Vandals men’s basketball head coach, Zac Claus, is not only a coach, but a father of three who loves chocolate milk, the number nine, and Hayden Lake as his favorite vacation spot.
Claus has coached for 25 years and he’s currently in his fourth season as the head coach for Vandals men’s basketball.
American former professional basketball player, Tim Duncan, and Canadian professional basketball coach, Steve Nash, are Claus’ favorite basketball players.
Besides basketball, Claus’s favorite sport is volleyball, his favorite color is grey and his favorite television show is the West Wing.
Putting all his favorite things aside, Claus is entering a busy period once again as the team starts a new season.
For this 2022-2023 season, Claus has envisioned that the team will set a new theme for this season.
“We sat together as an entire team and we put it on the players because I wanted it initially to come from them,” Claus said. “We put it in front of the team and said this is yours, that you own it (and) these are your words.”
After the discussions, it was decided that the theme for the season would be ‘I-believe’ in which Claus explained that ‘I’ came from ‘Idaho’, and it is important to believe in one another as a team.
“We took that from using the I in Idaho, and having a belief in the guy next to you.” Claus said. “It’s having that collective belief that we can accomplish whatever we set out to do.”
The job of a coach is not easy, and a critical thing Claus has to do as a coach is to recruit new players for the season.
He’s not only looking for players who can shoot, dribble and pass, but more importantly, the heart of the players and their ability to work as a team.
“We want to talk to their coaches that they’ve played for, we want to talk to (their) previous coaches,” Claus said. “We want to get to know mom and dad very well and we want to see how they interact with their parents.”
The ‘total package’ is what Claus is looking for in a player—able to work as a team, take criticisms and treat others with respect.
“I want to recruit guys that if my seat is next to you on the airplane, I’m happy about it,” Claus said. “I want to recruit guys that when I invite you over to my house to be with other coaches’ families (and) with my own daughters, it’s a good thing.”
With new transfers and recruits and old players graduating, he stated that the team this season is terrific and has trained hard.
Claus and the team have been working endlessly for this new season so go support the Vandals as they play their first home game of the regular season against Walla Walla at 6 p.m. on Nov 10. at the ICCU arena.
Moeka Shimizu can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @moekashimizu_