Making sense of a 'decision to make a decision'
By Ray Hamill, written for the Ukiah Daily JournalGood grief Charlie Brown, what's all this stuff I'm hearing about the college wanting to hire a full-time football head coach? What's all this nonsense they're all talking about
Sure, what would they want a full-time football coach for when all a coach does is stand around the sidelines once a week, 10 times a year while his players do all the hard work. I've got a better idea, let's get the football coaches to pay the college for letting them coach there, because it sure sounds like a cushy number to me.
For those of you who think I've gone off the deep end, I haven't, at least not yet. What I'm referring to is the decision. the college recently made that the No.1 priority for a new full-time faculty position at the college is a football coach.
This apparently has several members of our community pulling thier hair out - if they're lucky enough to have a full head of hair - and up in arms at the decision.
Actually, the truth of the matter is that the college hasn't made a final decision on the matter yet, and won't I believe until mid November. On the contrary, what they have done - in the great tradition of all institutions all over the world - is make a decision to make a decision. It has merely passed from one committee to another and nothing concrete has been decided just yet.
But for those of you who feel compelled to criticize the `decision to make a decision' and to question the importance of full-time football head coach at our local JC, let me answer you with a few questions.
How many English teachers at the college do you know of that work up to 10 hours a day, seven days a week in a part-time position? How many astrology teachers at the college do you know of that visit all the local schools several times a year recruiting students, all of whom bring much-needed funding to the college? How many teachers of any kind do you know of who are singlehandedly responsible for bringing in $200,000 in state funding to Mendocino College each year?
That funding - $3,360 per full-time student - makes up almost nine percent of the total state funding the college receives annually, so you take that away and the English department loses nine percent of its funding, the astrology department loses nine percent of its funding, the libiary loses nine percent of its funding, and so on and so forth.
Now there are several ways to view the whole situation, and it does seem to me that everyone involved has something different to say about it all.
But for those laymen out there, let's first look at the process involved.
Each year department heads at the college forward their program reviews where they ask for what they want in terms of funding for the following year. They don't always get what they want, but what can I say, welcome to the real world.
Since 1993, when former college Athletic Director Dan Drew first initiated the request, the Athletic Department has asked for the funding to hire a full-time head coach in both football and baseball (basketball head coach Ed Boyle is the only current full-time head coach at the college, while in the past there were two full-time women's head coaches, both of whom opted to go back into the classroom instead).
Now it may sound like favoritism for boys sports as opposed to girls sports and in direct disregard of Title IX (and believe me the college is not above criticism in that area), but football and baseball alone bring in 12 to 15 percent of the full-time enrollment at the school annually, the vast majority of whom I know for a fact would not attend the college if it wasn't for sports.
That's a pretty substantial percentage of total college enrollment and funding. Funding which I reiterate goes to all departments at the school.
Kevin Smallcomb's baseball program gets funding for 15 players a year from the school administration, yet he carries roughly 45 on his roster annually. Most of these are local players, and he accommodates them through his program's own many fund raising efforts (believe me, I know, I get hounded several times a year to advertise them all).
There is nothing to stop the girls programs at the college from doing the same. If Smallcomb can fund raise for an extra 30 players a year, so too can the girls sports.
The reality is, unfortunately, either there doesn't appear to be the same interest in JC sports for girls locally, or that some of the past coaches haven't tried hard enough (it has to be said, however, that I believe that will change in the next few years under new volleyball head coach Ed Schweitzer and I also believe it would be vastly different with girls soccer).
Both the baseball and football programs, among other sports programs at the school, also make great efforts to send their students on to four-year schools. Last year, each of the two head coaches sent all but one of their students on to universities, with neither of the two exceptions wanting to move on. That included eight baseball players who went on to Div. I schools.
Now I wonder if the astrology or English departments make that kind of effort to ensure their students move on, or have that kind of success rate.
The problem with having a part-time head coach in these programs is that most of them with any talent or passion for their sport end up moving on to greener pastures before too long, and that in turn inevitably leads to a major drop off in enrollment in those sports programs the following year, which inevitably leads to a drop off in total enrollment, which in turn leads to less funding for the entire school. You start to get the picture?
Personally I was as surprised as anybody to hear the news of the `decision to make a decision.' The college administration supports the athletic department somewhat, but if you honestly believe it does so over-enthusiastically, you really need to get out of the Ukiah area more often and check out some other schools where sports programs really rule.
The truth of the matter is also the fact that all these sports pro-grams - both men's and women's- bring intelligent, quality students to the college, both locally and from elsewhere. Last spring, baseball catcher Ryan Johnston, an All-American player who could have gone on to play at just about any college he chose, instead took a full-ride academic scholarship to the University of Arkansas.
As one coach at the college put it, his program brings in several quality students to several other programs around campus, while no other program brings in quality people to his program.
The argument that football involves only a handful of `local' players, meanwhile, depends entirely on your definition of local. The JC's `recruiting district' includes parts of both Mendocino and Lake counties, so if you're going to talk about local athletes, you had better include the large number that come here from Lakeport and the surrounding areas.
The `recruiting district' also does not include places like Cloverdale and Fort Bragg, both of which personally I'd consider local, but the players from which are considered from "outside the district."
The vast majority of the rest come from Northern California, which really doesn't make them some sort of aliens or something.
But once again, it all comes down to funding. You treat the football coaching position with the respect it deserves and you get additional players coming in which gives the college additional funding, which in turn .... well you get the picture by now.
Another factor which appears to have been completely overlooked by everyone involved is the pride and identity factor, something which can't be measured in mere numbers.
Both baseball and football have been remarkably successful in recent years, amazingly so when you consider the size of our local JC. Last year, the baseball team finished in the top eight in the state, which is pretty incredible when you consider Mendo is the third smallest of the 110 JCs in California.
Even more remarkable is the fact that the football team had the state's No. 1 ranked defense last week, even though Mendo is the smallest JC playing football in California.
That should give this community some pride, even for those of you who don't care about sports. It gives the school an identity and recognition (at least it would for every other school on the entire planet, although I do sometimes wonder about Ukiah). That's something few other programs at the college can claim, and it's something that benefits the entire faculty.
The problem is that when you treat the coaches like part-time help, they naturally want to go elsewhere. Neither Smallcomb nor football head coach Lenny Wagner has told me so, but I really wouldn't be surprised to see them move on in the near future, because both will get far better treatment elsewhere.
But the fact that the whole `decision to make a decision' is sports related gives it extra recognition and appears to rise the tempers of those involved somewhat. Nobody kicked up a fuss last year when the college decided that the hiring of a fulltime English teacher or whatever was the No. 1 priority.
When UCLA football players used handicap placards to get special parking last year, it was a national news story. That wouldn't have happened if it was astrology students or English students.
The truth of the matter is I really don't see anything wrong with putting an emphasis on recruiting a full-time football head coach, not when football players have such a direct effect on the entire enrollment at the school and as a result a direct effect on all programs at the school. The only problem I see with it, is that it has come six years too late and really when it doesn't cover baseball as well (let alone some of the other sports), it doesn't go far enough.
Go figure.
Copyright MPFA 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited
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