RE: Potential Hires: 3 Coach Profiles (WMSB)
“QUARTERBACK CLUB 1965
March 18, 2019 at 1:26 am
Fantastic coverage of W&M Athletics on this site. Always fun to read your stories. A few thoughts on this latest news:
A good leader always manages to make tough decisions without alienating half the customer base, is a consensus builder, listens before reacting, and avoids unnecessary conflicts.
Had our AD waited one more year before the firing, we’d have either made the tournament or entered a rebuilding phase- and a much more practical / palatable opportunity to fire the coach.
Regardless of your opinion of our AD, or of firing the coach with the highest winning percentage in the conference over the last six years, the reality is:
1- half the fan base is outraged
2- at least 2/5 returning starters are considering transferring
3- we now owe $1,700,000 to a coach we no longer employ
4- our athletic department can’t fund capital improvements for certain teams already, i.e. swimming pool for swim team
5- regardless of the basketball program’s success going forward, fewer fans will care – we’ve sold out our core values of doing things the right way, buying out our most successful coach ever as we fire him
6- an NCAA tournament birth next year would be so tainted. The coach who built the program & assembled the players – gone; a new coach grasping for credit – winning in a down year for the CAA and looking to springboard into a school that pays real money; an AD taking credit for having the wisdom to “fix” the program -teaching a Dean Smith disciple lessons about coaching basketball, and players how to make free throws with a 7-point lead in the CAA Championship game 3 years ago, so thankful she is trying to tell us what winning is; and most importantly 12 players who don’t deserve and didn’t sign up to be caught up in this drama.
For those in support of this decision and timing, just consider the level of risk, the level of fallout, the drop in fundraising, the bad press, the loss of momentum, the all or nothing, win at all costs mindset, etc.,
There’s no way any rational, level-headed leader, makes this move, this year. Highest winning percentage in the CAA for the past six years, with five returning starters…at a school like W&M academically- and somehow the AD decides the timing was right to have all of us pay $1,700,000 for Shaver to go away now.
Why would anyone donate a penny to the school going forward? To endorse this type of leadership?”
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