YORK, Pa. — A move from coaching in the York-Adams League to the SEC isn’t exactly common, but former New Oxford boys basketball coach Sean Bair has learned a lot in a year.
“You go from being the unilateral decision maker at New Oxford to helping produce things that hopefully lead to an assistant coach trying to convince the head coach of something. That’s been a fun experience for me, seeing how that works and trying to think like each one of those people so that if I am in those positions, I can kind of see the big picture,” said Bair.
Now, Bair leaves the Razorbacks to join the Penn State Lady Lions as the Director of Video and Analytics.
“Coach Kieger is amazing. It's been absolutely incredible to get to know her and her staff the last couple weeks. To see them up close now, these last two weeks, how how hard they work and how sharp they are,” recalled Bair.
Like Bair, his new role has come a long way in a short time.
“I remember Coach Csensits at Dickinson College using the VCR in 2009. He’s sitting up front, rewinding stuff with remote control,” said Bair with a laugh. “It's amazing now, even for someone like me, who's in that transition right now. I’m able to go back and pull clips of our current roster and get to know our players really, really well.”
With his return to Pennsylvania, there are now three Bairs coaching in the Keystone state.
His sister Ellen is a head coach at Linden Hall. Another sister, Anne, is heading into her junior year at Gettysburg, where she’s coached by their dad, Jeff.
“The lines of communication being even more open, that’s one things that me and my wife are really looking forward to on both sides of our family, with her being from the Carlisle area,” added Bair. “We're both just thrilled to be back and really looking forward to the opportunities to see them more, talk to them more, and to just be around.”
As far as which Bair might be the best coach, Sean didn’t hesitate.
“If Anne wants to go into it, she might be the best one. She's got it like that. She's pretty good.”