June 26, 2009
SEASIDE, Calif. – First year assistant coach
Nick Racklin took an unusual path before coming to Cal State Monterey Bay, With a background in both baseball and basketball, Racklin competed for the Solano Mudcats , a semi-pro baseball team in Vacaville, for three years before focusing on a basketball coaching career.
Racklin was a part of CSUMB history when the men’s squad captured two post season victories and made it to the California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament championship game. With Racklin’s help, head coach
Rob Bishop was able to get the veteran squad and the new players to mesh together and play as a team.
This summer, Racklin is serving as camp director at CSUMB basketball camps. For more information, click on this
link.
The La Canada native recently sat down to answer a few questions.
When did you start coaching basketball?
I started coaching basketball my junior year at UC Davis. I was the head freshman coach at Mira Loma high school in Sacramento for two years, under varsity coach Doug Friedman. I always wanted to get into coaching because I had a great high school coach, Tom Hofman, at La Canada high school. When I moved back to southern California, I got the head junior varsity coaching job at Woodbridge High school in Irvine, and assisted the varsity squad under John Halagan. We coached Austin Daye who was drafted by the Detroit Pistons as the 15th pick in yesterday's NBA draft. I wanted to get into college basketball, so I started working summer camps, and wound up getting a job with UC Irvine as a grad assistant/video coordinator for two years. It was the best experience I could have gotten, working with a great staff and head coach Pat Douglass.
You played baseball in college, yet you are coaching basketball, what made you decide to coach basketball and not baseball?
I did have more of a successful career playing baseball; however, I have a basketball mind. I tried coaching baseball for a couple years, but my passion was coaching basketball. There's more action and strategy in basketball coaching. My baseball affiliation still lies with the best team in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers. My goal is to become a head coach someday, and I think I'm doing the right things to reach that goal in my life. The college coaching business is all about networking, but I feel that my hard work combined with the relationships I have built over the past five years will contribute to my future success in coaching.
What brought you to CSUMB?
Ross Land, one of the coaches at UC Irvine used to be an assistant coach at Northern Arizona University with our current head coach Rob Bishop. When Coach Bishop got the job here at CSUMB, Coach Land called on my behalf to tell Coach Bishop about me. It was a good move
because I have gotten a chance to perform all the duties of an assistant coach. I really wanted to go somewhere that I could get good recruiting experience, and this was a great place to do it. Working for Coach Bishop has been rewarding, challenging, and fun. He trusts me to do a good job, and makes it a comfortable work environment for everyone involved in the program. He's really turning the program in the right direction, and I am thankful that I can contribute to our success here at CSUMB.
You have a big event in your life coming in August, you are getting married!
I am getting married on August 9th, which is just around the corner...To a beautiful woman named Candace Johnson from San Clemente, CA. We are getting married at Rancho Capistrano down in Orange County. She works for the regional center of Orange County, which provides services for children with disabilities. She will be moving up here in August after our honeymoon in Maui, Hawai’i.