which was the same as a full ride. So I practiced with the guys and then practiced the girls. Three-quarters of the way through the season - I was redshirting to gain weight - I hurt my back and never played again and just kept on coaching."
GBI: You were a physical education major, but I guess if you were already coaching in college, you knew you weren't going to use that.
Clapp: "I had one opportunity to switch over to the men, and that was when they dropped the program at Arkansas-Little Rock (where he'd been an assistant for the women's team). But by that time, I was recruiting for five years, and I would have had to start at the very bottom. I enjoyed getting out. I said, 'There's no way they'll allow people to do what I did.' I was a junior in college, and I'd hop in a school van and drive to Mississippi, pick up kids. But that's how it started. What was funny, it wasn't until the end of that year, my first year, that the players on our team - because there were four or five players that were older than I was that I was coaching - but they didn't know until the end of the year. They finally started figuring out, OK, you were practicing with the guys …"
GBI: When Verysp hired you at Indiana, you had been coaching pro ball.
Clapp: "Yeah, I was down in Alabama. That was a three-to-four month a year thing. That's where I said they called it pro, I called it semi-pro because of semi-pay. I think I spent more than I made. (laughs) I was out of college (coaching) for about a year and a half. She called and goes, 'I can't say what school but if I was to get hired, would you be interested?' (Wife and Purdue's women's basketball sports information director) Sara (White) and I went to Indy and met with Sharon there at the Final Four. Then it was a stressful time because I remember just waiting to see if it was going to happen. I remember getting a phone call, Sharon said, 'I got the job. You want to be part of the staff?' I said, 'Yes,' hung up and called back and said, 'Not that it matters, but how much am I going to make?' (laughs) I said, 'Just for Sara's sake.' So I had to call Sharon back just to find out the salary. But I was just happy to get back into college, especially working with her."
GBI: You work with the posts and do scouting and recruiting. Is there something you enjoy the most about coaching?
Clapp: "Probably watching film, watching the basketball side of it. I enjoy working with the players, but it's probably just breaking down and trying to figure out things I think will work. That's just what I've always enjoyed, and that's what we do at home, watch ball games, so we don't get away from it very much."
GBI: Nearly 30 years of coaching - that's a long time. How long do you want to do this? Do you think about that?
Clapp: "As long as my health stays OK. I think I'm in a different situation than a lot of assistant coaches just because I've been a head coach (at Louisville), so I don't have to go out and get a head coaching job just to say I got one. But as long as I'm doing my job here that Sharon likes, it's still going to be a few more years before I start looking for a head coaching job and it's probably going to be … a lower level, either DI, DII. But there will be golf courses nearby and there will be sunshine. That's all I can say."
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