Justin Endsley grew up with an eye to the sky. He was fascinated by aviation and dreamed of becoming an airline pilot.
He loved sports, basketball in particular, and spent six years as a basketball manager – two at Parkside Junior High, four at Normal West High School. But climbing into a cockpit and rising from a runway, how cool would that be?
The passion lured Endsley, a 2019 Normal West graduate, to Carbondale and Southern Illinois University’s highly regarded flight school.
Perfect, right?
Well …
“I got down here, started in aviation and as I was moving along in it, I kind of realized it wasn’t going to work out for me,” Endsley said. “I had a change of heart.”
Not to worry. Endsley’s career has taken off anyway.
At 23, he might be the country’s youngest director of operations in Division I basketball. And get this: He is in his second year of handling the full-time position at Southern Illinois.
Endsley switched as a freshman to a sports administration major and in May 2023, graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree.
He also returned to basketball during that freshman year, hooking on as a manager in then-head coach Bryan Mullins’ program. By his junior year, he was named head manager. And in spring 2023, Mullins offered him the director of operations job.
“At 22 at the time, I was like, ‘This is my first big real-life career decision,’” Endsley said.
He accepted the offer, taking on a multifaceted position that includes organizing team travel, meals, weekly schedules, camps, academics, community outreach and other duties. It is a demanding job with a premium on organizational skills and the ability to adapt quickly.
He served in that role this past season, but when Mullins was fired in early March, Endsley said he “felt uneasy about what my future looked like.” SIU Athletics extended Endsley’s contract for one month so he could “keep on eye on things” during the coaching search.
Scott Nagy was hired as head coach on March 28 and a few days later, arranged a meeting with Endsley.
“I was nervous. I was sweating,” Endsley said. “But when I got there he said, ‘I’m going to keep this meeting really short. I’ve heard so many good things about you and so many people have told me I need to have you on my staff. I’d love to work with you and have you come back.’”
Endsley quickly said yes and is glad he did. Clearly, so is Nagy. During a recent interview with Salukis Athletics, Nagy said this in regard to his coaching staff:
“Really, the one guy who doesn’t have ‘coach’ behind his name, Justin Endsley, might be the best hire I made. He just knows this whole SIU system. We almost let him do too much. I was telling a coach the other day, ‘We have to pick up the pace here because we’re just relying on him to do so much. He’s starting to do things we should be doing.’”
Nagy’s staff was in full recruiting mode in April, having to fill a roster with only three returning players. They landed 10 players, with Endsley playing a key role.
“Being familiar with this place, I was kind of leading recruiting visits,” he said. “I had never done that before. That part has been really cool and eye opening to me. I’ve been involved with so much more. It’s cool to look back to where I was my freshman year and how much I’ve grown not only personally, but within my role here with Saluki basketball.”
Endsley’s impact at SIU is no surprise to Brian Cupples, who saw the potential when Endsley was in seventh grade.
Parkside coach Phil Nevels had approached Endsley in the hallway one day about being his manager. Cupples, head coach at Normal West at the time, attended a seventh-grade practice later that season.
The players were in a drill requiring them to run to halfcourt and touch where the halfcourt line intersected the sideline.
“He (Endsley) stood right there making sure guys were going to touch the line,” Cupples said. “They were not going to miss it. That was impressive for a seventh-grader and that the other seventh-graders did it. He didn’t say a word. He was just there and they knew to do it.
“I thought, ‘We need this guy in our program because he’s so organized and he’s mature and he’s all in.’”
Cupples offered Endsley a chance to be a varsity manager as a freshman. It led to four years with the Wildcats program and Cupples found him to be “wise beyond his years.”
So did Ed Hafermann, who was an assistant coach during Endsley’s time at West and now is head coach.
Hafermann said Endsley “took on roles and responsibilities that a lot of managers never had at West.”
“Brian and I would have discussions about how great of a job Justin was doing and how it was like having another assistant coach,” Hafermann said. “I’ve used Justin as an example several times and some of the responsibilities and roles … getting things ready for practice, making sure the stats are in line … that’s something we’ve passed down to our managers today.”
Hafermann knew Endsley before he enrolled at Parkside. Endsley’s father, Steve, was a neighbor of Hafermann. Justin played countless wiffle ball games and driveway basketball games with Hafermann’s son and other children in the neighborhood.
Endsley has fond memories of those games, which fed into his love of basketball.
“I was never good enough or athletic enough to play (in school), but I loved being around it,” he said.
He attended many games with his father, who was executive director of the Illinois Elementary School Association. They traveled together to IESA events in all sports.
“Dad and I had so many fun days watching junior high basketball and things like that,” he said.
Now retired, Steve Endsley is an avid Southern Illinois fan. So is Justin’s mother, Ammie Brownell, a grade school teacher who lives in Normal.
“It’s been really, really cool for me just seeing how involved both my mom and dad have gotten with Saluki basketball,” Justin said. “Every day, mom will call and say, ‘Hey, I saw this, heard this.’ She’s all about it. I think she owns about every piece of SIU clothing that has ever been made.”
His parents divorced when Justin was in first grade, but he calls it “probably the friendliest divorce there’s ever been.”
“Being an only child, they wanted to make sure I didn’t feel any impact,” he said. “They’ve done a tremendous job. Now that I’m old enough to realize it all, they’ve made my life so easy and seamless. Looking back, it’s been wonderful.”
Looking ahead, Endsley does not aspire to be an active coach, but said, “I love doing the operations side of things, the behind the scenes stuff.”
Cupples has long believed Endsley could be a Division I athletic director because he is “so organized and so straight forward. He just gets it.”
“Honestly, I don’t know what I want to do,” Endsley said. “I still have that passion for basketball and I love what I do right now. Who knows? Keep doing this and maybe a Power Five (school) may call or something like that. That’s a whole new landscape.
“Never in a million years would I have pictured myself in the role I am today. I owe a lot to my parents and coaches who have helped me grow and get to where I am. I’m thankful that this school believes in me and put in a good word for me with our staff change. And for Coach Nagy seeing that in me.”
The one-time aspiring pilot is grounded, happy, making a difference. You don’t need a plane to soar.
