Coaches crave competition and challenges, and Dee Vick now has plenty of both.

Vick is the new basketball coach at Hampden-Sydney College, and as "fits" go, that is as close to a perfect fit as you will find in college basketball.

Vick played at Hampden-Sydney and was an assistant coach there for five years.

The Tigers play in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, one of the most competitive Division III leagues in the country.

The important words there are "Division III."

Like it or not, as soon as a coach takes a job, two questions arise. How will he do? Where will his next job be?

Vick was an assistant when the Tigers played in the Division III national championship game. He also served as an assistant at East Carolina, the College of Charleston and William and Mary, all Division I programs.

Vick knows how to build a program and how to win.

"Hampden-Sydney could have done an international search and interviewed 100 candidates, and they wouldn't have found a better fit than Dee Vick," said William and Mary, and former Hampden-Sydney, coach Tony Shaver.

Vick's biggest challenge will be what he does after Hampden-Sydney.

The dream of practically every college coach is to lead his team into the Final Four of the Division I NCAA tournament.

"I don't have a goal right now to get back to Division I," Vick said. "I want to do a great job here, win conference championships and compete on the national level.

"Getting a Division I job is very, very tough."

To become a head coach at a top program, it helps to be an ultra successful mid-major coach or a member of the Duke or North Carolina coaching families.

To become a coach at a good mid-major program, it helps immensely to be the top assistant at an ACC, SEC, Big Ten or Big 12 school.

Vick, like many other talented assistants, meets neither of those qualifications.

Shaver knows how difficult it is to move from Division III to a Division I job.

He coached at Hampden-Sydney for 17 years. Despite a 358-121 record that included two trips to the DIII Final Four, William and Mary was seen as taking a chance by hiring a Division III coach.

Some schools are willing to take such chances.

Bo Ryan, now at Wisconsin, began at Wisconsin-Platteville. Steve Alford began at Division III Manchester.

Dave Paulsen left Williams for Bucknell, Glen Miller (Connecticut College) is at Penn and Don Friday (Lycoming) is the new coach at St. Francis, Pa.

The difficulty of returning to Division I is not lost on Vick.

"A lot of coaches I respect thought it was something I had to be concerned with," Vick said. "But I think athletic directors are looking at Division III coaches more.

"They see those guys running great programs and developing student-athletes. There are very good coaches at every level."

Many think Division III coaches lack the experience to run a big-time program or take a mid-major to success against a big-time program.

That's incorrect.

What the best Division III coaches lack are enough opportunities to show what they can do at the Division I level.
Contact Paul Woody at (804) 649-6444 or pwoody@timesdispatch.com.