College basketball programs, and college sports programs in general, go through lots and lots of change and upheaval. It’s an accepted reality in the high stakes world of college athletics. There are fewer and fewer coaches sticking at one job for longer than 7-10 years, and those that do typically stick because it’s a top tier Division I program and they’ve consistently won national titles. But this is at schools like UCLA, Duke, North Carolina, and Kansas. Not Valdosta State.
Mike Helfer has been a basketball coach for most of his adult life. His career has included stops at Capital University, Kent State, Grand Valley State, and Southern Polytechnic State University, dating back to 1989. He came to Valdosta State University in 2005, and has stuck around ever since, as he enters his 18th season at VSU. In that time, he has had 15 winning seasons, 331 total wins, a Gulf South Conference championship, and eight NCAA tournament appearances. That level of success normally brings about overtures from Division I programs. After all, Helfer had been an assistant at that level before, and he was just as successful at Southern Polytechnic as he has been at VSU.
Has he had any offers or opportunities to move up the ranks? What caliber of program made those offers? And what made Coach Helfer stick down here in Valdosta? Those questions were what inspired this project. There have been plenty of coaches who stuck in one spot and valued stability in their career, but was that what swayed Coach Helfer? And beyond that, what has driven his success? Recruiting? Coaching schemes? An incredible tactical advantage? With questions like these, there’s only one source to go to: Coach Helfer himself.