Shorter men’s basketball coach Chad Warner led his team to the best season in school history last year.

Now, he’s hoping the momentum will continue when his team joins the Gulf South Conference.

Clearly, Warner isn’t just sitting on his laurels, waiting for something to happen.

While speaking during Thursday’s meeting of the Rome Rotarians, Warner said he’s still out doing the things that coaches must do in order to keep a competitive program running.

The list includes recruiting, helping raise money for the athletics department and continuing to learn all he can about basketball.

Warner said that he’s also been busy after a recent promotion to senior associate athletic director — a new job title which he jokingly said came with more responsibility and a title, but no extra pay.

“The bottom line is that we want to hire coaches who can manage their program efficiently,” he said. “Administratively I think I’ve been involved in things for the past few years. As Coach Peterson said, it’s more of a recognition of that.”

“I think with all jobs, they kind of evolve and transistion themselves into what they are,” he said. “I don’t think it will get in the way of coaching. It better not or I’ll be in some trouble.”

Though Warner remained somewhat lighthearted about his new duties and told Rotarians that he wasn’t sure what the upcoming season would hold as they transition into Gulf South Conference play and continue their move toward becoming a full-time member of NCAA Division II, he did say what he was sure to remain the same: his coaching philosophy.

Warner said he doesn’t just try to coach his players to play basketball well, but also does his best to ensure that they are good citizens for the game of life.

“In sports, you get opportunities every day to teach life lessons,” he said. “When we talk about playing the man, we want our players to be better husbands and better sons ... better men.

“I think a lot of that deals with selfishness. Again, our players aren’t perfect in this, I’m certainly not perfect in this. We just want people to try (to) embrace an attitude of growth and change.”