The Citadel head coach Duggar Baucom named Jack Castleberry the program's Director of Basketball Operations on Tuesday. Castleberry joins The Citadel with seven years of coaching experience at the collegiate level under his belt. He most recently served as an assistant coach for the women's basketball program at Siena College from 2012-14 before opting to transition to a financial planning career.

Castleberry walked on to the Virginia Military Institute basketball team and eventually earned a scholarship under Coach Baucom. Upon graduation, he immediately landed an assistant coaching position at the University of Tennessee-Martin. Following a year there, he returned to VMI and worked under Coach Baucom from 2008-12, assisting in player development, recruiting and scheduling and serving as the team's academic coordinator. 

Q&A with Coach Castleberry

Q: What made you fall in love with basketball?
Jack Castleberry: My father was the play-by-play radio guy for Old Dominion basketball and a sportscaster in the Virginia Beach area so I had some cool access from a young age being around the ODU team, traveling to games, keeping stats and stuff. I always knew I wanted to coach because I watched Jeff Capel interact with the athletes and it always seemed like it was much more than a basketball thing. For some reason, that excited me. Early on I thought you know this is pretty cool and I kept going with it from there.

Q: So you walked on at VMI and then earned a scholarship when Coach Baucom took over the program. How'd that happen?
JC: When Baucom came in, I figured out that the harder you play, the more he likes you. Whoever is going to play the hardest and do what he needs them to do is going to get playing time. I played hard enough for him to give me some playing time. He ended up putting me on scholarship and named me the team's captain my senior year and we won more games than VMI had in over a decade. Willie Bell was a sophomore then and they built on all that success after I left.

Q: What's Coach Baucom meant to you?
JC: Coach Baucom has given me so many opportunities. He's a guy that appreciates people who play their roles. He's been the biggest influence outside of my father in my life both from a personal and career standpoint. There's something about him that tells you he's not scared to try something that other coaches wouldn't. Someone who has had a near death experience like him is going to do it the way they want to do it. It's how he coaches and that mentality is attractive. Coach Baucom is a genuine person and a normal guy who happens to coach hoops. The impact he's had on me has been incredible so the opportunity to get back here is too good to pass up. It was something I had to do.

Q: What excites you about coming to The Citadel?
JC: I have tremendous respect for The Citadel, its mission and its history of producing some of America's greatest leaders.  I'm excited to be a part of such a special place. The resources provided here are great. At The Citadel, football wins, baseball wins, wrestling wins, why can't basketball win? At a military school it's difficult I think to play the same way as everybody else. Coach Baucom came here and said we are who we are, we're not the norm and we're proud of that and The Citadel has embraced that mentality. People want to help you win here. This is a military school, something I'm familiar with having gone to VMI so I know how to recruit to it. You get great quality kids in a military setting. It's great to be back with Coach Baucom and be somewhere where we have the resources available to do something special.

Q: Why do you want to get back into coaching after two years in financial planning?
JC: When I was younger I wanted to be the next John Calipari. I had this sense of urgency to rise up the ranks. I made the jump to Siena because there were different responsibilities and it allowed me to move up. Then when I was in financial planning I thought maybe I'm done with basketball.  It was a lie. When college basketball started up again, my girlfriend would turn the TV on and I'd have to change the channel away from the game. I started coaching at a high school to get a fix and by the end of it I was lying to myself. I'm a college hoops coach and I realized who I really was. This is who I want to be. I originally got into coaching because I loved being able to compete on a daily bais and have a positive impact on a college kid's life. Coaches can get sidetracked into thinking they have to get to the top of the profession right away. I got sidetracked with that vision and forgot that I got into this to love what I do every day but now I have another chance at The Citadel.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish in your coaching career moving forward?
JC: As a coach, you genuinely have a potential impact on a student athlete's life that can carry on and have a ripple effect well beyond their college years. Even if you're only with them for four years, if they can learn something about themselves or you're able to give them some guidance or get them their first job in the field that they want, that's pretty profound when you think about how that can carry out. To be able to have an impact on a cadet-athlete the way that Coach Baucom has impacted my life is really what I want to happen on a regular basis.

Q: What will your role be on staff during the upcoming season?
JC: My role here is to support the assistant coaches and the head coach and make their jobs as easy as possible. So whatever that entails, I will make the process as streamlined as I can make it. I'll make sure everything is running on point. From a cadet-athletes standpoint, I'm just another person they can talk to as someone else who has been through the military school experience.

Q: In your short time here so far, what are you first impressions of next season's squad?
JC: There's a lot of potential. I think people will be pleasantly surprised with the newcomers and the meshing of the upperclassmen who have already gone through the coaching change and learned a new system entirely. Now, the returners have a year under their belt and they can start to explain it to the freshmen, which helps them keep learning by teaching. Once we mesh that experience with the new talent that has been recruited to the system, it's going to be exciting to see how it all plays out over the next couple years.