New Challenge, Joyfully Accepted

The year before, the Panthers finished 6-19 including a last-place 1-15 mark in the perennially competitive Division III Old Dominion Athletic Conference, and the 2009 Collegiate graduate faced the unenviable task of replenishing a seriously depleted roster in just two months.

 

For some, the challenge might have been daunting, a deal-breaker even.

 

For Corrigan, though, it was a dream come true and provided an opportunity of a lifetime.

 

Over the next four years, the former Hampden-Sydney point guard with a through-the-roof basketball IQ, coached his guys not just back to respectability but to a level of excellence for which he (and they) paid with sweat equity.

 

In 2022-23, they finished 10-17 including 5-11 in the ODAC. The next, they went 16-11 (6-10) and the next 17-9 (9-7) with victories over Roanoke and Virginia Wesleyan and down-to-the-wire finishes against Randolph-Macon and Hampden-Sydney, all of which are national powers.

 

As the Panthers moved to Division II this past season, they were voted to place dead last in their new league: Conference Carolinas.

 

They responded by finishing 16-11 overall and 14-6, good for third place among the league’s 16 affiliates, and Corrigan was honored as coach of the year.

 

Now, thanks to his trial-by-fire experience, basketball acumen, proven leadership ability, and success as a program builder, he’s earned an opportunity to coach at the Division I level as an assistant at University of West Florida, an Atlantic Sun Conference signatory located in Pensacola.

 

There, he’ll work with first-year head coach Tanner Smith, a close friend with whom he served as an assistant a decade ago at UNC Charlotte and with whom he shares a passion for the game and a vision for success.

 

“It was hard to leave Ferrum because of what we’d built there,” Corrigan said one day recently as he settled into his new office. “I felt like we were still trending upwards. I was confident that we could compete at a higher level next year. As a competitor, I wanted to see if we could win a championship, and we were getting closer.”

 

The opportunity to move to the Florida Panhandle and help the Argonauts move from DII to DI was too great to pass up, however.

 

“Tanner always said that if he ever got a (head) job, he wanted me to come with him,” Corrigan said. “I always said I would. It was something we always wanted to do: build a program together. We believe in ourselves and believe we can do it. There’s a lot of potential at West Florida. It’s beautiful down here. There’s excitement moving from Division II to Division I. We believe that once we build it, we can compete in the A-Sun.”

 

Corrigan has coached at the college level for 13 years, the first nine of which he spent as an assistant at Ferrum, Charlotte, and Cal Poly Pomona. During that time, the college basketball landscape, with NIL and the transfer portal, has changed dramatically. Case in point: in his four years leading Ferrum’s program, only one player, Alfredo Abel-Rivera, was with him the entire time. Through the challenges, his passion for coaching has continued unabated.

 

“You have to see it for what it is,” Corrigan said. “You can’t get caught up in how things used to be because that’s no longer the reality. You’re still competing. It’s just different. There’re great relationships you can build with players any time you’re on the court. We start in July and finish in March. That’s a long eight months were you’re with these guys every day. That part still exists. It’s still real. Having a player for four years doesn’t happen as much anymore, but you still have those eight months. Hopefully, they’ll come back, but I still think you can make a big difference in having a meaningful relationship with guys and help them improve.”

 

Considering his professional relationship with Smith, Corrigan expects a smooth transition back to a supporting role. 

 

“There might be challenges at times where I’ll have to hold back, but I’ll navigate that with him,” he said. “It will be different, but there’s some good and bad. When you’re the head coach, you take such great responsibility. He’ll have his high of highs and low of lows. Every head coach does that.”

 

Since Corrigan arrived in Pensacola two weeks ago, life has been a whirlwind, just as it was when he moved from the West Coast to Ferrum. In addition to getting settled himself, there’s much work to do from a basketball standpoint.

 

“We have five or six returners and five or six spots to fill,” he said. “We’re onto some guys and feel like we have some good leads and visits lined up. It’s a lot of watching film of players and evaluating what fits our style and program and trying to get the best players you can to fit that.”

 

As the college coach’s role has become more multifaceted, he stays at it for the same reasons that drew him to the profession in the first place.

 

“It’s the competitiveness and the time between the lines,” he said. “Coaches do all the other things so that we can have those two hours a day in practice or a game. That’s where we all feel the most comfortable and most like ourselves. That’s where the joy is for me:  just being in that environment, being in flow with the team. That’s the best part of the day.

 

As he begins anew…

 

“This is a huge opportunity,” he said. “If we can build this program and win a conference championship, we’ll be able to play in the NCAA tournament which has always been a career goal and dream of mine.”

 

First things first, though. His priority is to take care of business day by day with joy and purpose and see what the future brings.

 

“Absolutely,” he said.

~Weldon Bradshaw