Appreciation in word, not deed
Apr 15, 2009
Lee Fowler, the administrators he consulted at N.C. State, and the enabling business-as-usual types in the media got it wrong, wrong, wrong. There was only one conscionable way to show appropriate respect for the contributions made by Kay Yow, who put 34 years of her soul and very big heart into building and sustaining the Wolfpack women’s basketball program and those who participated in it.
N.C. State went in a different direction.
The obvious choice was to elevate Stephanie Glance, Yow’s longtime assistant, as her coaching successor. Glance worked alongside the much-lauded Yow through the Hall of Famer’s final battles on and off the court. Then she led a group of traumatized youngsters in the aftermath of their coach’s Jan. 24 death due to breast cancer.
There can be little doubt Glance earned an opportunity to carry on Yow’s work, or that the deceased coach, her players and family wanted her to get the job. "I just felt like, if she wanted to hire somebody as a head coach, that should have been done," Ronnie Yow, Kay’s brother, told Ken Medlin of WRAL.
Instead, Kellie Harper was hired away from Western Carolina to replace Yow. She comes to Raleigh with a handsome coaching resume and an even more impressive pedigree as a product of Pat Summitt’s Tennessee program. But, through no fault of her own, Harper’s arrival marks less a new beginning than a bitter ending, the betrayal of a legacy you can bet N.C. State will exploit to its advantage for years to come.
N.C. State’s failure to give Glance a chance will be portrayed as what's best for the future competitiveness and prowess of the women’s program. Harper has head coaching experience, while Glance does not, even if she shared the reins with Yow. Sentiment cannot dictate business decisions, the argument goes, and the choice of a coach for a high-profile team is very much a matter of dollars and sense.
That’s the sort of pernicious hogwash cited by Kentucky several weeks ago when it hired John Calipari as its head basketball coach for $31.65 million over eight years, pay even a Wall Street executive could live with.
Commenting on a similar contract Alabama proferred in early 2007 to land Nick Saban, UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart unabashedly lauded bloated coaching salaries as necessary tools for promoting victory and earnings. “I know they’ve had obviously some really strong success on the football field, and off the field it has helped solidify the brand of Alabama football,” Barnhart told AP. “From a revenue perspective, from a brand perspective, from recognition, it has certainly had an impact in those areas of bringing them back to the forefront of where they want to be.”
What those values have to do with higher education outside the confines of a business or marketing classroom -- or a campaign to boost a university endowment -- is anybody’s guess.
Yet even in business terms, the argument for sideline continuity was strong at N.C. State. Just ask Dino Gaudio, elevated to men’s basketball head coach at Wake Forest after the abrupt death of Skip Prosser in July 2007. “In unique cases like this, sometimes the best business is keeping things intact,” Gaudio said in a phone interview before the identity of Yow’s successor was known.
“Huge adversity, the staff and the kids have all gone through that together,” said Gaudio, who won 41 games in his first two years as head coach of the Demon Deacons. “There’s a unique understanding of what has occurred, everybody’s involvement with Coach Yow. It really ties everyone together.
“I think when you’re also dealing with someone as revered as she was – and I went through this with Skip – I always wanted him to be remembered. I always enjoy speaking about him, his contributions to the program. I never, ever felt threatened by that. All of a sudden, a new coach comes in and you have a chance of breaking all those ties.”
To his credit, Ron Wellman, the Wake AD, apparently understood those dynamics. Confronted with Prosser’s sudden death, he opted for continuity and cohesion. So far the results have been impressive; that Gaudio’s second season at the helm ended with a whimper rather than the expected bang is no tragedy.
Fowler and others in the Wolfpack's braintrust clearly have a different set of priorities than those demonstrated by Wellman in strikingly similar circumstances. Genuine loyalty and appreciation, and the best possible chance to assist the healing of those close to the long-sacrificing Yow, are apparently not as high on the list at N.C. State.
