Watching the Demise of a Team.....Tragic

Watching the demise of a Team
　
What does it take to get a new coach? That seems to be the over asked question of so many regarding the Western Carolina Softball team. When you have a winning team, an outstanding program one year, and the next it falls in last in the conference. What changed? The coach is what changed and in that time 28 players have quit or transferred since the programs inception in 2006. Is that extreme? I think so. Over the 4 years that this team has been under the direction of this coach, they have continued to rank last in their conference and they continue to loose good ball players. Was this sport truly only started for title 9, and the school doesn’t care about the program? You have to ask this when you see so much wrong and you watch as other coaches from Western just shake their heads and walk away during a game. You have to wonder why would an organization want to continue with a coach who is the laughing stock of the Southern Conference. Many will say go to the Athletic Director about it, problem there is, many have over the years, but still nothing has changed. Why does a school keep a coach with this record on board? You have to wonder if it is because it is just a girls sport and not important to the school. Do they not deserve the opportunity to play for a coach that knows how to coach? These athletes dream most of their childhood to play the sport they love in college one day. Do not they deserve the best program that school can give them? Don’t they have a right to a program that will teach them; help them grow on and off the field and it be a memorable experience for them. The only memories they have now are bad memories of a program the school does not seem to care about. It is interesting, below are excerpts from the Western Carolina Role and Mission Statement and it states:
Western Carolina University Athletics' vision is to be the best place to be a student-athlete in the Southern Conference.
Core Value: Winning Programs
Goals:
1. Hire, retain, and reward the best coaches possible.
6. Be officially recognized by the SoCon as the most successful athletics program in the Conference at the annual awards banquet.
Objectives:
Make competitive progress each year in each sport by moving up in the conference standings and national rankings and/or defending conference championships. Begin the process of comparing the Sears Cup ranking for Western and our peer institutions including the SoCon. This includes receiving three trophies and then defending them:
1. The Commissioner's Cup for the best men's athletics program; 2. The Germann Cup for the best women's athletics program; and 3. The McAlister Sportsmanship Award.
In addition, it ends with
ATHLETICS has the potential, the commitment, and the resources to "be the best". It only needs to ensure that every component is synchronized with that objective.
Seems someone has forgotten the Core Values and Mission Statement along the way when it comes to the softball program. Therefore, I end this with the same question I started with.
What does it take to get a new coach?
WCU Alumni ‘88
　

 

They fired 2 female coaches. A third in the same year is not good PR.

 

Thoughts

I can say it would be absolutely horrible to have your child playing for a program where she is not happy, if she terms happiness in the number of a wins a team achieves or fails to achieve.

TB parents and kids spend countless years on the dirt during the school ball off season, packing in triple the number of games played during a school season. The girls look forward from the time they are little girls to the day they will hopefully be fortunate enough to sign.

At the same time, parents and coaches of travel ball programs continually point out that you are not going to college to play ball...you are going there to get an education. Your grades get you there, and softball helps to pay for that education.

Beating down WCU's program for months and months upon end does not change any of the above.

Your daughter's dedication to her education got her the grades to take her to college...and softball helped pay for that education.

Rather than continually slaying the program, shouldn't you instead be trying to figure out what you need to do to make YOUR daughter happy? Spending hours upon hours in this forum complaining and ripping apart the coach, the program, the school is obviously not the solution.

It is evident WCU is supportive of the coach, or action would have been taken by now. Continual posts by one or two individuals is quite clearly not going to change that. The only thing that these posts have and will accomplish is help you continue to stress out over a system you quite clearly cannot change...for whatever reason that is.

I sincerely hope you find peace, and your daughter finds her happiness on the dirt once more.

 

No dog in this fight. I wish the program well. Just reporting what I have heard. They have a group of good kids. Wish them well

 

Curious, Is this the only avenue for the rant. Have the above individuals sent this info to the President, AD etc. Or do they just type this and hope they read TBR.