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Alabama State’s New Basketball Coach Had To Work At An Outback Steakhouse To Cover Recruiting Costs While Launching His Career

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Alabama State coach next to Outback Steakhouse

iStockphoto / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Alabama State coach next to Outback Steakhouse


You typically have to pay your dues and work your way up the ranks before landing a job as the head coach of a Division I basketball team. That was certainly the case with Chris Wright, the man who is currently helming the men’s program at Alabama State after previously working at an Outback Steakhouse to pay for his recruiting efforts at a former school.

There are plenty of college basketball coaches who’ve earned both fame and fortune as the head of a major program, but they are the exception as opposed to the rule in a sport where those gigs are only really glamorous for people who manage to link up with blue bloods and perennial NCAA tournament contenders.

There are currently more than 360 DI men’s basketball teams that collectively boast over 5,000 players, and the majority of them are smaller schools that rely on bigger names to subsidize their budget via the “buy games” where they’re paid to sign up for what is usually a guaranteed loss.

There are also more than 25,000 guys who play DII and DIII ball at schools that are the ultimate afterthought in the national conversation. That’s also the case with the ones that are relegated to the NAIA level, which tend to grapple with plenty of monetary issues at learning institutions where they are by no means the top priority.

That last group includes Central Baptist College, as the man who is gearing up for his first season as the head coach at Alabama State had to work at a chain restaurant to supplement his salary during his time there.

Alabama State coach Chris Wright picked up shifts at Outback Steakhouse to help pay for his recruiting efforts at an NAIA program

In March, Alabama State found itself in need of a new head coach after Tony Madlock stepped down from his role with the men’s basketball team following a 10-22 season, which came a year after he led the Hornets to a SWAC championship and their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011.

They found a replacement in the form of Chris Wright, who led Oklahoma’s Langston University to the NAIA national championship game in 2024 and 2026 after previously doing the same with Alabama’s Talladega College in 2022.

All three of those appearances ended with a loss, but Wright has firmly proved he knows how to run a program with limited resources before landing his first head coaching gig with a D1 squad. During a recent interview with Basket Under Review, he also highlighted how much he’s willing to grind to set his team up for success with an anecdote involving America’s most popular Australian-themed restaurant.

The University of Texas alum has been coaching at various levels of college basketball for over two decades, and he’d primarily worked as an assistant before being named the head coach at Central Baptist College in Conway, Arkansas in 2017.

Wright, who was 34 years old at the time, told the outlet his annual salary was a whopping $31,000, and while the team announced his arrival in May, he was informed his first paycheck wouldn’t arrive until August.

He was also working with a non-existent recruiting budget, and he opted to address his budget woes by getting a second job at the Outback Steakhouse located a few miles from campus. He ended up working there 50 hours a week while balancing his shifts with his basketball duties, and he used his paychecks to cover his bills before devoting the remainder to pay for the flights of visiting recruits.

Based on where he ended up, it seems like it was worth it in the long run.