Splitting hairs: Marina Coach Greg Hoffman’s first...

Splitting hairs: Marina Coach Greg Hoffman’s first job as a basketball coach was as an assistant under Tom Danley at Katella.

As Hoffman tells it, getting the job was easy. All he had to do was make the cut.

Hoffman had walked away from the varsity baseball job at Savanna because it didn’t include a teaching position. He spent the summer in Hawaii, surfing and fishing and returned sporting a goatee and rather long hair.

Still unemployed, Hoffman ran into friend Steve Danley, who introduced him to his father, and one thing led to another.

Said Hoffman: “The first thing Tom says is, ‘I hear you’re not coaching at Savanna.’ He then said, ‘You coach basketball, too. I have an opening. Why don’t you come over Monday and we’ll talk.’ I thought, ‘Hey great.’ ”

It wasn’t going to be that easy, though.

Said Hoffman: “I was walking away and I hear Tom yell, ‘Oh, Greg, one more thing. Get a haircut.’ ”