Poll Open Thread: Coach under most pressure?

This post is to be used as an open thread for the most recent poll in the upper-right portion of the page. There are three choices, and they should be assessed in a vacuum. In other words, don't hold the fact that basketball is the top sport at the school against Burke, but analyze the other elements that directly affect the pressure on his tenure in specific. Same for Munday and Nagro.

Again, which of the Mount's three new coaches is under the most pressure to perform in their first seasons?

Robert Burke - Men's Basketball. Highest-paid coach in school history, strong resume as an assistant as a member of the staff at offensive juggernaut Siena, Big East power Georgetown, and most recently, respected Patriot League contender American. Burke is replacing the man, Milan Brown, who, by all accounts, was the most liked as well as the most successful at the Mount in the last five years. No sport won multiple NEC (or MAAC) titles in the last half-decade, but Brown was fortunate enough to win one. He is the only sport to notch an NCAA victory in that same window, albeit in a play-in game. As big-shoes-to-fill goes, Burke takes the cake.

Anna Nagro - Softball. She's only 24 years old (turning 25 in September). There's not much more to say there. Coming from D'Youville College in New York, Nagro has not been involved with an NCAA Division I program since her playing days at St. Bonaventure. While she may be a great coach, and we should all hope that she is, she replaces men's golf coach Kevin Farrell as the youngest at the school, is probably the youngest coach of any sport in the conference, and I bet she's one of the 25 youngest head coaches in any Division I sport in the country. Oh, and some of the softball players from last years team (returning and graduated players alike) ran the last coach, Larry Alvis, out in a revolt of sorts. This after they didn't sniff the playoffs (they've only made it once in the last five years.) Meet your team, Anna!

Lindsey Munday - Women's Lacrosse. See yesterday's post for my overblown rant on the main idea here - she comes to us from Northwestern. Not only was she the top assistant at arguably the greatest NCAA program in any sport of the last decade (she wasn't a coach for the entire decade) but she also played there. Twice she was a Tewaarton (think Heisman for lacrosse) semifinalist as a player. After Sonia LaMonica snagged the Towson job, which Munday also vied for, the Mount snagged Munday. Even with the third coach in as many seasons taking over the program, we may be better off with Munday than we ever could have been with LaMonica. I'm also hearing that she is well-compensated with an intricate, multi-year contract to boot. None of that, though, equals the pressure placed on her by President Thomas H. Powell, who laid this quotation down in the press release: "I am confident this dynamic coach will take us to the next level and bring home a national championship." If Munday does that, I'll be the first to buy her dinner and a drink at Ott's. Look at the bright side: At least Powell didn't say how soon he expects that national title. (Again, I like the ambition in the quotation, it's just a real pressure-cooker.)

Without further ado, please, comment to your heart's content.

Campaign for Jane: Part II of II

Read "Campaign for Jane: Part I of II" here.

The most telling move of all by the athletic department is the hiring of Anna Nagro as the softball coach, which has yet to be announced officially. (There must be a haggling over the terms of her contract – perhaps whether she’s allowed to park in the front row at the ARCC, or if she would be relegated to the lesser lot adjacent to the baseball field instead – because this blog reported her impending hire July 21.)

Regardless of whatever trivial matters are postponing her introduction as the next softball coach, her selection offers a myriad of reasons why Karger, by equal hiring standards, would be more qualified for the women’s lacrosse position than Nagro is for the softball position 10 times over.

This is not to say, again, that I do not support Nagro; I support Mount softball as much as any other sport at my alma mater. With respect to the new coach, though, let the comparisons begin.

Karger, I presume, turns 24, or perhaps even 25, this year, as she was one year ahead of me and I turned 23 last May. Nagro, I am sure, turns 25 next month. The age factor is a wash.

So, too, is their playing experience as both were prominent players in their respective sports at their own programs – Nagro being a former catcher at St. Bonaventure.

The differences, though, lie in coaching experience and relations to the Mount.

UPDATE: BREAKING: Nagro to be named new softball coach

Anna Nagro will be named the Mount softball head coach, a source tells Mount U.

The class of 2007 St. Bonaventure graduate comes to the Mount from D'Youville College in Buffalo. Although it's name sounds like something from a Dr. Seuss story in a parallel universe, D'Youville is a private institution in Buffalo, N.Y., where Nagro has been the coach since early February 2008.

Nagro, who is from Buffalo, played catcher and finished seventh all-time with the Bonnies in at-bats (422) and fifth in doubles (tied, with 23), home runs (eight) and RBI (65). She served as a team captain and was a physical education major at St. Bonaventure and then began pursuing her masters in sports administration from Canisius College while coaching D'Youville. It is unclear whether she completed her masters.

The hiring of Nagro will mean athletic director Lynne Robinson has met her self-imposed deadline of Aug. 1 for finding a new head coach.

The Spartans were in the North Eastern Athletic Conference for Nagro's first two seasons as coach before joining the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference for the 2010 season.

Nagro also served as an assistant athletics director and the senior women's administrator at D'Youville.

The position has been vacant since former coach Larry Alvis was fired by the school in late May due to apparent player complaints. Alvis left as the winningest coach in school history.

Update 7/22/10 - 8:14 a.m.:


Mount U has obtained an e-mail sent to the players regarding the hiring of Nagro. It was written by an athletic department administrator other than athletic director Lynne Robinson, who is on vacation.


Excerpts from the e-mail:


"I am excited to let you know that we have offered the Head Coaching position for softball to Anna Nagro and she has verbally accepted our offer ...


"I know this process may have taken longer than some of you may have anticipated but it is very important for us and the department to find the right person to lead our softball program.  We feel after receiving everyone’s input that was involved with the interview process and after conducting our due diligence with background and reference checks, we have the right person for the job.


"Once all of the final paperwork is complete, we will announce the hiring of Coach Nagro to formally introduce her as a member of the Mount community. We hope to have Coach Nagro on campus by the early part of August, but she will no doubt be contacting all of you in the near future."


Nagro will turn 25 on Sept. 23.