University of Delaware Athletics
UD Basketball Alum Herb Courtney Starts Search Firm Focusing on Diversity in College Athletics
8/25/2020 12:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Herb Courtney began to notice during his final few years as an assistant basketball coach at Binghamton University.
He observed that among basketball coaches, and in leadership positions among college athletics departments, diversity was an issue.
"During my time in college athletics, I just realized there was a huge gap in diversity, and especially the higher up you go in leadership positions, the problems weren't getting fixed," Courtney said. "The more research I did, I found that we could do more as an industry than what we were doing. There weren't a lot of people of color in the search space, so minorities and underrepresented groups weren't getting hired.
"A lot of times in college athletics, how do we hire? We pick up the phone and call our friends. 'I've got a position open, who do you recommend?' It's just human nature, that person's probably going to be the same age and same race, right? So I just don't think it lends to equitable hiring practices."
"There are conferences that don't have a black head coach within the whole league," he continued. "I just think that's unacceptable in today's culture. Our student-athletes are so diverse; they come from all different backgrounds, are different ethnicities and bring different experiences. And I think our leadership should reflect the student-athlete population."
So he decided to do something about it.
Courtney founded Renaissance Search & Consulting, which according to its website "strives to connect colleges and universities with the most qualified and diverse candidates in the sports world."
"I had the search experience and then was a coach for seven years, so I married the two together to create something that hopefully changes how we make hires in college athletics," explained Courtney, a 2008 University of Delaware graduate who was a corporate recruiter following an overseas career in basketball.
He decided to make the transition following the 2018-19 basketball season and moved to the Los Angeles area along with his wife Steph, a former UD All-American volleyball player, and their two young children. The next nine months included plenty of planning, research and marketing before Courtney officially launched his firm earlier this year.
"The biggest thing with any business that you start is that you have to surround yourself with great people," Courtney said. "So I signed up with the Small Business Administration. I used my parents; my dad is a banker, my mom's a librarian who's good at market research. My wife is in the finance industry so she's very good at forecasting numbers and what it could look like financially down the road for us. So I used all those resources and then put a business plan together and did research to see where I could come into the market and how effective I could be.
"So, it took me about nine months to do that. It was a huge learning process for me, because I've never launched a business before. But there are so many skills that you have that you don't realize until you're forced to use them, and so many tools that you have within coaching that you need to use, like articulating a message and a vision. So using all those things helped me formulate how I wanted to roll out my business and make sure I was doing it the right way."
Following all of that work, Courtney launched his business in February. And then the pandemic hit. But he turned that circumstance into a positive.
"In the search business, it's all about relationships," he said. "That's a lot of the first year, just building relationships with people. Yeah, there was a lot of uncertainty since schools weren't hiring, but it forced me to slow down and have those relationships. The best time to talk to someone is when you're not trying to sell right away, but just learning about their culture or experiences.
"I just wanted to learn how I could build my business during a pandemic. And the one thing I identified was that I could establish great relationships and keep building them. Now I hope we'll start to see some of the fruits of that labor."
Courtney, the head of one of the only black-owned search firms in college athletics, concentrates on both coaching and athletic administration jobs. Regardless of the position, he believes that a commitment to diversity and inclusion is essential.
"Previously there wasn't a firm out there that was really committed to making sure that people from all different backgrounds were represented," Courtney said. "So when an athletic director calls me, we'll talk about what they need and I'll learn everything about the position. And then I can go out and recruit or assemble the best candidate pool for them with how it fits their culture. Now in order for that to succeed, you really have to know the candidate pool that's out there to tap into different networks in organizations and assemble a diverse pool."
Courtney, who is focused on slowly growing his company, currently works with an independent contractor but hopes to eventually build a larger team.
"My vision is to expand to a team of individuals where we can impact coaching and administration, and hopefully at some point higher education, because I think that's another area we can impact as well," he said.
Courtney has already assisted with the men's basketball head coaching search at Lincoln University and an assistant basketball coach position at La Salle University. He recently helped with a digital content position at Howard University, whose head basketball coach Kenny Blakeney served as an assistant at Delaware during Courtney's playing days. Back to relationships.
"So from the people that recruited me, to people that I played against at Delaware, to the people I coached against, they're still in this space," Courtney said. "I've gotten to know a lot of people and, and am ready to really make an impact. When you start a business, you've got to put all your energy into it. And that's what I wanted to do. And I wanted to make sure that it looked and felt a certain way, and the branding was right, and my messaging was right. And I was targeting the right audience. I think that just takes time, so I had to go all in and I'm happy I did it."
He observed that among basketball coaches, and in leadership positions among college athletics departments, diversity was an issue.
"During my time in college athletics, I just realized there was a huge gap in diversity, and especially the higher up you go in leadership positions, the problems weren't getting fixed," Courtney said. "The more research I did, I found that we could do more as an industry than what we were doing. There weren't a lot of people of color in the search space, so minorities and underrepresented groups weren't getting hired.
"A lot of times in college athletics, how do we hire? We pick up the phone and call our friends. 'I've got a position open, who do you recommend?' It's just human nature, that person's probably going to be the same age and same race, right? So I just don't think it lends to equitable hiring practices."
"There are conferences that don't have a black head coach within the whole league," he continued. "I just think that's unacceptable in today's culture. Our student-athletes are so diverse; they come from all different backgrounds, are different ethnicities and bring different experiences. And I think our leadership should reflect the student-athlete population."
So he decided to do something about it.
Courtney founded Renaissance Search & Consulting, which according to its website "strives to connect colleges and universities with the most qualified and diverse candidates in the sports world."
"I had the search experience and then was a coach for seven years, so I married the two together to create something that hopefully changes how we make hires in college athletics," explained Courtney, a 2008 University of Delaware graduate who was a corporate recruiter following an overseas career in basketball.
He decided to make the transition following the 2018-19 basketball season and moved to the Los Angeles area along with his wife Steph, a former UD All-American volleyball player, and their two young children. The next nine months included plenty of planning, research and marketing before Courtney officially launched his firm earlier this year.
"The biggest thing with any business that you start is that you have to surround yourself with great people," Courtney said. "So I signed up with the Small Business Administration. I used my parents; my dad is a banker, my mom's a librarian who's good at market research. My wife is in the finance industry so she's very good at forecasting numbers and what it could look like financially down the road for us. So I used all those resources and then put a business plan together and did research to see where I could come into the market and how effective I could be.
"So, it took me about nine months to do that. It was a huge learning process for me, because I've never launched a business before. But there are so many skills that you have that you don't realize until you're forced to use them, and so many tools that you have within coaching that you need to use, like articulating a message and a vision. So using all those things helped me formulate how I wanted to roll out my business and make sure I was doing it the right way."
Following all of that work, Courtney launched his business in February. And then the pandemic hit. But he turned that circumstance into a positive.
"In the search business, it's all about relationships," he said. "That's a lot of the first year, just building relationships with people. Yeah, there was a lot of uncertainty since schools weren't hiring, but it forced me to slow down and have those relationships. The best time to talk to someone is when you're not trying to sell right away, but just learning about their culture or experiences.
"I just wanted to learn how I could build my business during a pandemic. And the one thing I identified was that I could establish great relationships and keep building them. Now I hope we'll start to see some of the fruits of that labor."
Courtney, the head of one of the only black-owned search firms in college athletics, concentrates on both coaching and athletic administration jobs. Regardless of the position, he believes that a commitment to diversity and inclusion is essential.
"Previously there wasn't a firm out there that was really committed to making sure that people from all different backgrounds were represented," Courtney said. "So when an athletic director calls me, we'll talk about what they need and I'll learn everything about the position. And then I can go out and recruit or assemble the best candidate pool for them with how it fits their culture. Now in order for that to succeed, you really have to know the candidate pool that's out there to tap into different networks in organizations and assemble a diverse pool."
Courtney, who is focused on slowly growing his company, currently works with an independent contractor but hopes to eventually build a larger team.
"My vision is to expand to a team of individuals where we can impact coaching and administration, and hopefully at some point higher education, because I think that's another area we can impact as well," he said.
Courtney has already assisted with the men's basketball head coaching search at Lincoln University and an assistant basketball coach position at La Salle University. He recently helped with a digital content position at Howard University, whose head basketball coach Kenny Blakeney served as an assistant at Delaware during Courtney's playing days. Back to relationships.
"So from the people that recruited me, to people that I played against at Delaware, to the people I coached against, they're still in this space," Courtney said. "I've gotten to know a lot of people and, and am ready to really make an impact. When you start a business, you've got to put all your energy into it. And that's what I wanted to do. And I wanted to make sure that it looked and felt a certain way, and the branding was right, and my messaging was right. And I was targeting the right audience. I think that just takes time, so I had to go all in and I'm happy I did it."
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