In just two years, the ‘Coalition Academy’ has boosted Black assistants to top-flight head coaching jobs

By Dwayne Bray, Andscape

Doug Belk at Houston is among the latest group to get access and advice from prominent athletic directors

SHREVEPORT, La. – On the practice field inside Independence Stadium here, it’s clear that Doug Belk, the defensive coordinator for the University of Houston Cougars, is a young coach on a fast track, with the potential to reach the top of a profession that’s been immensely difficult for minorities to crack.

Belk, 35, also has an advantage that wasn’t available to older Black assistant coaches. He’s one of an elite group of minority coaches in a program that has played a role in four Black coaches receiving Division I head-coaching jobs in the last two years, including three at heavily resourced Power 5 schools.

Belk’s defensive unit at Houston has a lot of fanciful names – “Third Ward Defense” and “Sack Ave.” But on this day Belk is focused on the details of how to protect its own end zone against the University of Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns in the Independence Bowl on Dec. 23.

One minute he’s leading the defensive backs in a press-the-receiver drill. Then he’s slinging spirals so tight some of his defensive players can’t hold on to the passes. Next he’s standing around the 40-yard line, chatting up other assistants.

Finally, about 30 minutes in, the energetic Belk is engaged at midfield in a conversation with his boss, Cougars’ head coach Dana Holgorsen. It’s been a lousy couple of weeks for Holgorsen. On Dec. 12, one of his mentors, Mike Leach, the man he coached under for seven years at Texas Tech University, died following complications from a heart condition.

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For now, Holgorsen doesn’t have to worry about Belk leaving the Cougars. The head coach ponied up a seven-figure salary last year to keep the coach he refers to as “my guy.”

“Whoever your guy is, you’ve got to empower him and be able to trust him to do things,” Holgorsen said in an interview before practice. “Doug’s my associate head coach and my defense coordinator. So if I’m not here, he’s the most important guy in the room. I trust in what he says. His loyalty is extreme. I know he’s saying the right things when I’m not around.”

The program Belk is part of is run by the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches, which was launched in 2020 in the middle of the shutdown that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s reckoning on race. The coalition, which includes coaches from youth football to the NFL, now has more than 1,200 members, coalition officials said.

The national coalition was started in 2020 by Mike Locksley, Maryland’s head coach and one of eight Black men running a Power 5 football program. Its most high-profile initiative is the Coalition Academy, which pairs a small group of standout assistant coaches like Belk with influential athletic directors for mentoring and networking. Academy participants are mostly coordinators from the FBS, although a few are from historically Black colleges or assistants in the NFL.

Read about this program and its success.

Another organization is working to boost the success of Black female athletes.

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