King of the Court
One of Ithaca’s former basketball captains is still courtside these days. Dane Fischer ’02, a former point guard and team co-captain for the Bombers, has been successfully pursuing a career in men’s college basketball since 2003. Fischer was recently named assistant coach at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
Fischer came to Ithaca College from Rochester, Minnesota. He was originally drawn to IC by the sports management program and his desire to experience new people and places. When he visited the school, he immediately felt comfortable on campus and in the area. “The place felt like it fit for me,” says Fischer.
That fall he joined the junior varsity squad. A year later he earned a spot as a starting point guard on the varsity team. Fischer’s natural leadership abilities shined through on the court. While at Ithaca, he served as co-captain, was named the team’s most valuable player, earned an all-conference honorable mention, and received the Robert Congdon Basketball Award, an Ithaca honor given to the player that best exemplifies what IC basketball is all about.
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IC head coach Jim Mullins trusted Fischer’s instincts and abilities enough to allow him to call offensive plays during the game and switch defenses at key times.
“He was my best captain. He was probably the best leader I’ve ever been around,” says Mullins. “He knew how to communicate with the teammates, coaches, and staff. The guys had so much respect for him they would listen to what he had to say with no resistance.”
Mullins also touts Fischer for leading by example. “He was one of the hardest working kids I ever had. He really was the coach on the floor. I could coach for another 20 years and not meet another one like him.”
Those leadership qualities have come in handy as an assistant coach at Bucknell, where Fischer splits his time between recruiting new players and working with the current team. He’ll sit down with the team and deconstruct film of their opponents or work with the players one on one.
Being such a dedicated player, Fischer felt a bit strange on the other side of the game at first. “When you start, it’s a little bit different; you think more as a player than as a coach,” explains Fischer. But he eventually got used to the role. “It does help when it comes to relating to the players. Anytime you’re a former player, you get a little more instant credibility from the team.”
Fischer graduated with a degree in business administration and a minor in economics. Though his experience as a Bomber allowed him to amass knowledge of the game, his degree in business isn’t exactly collecting dust. In fact, it has been a real asset. “Business applies a lot to a basketball team,” says Fischer. “Especially when it comes to recruiting, which is a lot like sales.”
It seems that Fischer was able to marry his education and his passion for the game. “At first, I was going back and forth between the business world and coaching,” explains Fischer. “After graduation, I got a job as a financial consultant that lasted about 10 months, but I felt it wasn’t for me. I missed the team setting and the games.”
Since he launched his coaching career at Williams College in Massachusetts in 2003, Fischer has steadily taken on new coaching responsibilities and challenges. In 2005, he made the move to Rider University in New Jersey. “My experience at Rider was great. The players and coaches I worked with were unbelievable. Rider was a great place to coach and a place where I was able to do a ton of hands-on learning.”
This past June, Fischer moved once again, this time to Bucknell University.
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“I made the move to Bucknell because of the great tradition they’ve established both academically and as a basketball program,” says Fischer. “The challenge of continuing that success and building on it was very appealing to me. And the national name recognition of Bucknell allows us to recruit players from the entire country.”
So what does the future hold for this player turned coach? “More coaching,” says Fischer. “I definitely want to be a head coach, but I need to focus on what I’m doing now. One of the things I’ve been taught is to focus on doing a great job where you are."
Originally published in Fuse: King of the Court.
