Meet the American-born basketball nomad who coaches Nigeria
RIO DE JANEIRO — There are two American-born coaches in charge of men’s basketball teams at the Olympics.
One is a five-time national champion at Duke, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and college basketball’s all-time wins king. The other is a former college soccer player from small-town Vermont whose far-flung career has already taken him to four different continents.
Sometimes even Will Voigt himself can scarcely believe he’s coaching on an Olympic stage in the same tournament as Mike Krzyzewski. Voigt is the head coach of the Nigerian national basketball team, an improbable but hard-earned job for a basketball nomad who has refused to allow a modest playing career to derail his coaching ambitions.
“I don’t think I could have ever predicted this,” Voigt said. “It’s hard not to realize the significance when you walk into the Opening Ceremony. I think I’ll have time to reflect on it when we get out of here and I’m not in work mode, but there’s no way I could have seen this coming.”
Whatever Nigeria achieves at the Olympics will be a bonus because it has already exceeded expectations under Voigt. The baby-faced 39-year-old led Nigeria to its first ever AfroBasket Tournament championship last summer despite losing former NBA lottery pick Ike Diogu to an injury just days before the competition began.
Becoming the first African team to advance out of group play at the Olympics was Voigt’s goal for Rio, a daunting challenge even before Portland Trail Blazers forward Al Farouq Aminu quit after the Nigerian federation failed to make an insurance payment on time. That left Voigt in a familiar position — a long shot trying to defy the odds.
“He’s an outlier who has gone to a whole lot of places that are tough to coach and survived,” said Loyola Marymount coach Mike Dunlap, who gave Voigt his first assistant coaching job at Metro State years ago. “Now he’s being rewarded for all his hard work, and I couldn’t be happier for him.”
Voigt’s unlikely path to the Olympics began at a Vermont high school so small there were just 18 people in his graduating class. The school’s gym floor was made of tile at the time. The bleachers surrounding the court only went three rows deep.
It was at Cabot School that Voigt developed a love for basketball as his team’s captain and starting point guard. He had no choice but to take on a leadership role in such a small-school environment, whether by initiating the offense, guarding the opposing team’s best player or challenging his teammates to compete harder.
Basketball may have been Voigt’s greatest passion but soccer was his superior sport. The high-scoring striker believed his hoops days were behind him when he accepted an invitation to play soccer at Division III Pomona College in California.
That changed midway through Voigt’s college career when he realized that playing for an intramural basketball team wasn’t enough to satiate his desire to stay involved with the sport. As a result, he reached out to then-Los Angeles Clippers executive Jeff Weltman about obtaining an internship and refused to take no for an answer.
“Basically I kind of wore him out,” Voigt said. “I missed the game, so I kept calling or emailing until they gave it to me.”
Voigt’s big break came in 1999 when the San Antonio Spurs offered him a job as a video coordinator. It’s not the sort of job a 23-year-old with so little basketball experience typically lands, but the Spurs have never been afraid to take a chance on someone from a non-traditional background. Plus, Weltman vouched for Voigt to Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and Pomona alums Gregg Popovich and Mike Budenholzer also received rave reviews from folks at their alma mater.
“He was young and he was cheap,” Buford joked. “When he was with us, he had a really good relationship with our players. He was able to connect with people. He wasn’t afraid to take a different path and he was very ambitious.”
Learning by observing Popovich was so inspiring for Voigt that it motivated him to want to coach. He stayed in San Antonio for two years even though the money was scant and his living conditions were less than ideal.
When the owner of a room he was renting unexpectedly moved back to San Antonio just before the playoffs, Voigt had nowhere to live and no time to find a place he could afford. Popovich invited him to live in the guest bedroom at his house for the next few months until he could get settled somewhere else.
Elsewhere turned out to be a commune in which he and 10 other people shared the bottom floor of a Victorian home. There was no air conditioning, which made for some stifling summer days.
Whereas some parents might have questioned why their son graduated from a prestigious college yet lived so modestly, Voigt’s mom and dad didn’t see it that way. The former Vermont Poet Laureate and culinary institute owner encouraged Voigt to pursue his dreams, no matter how unlikely they seemed.
“They’ve always encouraged me to follow my passion and put my heart and soul into it,” Voigt said. “I think they realized I was passionate about basketball. If that meant living in a commune, so be it.”
Over the past 15 years, Voigt’s coaching ambitions have taken him to basketball’s hinterlands, from a college gig at Division II Metro State, to professional teams in Norway and China, to a D-League squad in Bakersfield. Coaching players who hailed from so many different cultures and backgrounds has taught Voigt how to connect with all types of people.
One of Voigt’s greatest challenges is typically gaining the respect of players or administrators who are quick to dismiss him because of his lack of high-level playing experience. Voigt combats that by being well-prepared, caring and consistently available to his players, whether for skill development or film work.
“Will was always willing to spend an inordinate amount of time in the gym,” Dunlap said. The players, they’re wary because you haven’t played the game, but the only thing they want to know is can you help them. If they see you in the gym and you’re always showing up and availing yourself to them, you can gain your trust in a short order. Will was able to do that.”
Voigt became Nigeria’s head coach thanks largely to the recommendation of Diogu and Alade Aminu, both of whom played for him while he was coaching the Bakersfield D-League team. It also helped that Voigt had been running camps in the country with Masai Ujiri for much of the previous decade.
While Nigeria has dropped its opening two games of pool play by 28 against Argentina and by nine against Lithuania, those close to Voigt are hopeful this Olympic appearance could still serve as a springboard for his career. They believe he’s especially well suited to a college head coaching job because of his skills as a tactician, his ability to connect with his players and above all else, his international recruiting ties.
“Colleges have made a real mistake on Will,” said Steve Pratt, Voigt’s friend and former high school coach. “He is a fantastic recruiter, but because he’s always coached pro, they worry about that. He would be a phenomenal college coach. If some college takes him, he’s going to build a monster.”
Voigt insists he’s not focused on what a couple upset victories at the Olympics could do for his career. He’s only thinking about how to beat Spain on Thursday, which is probably good considering all the potential distractions.
“Somebody pointed out to me I’m the youngest head coach in men’s basketball and the only American besides Coach K,” Voigt said. “If you start thinking about that stuff, you’re going to shrink to this big. That’s probably why I try to block out how insanely lucky I’ve been.”
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