Nanooks need commitment to excellence from the top
Published Sunday, April 13, 2008
It’s decision time for the University of Alaska Fairbanks administration as far as athletics goes.
The question that needs to be answered is really pretty simple: “Should the Alaska Nanooks athletic program continue?”
The answer is either yes or no, but it has to come from more than just the coaches or the athletic director. They are truly committed to making the Nanooks program as successful as possible, but they don’t really control the decision-making process or purse strings.
The real answer has to come from those above — the president of the UA system (Mark Hamilton), the chancellor of the Fairbanks campus (currently Steve Jones) and the vice chancellor (Jake Poole).
They not only have to say they want an athletic program that is committed to excellence on the Fairbanks campus, they have to back it up with a commitment to make it happen — financially, facilities-wise and with personal involvement that will make the community want to be involved.
It’s not an easy commitment to make. It is a commitment that has to be made in order for the Alaska Nanooks to have any chance of fielding competitive athletic teams in all programs, not just one or two.
Right now, I’m not sure that commitment is there.
Out of my right ear I hear, “Yes, we are committed to fielding teams that can successfully compete in their conferences and at a national level.” On the left side I hear, “If you cut your schedules and budgets (except for hockey), we might be able to get you back to where you are today, two years from now.”
That’s not exactly a sparkling commitment to excellence when you take a look at how any of the true team sports on campus fared in the past year — volleyball (10-16 overall, 4-14 Great Northwest Athletic Conference), women’s basketball (12-14, 5-13 GNAC), men’s basketball (5-11, 2-16 GNAC), hockey (9-21-5, 8-16-4 Central Collegiate Hockey Association). Volleyball and women’s basketball did improve from the previous season.
The record against our rivals from the south in those four sports was 2-7-1. Way to go. coach Phil Shoemaker and the volleyball team for sweeping the dreaded Seawolves.
Two years from now do we really want our teams to be at the same level they are at today? I sure hope we want them to be a lot better.
It’s certainly not the type of ringing endorsement that is going to sell student-athletes from Alaska, the Lower 48 or foreign countries on the Fairbanks campus.
I know we like to do everything a little bit different here in Fairbanks, but all you have to do is look at the campus a few hundred miles to the south to know that there is a commitment to excellence for athletics that at this time isn’t matched on the upper levels up here.
There’s a lot more resources in the bigger city of Anchorage, but we in the frozen north have never been known to back down from the challenge of doing more with less.
I certainly hope we don’t back down this time around. We need a strong commitment toward making all Alaska Nanooks athletic programs a success.
Money obviously helps, but that’s not the only answer. The university has to be committed to making events like the BP Top of the World Classic and the new hockey tournament highly successful to generate more revenue for the athletic department and so prospective student-athletes have something to look forward to.
It’s probably too much to ask for the Division I volleyball and women’s basketball tournaments to return, but I might as well throw that out on the table as well.
There is hope on the horizon, however.
A new chancellor will be chosen by the end of the month. Both John Davies and Brian Rogers have shown their support for Nanooks athletics in the past.
Hopefully, that support will carry over when one of them is chosen to head up the Fairbanks campus.
I’m pretty sure they understand that a successful athletic program can be a huge benefit to campus life and the entire Fairbanks community.
It wasn’t too long ago that Fairbanks was on its way up the ladder and actually had the upper hand on Anchorage.
If we can bring back that kind of commitment we had at that time, then the Alaska Nanooks will flourish once again.
Changing subjects
The whole matter of the resignation of hockey coach Doc DelCastillo sounds a little bit fishy to me.
I don’t think the fact that some players didn’t like the new coach had anything to do with it either.
While I do believe some credence should be given to the DelCastillo’s reason of wanting to be closer to family in the Lower 48, too many weird things happened last week to make me think that all of the sudden a light went on Thursday morning and DelCastillo walked into Karr’s office with a letter of resignation in hand.
The press release announcing the resignation had three paragraphs pertaining to DelCastillo and a couple more about the process for selecting a new coach and the returning players.
In reading it over again Saturday afternoon, I didn’t get the feeeling that anyone up on the hill was shocked, saddened or dismayed that DelCastillo had decided to pull the plug after just one season.
There was no press conference, as there was just a year earlier when Tavis MacMillan resigned “for family reasons.”
MacMillan’s press conference, called on short notice, was packed.
DelCastillo said he would not answer any questions once he read a prepared statement. Maybe I’m just cynical, but that makes me think that something else behind the scenes just might have taken place.
Of all the phone calls that we received from folks pretty close to the Nanooks program, not one even suggested that DelCastillo was thinking of leaving the program for family reasons.
Poole confirmed that DelCastillo’s job was under review on Tuesday evening. Wednesday evening Karr sent an e-mail saying that a press release would be issued on Thursday. Yet, DelCastillo took Karr by surprise when he resigned Thursday morning. Again, excuse me for being cynical, but the sequence of events doesn’t add up.
Another thing, if DelCastillo truly wanted to thank the fans and everyone else involved in the Alaska Nanooks hockey program, why didn’t he do it a the team banquet Saturday night. Instead, he high-tailed it out of town to get to the Frozen Four in Denver. My guess is that any contacts he may have made in the past two days could have waited a day or two.
I just don’t believe that every college hockey job opening in the country was going to be filled during the Frozen Four. Even if that were the case, shouldn’t he have left for Denver earlier so he could be there for the semifinals that took place Thursday night.
I’m sorry to say, but things just aren’t adding up here.
I’m kind of an old-fashioned journalist, so I don’t like this new blogging thing much, but I’m inclined to agree with what was on the Western College Hockey Web site, “the reason for the coaching change wasn’t hockey-related, but some sort of human resources issue.”
We’ll try the Freedom of Information request route to get some answers, but my guess is that the university has already put anything under lock and key — swept it under the rug, so to speak.
The last time something like that happened, word eventually got out.
It wasn’t pretty.
Comments
Nicely said Bob!
What about the National Championship Rifle team? Winning their Tenth NCAA title this year and third in a row. Alaska Fairbanks skiing, one of the premier division 2 programs in the country, bringing home an individual title and a top ten finish as a team at NCAA's. I understand that there might be problems with basketball and hockey but there are a lot of good things that come from the athletics department that is hardly talked about.
this is why Kerr needs to go!
There ARE good things that happen from UAF Athletics. And each time UAF shows up on a scoreboard somewhere or at an out of town event...our school benefits.
I think people fail to realize that our program suffers because we don't have our own on campus facility. Yes, there's the Patty center. It holds all of about 250 people? Don't think for a moment that we get a break at the Carlson Center. It's incredibly expensive to be there and the University sees very little of the proceeds generated in dasher boards and concessions. I'm curious how much we'd save if we didn't have to pay the borough those fees, could rent unused space to user groups, and hold events to offset costs in less busier times?
We suffer because we try and run a competitive college athletic program on a shoe string budget. I stand by the idea that despite the successes the rifle team has maintained over the years, our PREMIER SPORT at UAF is Division I Hockey. Do you believe Michigan' premier sport is Hockey? Heck no! It's Football. All other programs benefit and thus fall in line behind football. Why is that concept so hard to accept? How much revenue does the rifle team with all its national championships generate for our athletic program?
Instead of bickering about which sport is better. All athletics fans need to understand that should hockey go by the wayside....so too will the other sports. We've been walking a fine line of acceptable funding for a long time. When is the administration going to untie the coaches hands from behind their back and give them the tools and resources to be successful? How about equal levels of funding for both UAF and UAA for starters....that's an incredible injustice in my mind.
Great article Bob! I think you hit the nail on the head!
I dont think that the problems are coming from Forrest, hes just the visible messenger
UAF does need a sports facility of its own. Let the engineering students design it, let the trade students participate in construction of it, let the culinary students do the food service (have something other than stale popcorn and pretzels), let the business student manage it, and finally let the community reap the rewards of such a facility.
Doc is leaving because he wants to be around family? Something isn't right there, due to his coaching job required him talking to recruits and getting them to commit to leave their families to come up here for 4 years!
It sounds like Doc was sending everyone home this summer, contrary to past coaching staff's, possibly to get the slackers to not come back. He had over 13 recruits willing to step in their place on the ice, not at the local bars.
Now to top it off Karr is going to involve those same players in the interview process........ geez. Since when does any Corporation do that!
Replace Karr before hiring another Coach, or even those above him first.
Great article Bob!! Something does sound fishy. Do those of you who want to replace Forrest Karr even know him?? Have you ever had a conversation with him?? Do you remember the last Athletic Director at UAF? I support Forrest Karr and I believe he is a huge asset to UAF. The last hockey coach (Doc) was hired by a committee. Let's hope they find a few good canidates for the job and hire a coach who will take the Nanooks to the next level.
When I read your some of your comments I'm reminded of a favorite quote of mine from Galileo Galilei, "Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regard to matters that require thought. The less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them."
This community is far better off with DOC down the road and in time most of you will come to understand this. Those of you who think that the team is a bunch of whiners, no nothing of the character and integrity of these athletes nor what they endured under doc's tenure.
I have nothing but praise for the administration who addressed this issue quickly so that we can all move on rather than drag out this process over the next two or three years.
Excellent article Bob! There is a serious problem up there on the hill and has been for awhile. I am not sure if many former athletes trusts the administration anymore, especially the handling of Coach Ostanik debacle. Bottom line is, UAF athletic dept. has severed a lot of ties to Alaskans that actually cared/care about Alaska and the U.
I disagree with AkHockeyFan about Kerr needing to go. A five-time NBA champion, he has done a great job as president/GM of basketball operations for one of the hottest NBA teams in the country, the Phoenix Suns. There might be some question about trading Shawn Marion for Shaq this year, but that certainly isn't enough for the Suns to follow AkHockeyFan's advice and let Steve Kerr go. Go Suns!
(oh yeah, and go Nooks!)
Do you not get it....the facilities for basketball suck, it is a horrible place to play and kids just don't want to come here. You are dreaming if you think a major sport can suceed here without major $$$$
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