Tom Thumbs Down: Part I of II

What bothers me most about the hiring of Robert Burke was not the fact that he was hired – it is the manner in which it was done.

To be clear, Brion Dunlap is my guy; I was rooting for him to be head coach and I was disappointed that he didn’t get it.

And as long as Dunlap couldn’t get the job I’m sincerely pleased with the choice President Thomas H. Powell made in hiring Burke.

But I am taking this time to address the issues of inequality at Mount St. Mary’s and the lack of reverence for its history, namely in the basketball program.

Notice I did not say that it was a choice the school, the athletic department, or even athletic director Lynne Robinson made – it was Powell. He told us this himself at Burke’s introductory press conference.

“Little did I think when I was one* that I would get to select the next basketball coach. But I did. And thanks to the group of advisers,” Powell said.

*Powell’s reference to when he was one year old indicates his age the last time the Mount had to do an extensive search for a men’s basketball coach. Milan Brown was brought in as a “coach-in-waiting” under previous president, the late George Houston.

Notice how he said “I did” and refers to the rest of the search committee as “advisers”.

And I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with his self-righteous selection process if any one of the following things were true:

-Powell was the athletic director

-Powell had been around Mount St. Mary’s for most of his life such as athletic director Lynne Robinson

-Powell didn’t have a history of making ego-influenced decisions (just listen to the press conference)

-Powell knew anything about high-level basketball, other than how to keep score

Unfortunately, none of these things are true.

Therein lies the root of the problem that is Powell’s ego.

Except for rare, particular circumstances (none of which exist at the Mount) the president of a university should not be the one who actually chooses the coach. Should he oversee the process? Approve the committee’s selection? Even have the ability to veto its choice with good cause? Yes, yes and yes.

But what about the athletic director? What about Robinson?

Maybe you’ve heard of her. She went to the Mount and her last name used to be Phelan. She knows a few things about Emmitsburg. In fact she actually played basketball at the Mount.

So what would your reaction be if I told you that she didn’t even have a say in the process? Well she didn’t; ask anyone in the athletic department who was around for the search.

That metaphorical bone Powell threw her in the press conference was nothing but a smokescreen:

“We have a superb director of intercollegiate athletics,” said Powell, who postured for her supposed role in the process throughout the entire press conference.

She should be commended for the manner in which she bit her tongue and raised the corners of her lips to produce a believable smile that day. After all, this was supposed to be her big moment. Her legacy could have been linked to the new coach at the Mount – and it still will be – but unfortunately for her she had little to do with it.

Maybe she would have still chosen Burke, who as I said many times, looks to be a great choice on all accounts. (Again, the selection itself of Burke troubles me none.)

I can only imagine what it must have been like for her to sit through the interviews and other components of the selection process dictated by her boss – an outsider who has spent a fraction of the time at the Mount that Robinson has.

Surely that was a disappointing experience for the woman who may not have another chance to choose the head coach of the school’s staple athletic program, but it could not have equaled the sting she must have felt when Powell used the interviews with candidates to insult her father, Jim.

Jim Phelan, of course, has 830 career wins and holds NCAA records for the most games and seasons coached at one school. His retired “jersey” – the first of its kind in Knott Arena, now joined by those of two of his former players – overlooks the court that bears his name and the trademark bowtie that he always donned on the sidelines.

How difficult it must have been for her to inconspicuously pick her pride – let alone her jaw – off the floor of the room in which candidates were interviewed when Powell had this to say:

“I want to distance the men’s basketball program from Jim Phelan.”

That’s paraphrasing of course – not an exact quotation. But according to multiple candidates who interviewed for the job (none of which was Dunlap, who I did not speak to for this piece), Powell expressed to them that he was looking for someone who could take the program away from the legendary coach’s aura.

To suggest to even one (or in this case more) of the six interviewees that you were no longer interested in having the program associated with the man who put it on the map – Phelan – is embarrassing. In fact if Powell resigned this summer, you would hear little in the way of objections for a myriad of reasons.

The school would not even be an NCAA Division I institution if it were not for Phelan. So how ironic was this statement from Powell in the press conference?

“One of the nation’s smallest Division I programs, it’s Division I in every sense of the word. It’s Division I because we have great student-athletes, it’s Division I because we have a superb director of intercollegiate athletics and it’s certainly Division I when you look at the caliber of our coaches,” Powell said.

And how brazen was it for his wife to be seated next to Phelan? Mr. and Mrs. Powell surely do not communicate well as she did not get the memo about distancing herself from Phelan. And Powell must’ve forgotten his own motives when he said this to announce Phelan to everyone in the room:

 “Of course we have the coach of coaches inducted into the basketball hall of fame with us right here, coach Phelan. Coach Phelan stand up.”

Yack!

Someone get this man an academy award. Or a polygraph.

Part II (the better half) of Tom Thumbs Down to be posted tomorrow

Multiple attempts were made to contact Powell via telephone (where he was not reached as I later learned he was in New York for business) and via e-mail. He accepted an e-mail request one week ago, May 26, for an interview regarding the contents of this piece but did not subsequently make himself available.

A job interview journey from hell/D.C.

I had such a horrific experience traveling to a job interview last week that I couldn't help but share it with you all. This is purely for the purposes of your entertainment and my future recollection. I've ****ed out the name of any important people and locations, but I think you'll enjoy the story nonetheless. Feel free to comment, and more importantly, let me know if you found a job for me. Happy Tuesday.


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When the recruiter told me on the phone that my interview would be taking place at 9:30 a.m. at a restaurant on the corner of 3rd & Penn in Washington, D.C., I knew I was in for a real treat.


Not only was I going to have the grand opportunity of experiencing the district traffic in its finest hour known as the rush, but I would also be ending up somewhere along Pennsylvania Avenue on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. Surely they were testing me.


To read the sequence of events that led me to be 40 minutes late for my interview despite sitting at a light near 3rd & Penn at 9:10 a.m. is one thing, but to experience the tumultuous journey through our nation's capital that so ruined my punctual reputation with this potential employer was a complete other.


I planned to leave my apartment at 7:15 a.m. giving me two hours and 15 minutes to make my way through the hellish formula of morning rush hour + holiday weekend traffic. By setting my alarm for 6 a.m. I figured that 75 minutes would be plenty of time for me to have a bowl of cereal, cook my world famous egg sandwich, chug some water to stay hydrated (but not too much because I didn't want to have to make any pit stops, let alone harbor an awkward where's-the-nearest-bathroom face for the duration of the interview) and get dressed in my shirt and tie before I was out the door.


On the surface that all sounds like a great plan. The only problem was that somehow I slept through my trusty alarm and found myself rolling over in bed and staring at the clock, which read 7:12 a.m. Fortunately for me I set that bad boy six minutes fast, so I had nine minutes to brush my teeth and get dressed if I were to remain on schedule. This meant that I would have to blow some money on a McDonald's breakfast - a last resort if I ever had one.


I didn't check the time on my way out of the apartment but I left somewhere between 7:15 a.m. and "Oh, s***, I think I forgot something but I definitely don't have time to go back now." What I did not forget, however, was my flash drive that contained my resume and references. The plan was to run by the beautiful college campus in Emmitsburg known as Mount St. Mary's University, stop in a computer lab and print the two documents. I parked my car - gasp! - on a campus street with no flashers as I ran toward the computer lab in Lower McGowan. As my luck would have it, my MountCard no longer granted me access to this luxurious little room full of watered-down computers. I sprinted out of the depths of McGowan's lower area across the street (without looking either way!) and into the academic center (or AC, as we fondly refer to it.)


Mind you I was doing nothing wrong (except for the parking tidbit) because I'm still a student at the Mount and have access to these things. Or am supposed to. And that is why my frustration grew when I joyfully found a computer lab on the first floor unlocked, only to receive matching error messages on multiple computers saying the printer could not be reached. I was able to reach the printer just fine, thank you, simply by walking across the room. Unfortunately the computer didn't have that ability and somewhere between the 1998-looking Dell desktop and the mammoth-dwarfing printer in the corner of the room, my document got caught up.


No resume - no problem! At least that's what I tried to convince myself for the next 30 minutes down the road. By the time I hit U.S. 270 South I was already refocused on what I anticipated to be a gauntlet of poor drivers all making their way south for the final day of the work week. I was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which I made my way past the southern part of Frederick and into Montgomery County.


Before I knew it (literally, I had no idea) I was on the outskirts of Barack's neighborhood and sniffing 3rd & Penn. Karen, my properly-named GPS navigation device, told me I would get to my destination by 9:09 a.m. at that pace. Pleased by our progress I asked her for directions to the nearest Kinko's and she dutifully complied. For only $0.25 of parking and $0.44 more for the deed to be done, I was handed my resume - printed on paper that came from the most prestigious of the oak tree genealogy - and my references - on a slightly less distinguished form of tree paper. I was back in the car in a wink and Karen said we were still due to arrive around 9:14 a.m. as I was less than two miles away.


And just about the time that I thought everything was going my way despite my oversleeping, Karma rolled out of bed from her Thursday night slumber and made my morning a living hell. As I made my way down some random road in the downtown district I noticed two "flex lanes" in the middle of this six-lane road. Fortunately for me they were being utilized in the direction I was traveling, making it a four-land road on my side as opposed to two or three. That would have been spectacular if it were not for the lack of notice when the road changed back to three lanes per side.


I must have missed the memo at one of the lights while the person headed right for me in the same lane clearly did not. Assuming that I was at fault, as a gentleman always should in these situations, I cut off a cab driver about two feet to my right and six inches behind my rear bumper. He was none too pleased, especially as the next light we approached turned red. I am sure, though, that the person whose day/life I was about to hit head on (literally) was quite appreciative of my heady decision.


Speaking of red lights, I did not remember their exact purpose for a split second in my hectic travels and realized it before it was far too late, AKA as I was sitting in the middle of the intersection pretending to interview myself. As I was too far up to back behind the line now, I gunned the accelerator and narrowly escaped the wrath of a puke-Peach colored Grand Marquis looking P.O.S. model that came as close to my back bumper as the aforementioned cab driver. Relieved by this avoidance, I nearly flattened an unwitting pedestrian in my path. That would have been triply unfortunate if you consider that he was wearing a nice suit, and that I likely would have been charged with vehicular manslaughter of some sort.


With the blood rushing fresh out of my heart, because it had to shrink after all if it was to remain in my throat, Karen and I made our last turn onto Pennsylvania Avenue. I called my prospective interviewer with the news that I was almost there (at 9:26 a.m.) and she told me that it was no problem, just find a place to park and she'll help me walk to the restaurant where we were supposed to meet.


I went around the block and turned back onto 4th street unable to find any parking. Returning to the light at which I called the interviewer - via speakerphone, didn't want to break the district phone law - and faced the Capitol building, I made a left onto 3rd Street. As I was trailed closely by another driver I had little time to slow down and check to see if the two ramps I was about to pass were parking garages. Indeed they were, but I missed them both. Calm as ever under pressure I confidently turned onto the third ramp knowing I would find a place to park only to read a sign that said "395 South".


As I'm pretty sure they were fresh out of parking on the highway I sped a mile down to the next exit and began making my way back to the intersection that I so doggedly pursued just minutes before. It was now approaching 9:45 a.m. and I called the interviewer again to tell her that I was essentially screwed and would get there as soon as possible. She didn't sound pleased.


The only thing I had going for me was the confidence that I could turn back into one of the first two parking garages I missed and be on my way to the interview. By the time I got back to that part of the city and smooth-gunned it down the ramp, I found three cops waiting for me, one of them with a detection contraption that tells them if I'm hiding a bomb or something under my car (I wasn't). I soon realized this was no regular parking garage, and so much was confirmed when the polite lady officer (all I could think of now was Lil' Wayne) asked me if I was there to visit someone since this was so obviously exclusive parking for government employees.





I told her unless Obama is trying to play some golf at Burning Tree I need to find a public parking garage and get to my job interview. She ever so kindly helped me back out into the road and sent me on my way to a public garage two streets up. I was thrilled to find upon entering that I would have to cough up $12 of my hard-earned money from Village Liquors to enter the garage. Not only that, but when I finally found a space they required me to leave my keys on the front seat of my unlocked car. Awesome parking system they had going there. Charge someone $12 for the opportunity to have their car stolen, although it wouldn't really be stealing because everyone there is stupid enough to pay a bunch of non-college graduates $12 to hold onto their keys in their unlocked car in a public parking garage downtown in a major city. Awesome system.


To add insult to injury - of myself and very nearly a few others - the interviewer called me as I was on the bottom floor of the garage where I had no signal. The only thing she probably heard from me was a string of expletives directed at my phone, which she probably had a hard time distinguishing, much like Becca in Superbad when Evan calls her before making his way to the party.


As I waited in the garage elevator hitting the send button like I was on a turret shooting at terrorists, a polite man gave me directions to the restaurant for which I was searching. I followed his instructions, so I thought, and literally sprinted through the city heading back to 3rd & Penn via the advice my good friend in the elevator offered. Three minutes, two sweaty sleeves and a messed-up hairdo later, I asked another lady cop where the hell I was going. She wasn't too sure herself - of the question or the answer, I'm sure - so she directed me to a taxi haven across the block. I ran through some fancy-looking courtyard that I owe some new flowers and branch repair on a bush.


I almost put my iPod in and cued some theme music to add to the drama as it was now after 10 a.m. - but I was doubly disappointed when I realized that not only did I not have my iPod on me, but it was also sitting on the front seat of my unlocked car in the bottom floor of a public garage ran by a bunch of thirty-something former juvenile delinquents who were not the most fluent speakers of the English language I had met in the last hour. So I scrapped the background music.


I was hoping to jump through the window of one of these cabs while shouting out directions as if my bleeding, dying, pregnant wife was with me, but I'm not even married so I just opened the back door and, with little in the way of the ability to breathe, said something along the lines of "Job interview. Late. Third and Penn. Extra tip."


"Third northwest or third southeast," my friend Amir asked me.


"Huh?" I responded.


"There's a third northwest and a third southeast - which one do you need?"


"Well @#$^! !#$^#^ m@#$^#%#$ f(%$# a@^## s*&^(^&*!!!! I guess whichever one the ********* restaurant is at."


"I never hear of ******* restaurant."


"Well holy $%#@, Amir. All I know is someone said something about Union Station."


"We go."


I told him I had already successfully ran a red light - albeit accidentally - and that he was permitted to do the same. He didn't give much of a response to that comment but I took some pride in the fact that he destroyed multiple yellow lights - and nearly someone else's rear bumper - with exquisite use of the pedal on the right.


About seven minutes and 41 seconds later we arrived at the intersection 3rd Street Southeast & Pennsylvania Avenue. I'll give you one guess as to which end of 3rd Street I spent a good portion of my district visit circling.


"There it is," Amir said.


Sure enough, there was the sign that read ********** restaurant. My tab came to $5.25. Seeing as he took my advice on the lights and that I was feeling a little generous, I threw the odd couple of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Washington on his front seat and told him to keep the change.


"Careful! Be slow!" he warned me as I leaped from the car like a frog on FGH and sprinted across the street - again without looking, probably not as prudent of a decision in the district as it is on campus at the Mount - and bolted through the front door with the expectation that everyone inside was awaiting my arrival. In some ways I feel as if they were since the lady who greeted me pointed upstairs when I got there. I didn't have time to ask how she knew who I was or why I was there - I've come to expect this precognitive knowledge from complete strangers.


As I made my way to the back of the second floor of the restaurant like I had an appointment with destiny or John Gotti, I ever-so-subtly patted my hear down and said a prayer that my nose was clean all the while feeling the moistness of fresh sweat on my arms from my Washington, D.C., triathlon. I introduced myself to the infinitely patient yet visibly perturbed interviewer.


"Hi, I'm Brad Gerick."


"I'm ****** - what happened?!"


Well now you know.

Speculation on Burke's staff / Burrell semi-update / Mount marriages

As far as I can tell, Mount basketball head coach Robert Burke is close to officially naming the rest of his staff. What we already  know is that Matt Henry, the former director of basketball operations at Georgetown, is on staff and has already been at work in the office. We also know that Sam Atupem is on staff in some form for the time being. On the camp brochures littered around the ARCC earlier this month, Atupem was listed as the contact person for sign-ups.


That leaves two positions remaining, which may have already been filled. It is possible that Burke already has his men and just has not taken the time to announce them, but allow me to speculate anyway.


There are two important items to consider and both point to June 1 as an important date. June 1, for one, is the date at which all of the staff from the Milan Brown era will no longer be on payroll at the Mount. Despite being formally announced as assistants as Holy Cross, not everyone from Brown's staff - Brion Dunlap, Kevin Robinson Jr. and Dan Engelstad - are off the books in Emmitsburg yet.


The second important tie to June 1, and one that has been mentioned here before, is the fact that it is the date when summer classes begin for undergraduate classes at Mount St. Mary's, and the date that Burke stated in his introductory press conference that he hoped to have named at least some of his staff to begin getting acclimated with the players. With Henry and Atupem already in place, he may have satisfied that goal in his mind and be in no rush to fill the final two positions. But I would still think that Burke is taking a "sooner the better" approach and will name his assistants very soon.


As recently as last week interviews were still being conducted to fill the final two spots. Additionally, some of the candidates, if not all, had been given game film from past Mount St. Mary's games and asked to scout both the Mount and the opponent for that game, then to send the scout back to Burke.


Now comes perhaps the most interesting information regarding the salary of these assistants. I will preface this information by saying that we do not know which two positions the remaining candidates are competing for (i.e. first assistant, second assistant, third assistant) because those positions may no longer exist at the Mount. What I mean is that the assistants may not be tiered - the three assistants under Burke could all be on the same level salary-wise.


There was either a clause in Burke's contract or a bit of finagling in the aftermath that granted him a pool of money - rumored to be a sum of $145,000 - $160,000 - that he will be allowed to split up as he chooses - in this case evenly - among his staff. The benefit I see to this is that he can offer three positions with respectable pay and have a relatively deeper staff as opposed to going strong for a proven first assistant, recruiting an up-and-comer for second and hoping to get lucky with a third (you know, in case a recent Duke point guard applies. Or something like that.)


Last I heard, which was before the holiday weekend, there were at least four candidates still fighting for the final two spots. Greg Paulus, of course, was still in the running. So was Duane Simpkins, an early-1990s player at Maryland and now three years into his head coaching job at St. Alban's High School in Washington D.C. A third nominee is Ahmad Dorsett, who is an assistant at Bowie State. And the final candidate of which I have knowledge is Harold Juluke, an assistant at Tulane.


Obviously I'm rooting for Paulus, but I don't know much about the remaining three candidates other than what I can find on the Internet. The only person who has been personally vouched for to me is Dorsett. I like the thoroughness that the process is undergoing and expect to see an announcement in the near future. If I hear anything I'll be sure to post it here.


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I'm even less confident in our ability to retain Justin Burrell than I was before. In addition to the hear-say that has been passed along, there is this:


Burrell was granted a partial release from the Mount weeks ago. Essentially this means that he can re-open his recruiting under the standard rules for every other school in the nation, except for the Mount. Because of the partial, and not full, release, Burke and his staff can still contact Burrell as much as they want as if he is still signed with the team, but he's not.


Considering the Mount has full access to the one-time top-priority recruit turned prized-signee turned more-urgent-than-ever-top-priority-recruit and he still hasn't re-committed to the Mount is troubling. If he isn't announced to be back with the Mount soon (as in two weeks ago) I would expect a school in a conference that is a level above the NEC's tier (AKA the bottom tier) to scoop him up with a late scholarship opening. And if he does not get any offers he likes in the near future he could just as easily enroll in prep school and potentially boost his stock even higher next year.


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Congrats to two Mount alumni on their recent marriages. Former Mount basketball player and current William & Mary assistant Jamion Christian was recently married in Hawaii while former Mount golfer turned head coach of the same team, Kevin Farrell, was married on campus Saturday and is spending his honeymoon in Puerto Rico this week.

Former MU post Travis Taylor could join Rice at Rutgers

As was reported on Monmouth's athletics Web site, rising junior forward Travis Taylor will be leaving the Hawks in order to "further enhance his chances of playing in the NBA" as Monmouth coach Dave Calloway stated in the blog.


Taylor, who, along with Quinnipiac's reigning player of the year, Justin Rutty, was probably going to be the most proven returning post in the Northeast Conference thus far (the Mount's Raven Barber will undoubtedly be in that category after this season), was suspended for seven games last season for undisclosed reasons. I have two sources at Monmouth who told me when the incident was fresh last year, what exactly the violation was. It was not a trivial one and I'll leave it at that.


These same Monmouth connects also tell me what a Monmouth blog is already reporting today - that Taylor could be joining former Robert Morris head coach Mike Rice at Rutgers. This would be a very interesting reunion and Taylor would likely garner a lot of playing time for two reasons: 1. By Big East standards, Rutgers sucks (but probably not for long). So he shouldn't have to work as hard to climb up the depth chart as he would at say, Syracuse or Villanova. 2. Rice knows him well and wouldn't bring Taylor in unless he knew he could use him.


So by all accounts, it seems very likely that Taylor will be heading to Rutgers, although I feel bad for him if someone told him he's an NBA prospect. I'm sure he has a future in professional basketball, but not on this country's biggest stage.


As Calloway is in his contract year and has now lost the graduated Whitney Coleman, the transferring Taylor, as well as Dutch Gaitley and George Barbour, who both quit the team, you could definitely say he is on the hot seat. There was speculation that he would be fired at the end of last season if the Hawks did not win a game in the NEC tournament - they didn't - but just before the quarterfinals tipped off Monmouth's athletic director gave him a vote of confidence that he would not be let go.


With all that has gone on since then coupled with last year's turmoil and the fact that the school pumped millions of dollars into a beautiful new arena, Calloway would likely need a run deep into March to stick around if he's not given the hook before then.


They only disappointing twist in this story from a drama standpoint is that Taylor will have to redshirt the coming season season, and therefore will not be able to suit up for the Rutgers @ Monmouth matchup that will take place in the coming season. In my senior year (two years ago) and third year playing for the Mount men's golf team, Calloway was the starter on the first hole of the Monmouth Invitational, and that's when he told me that they would be playing Seton Hall in the opening season of the arena (last year) and Rutgers the next (the coming season.) I'm sure this is common knowledge around West Long Branch, N.J., but since I can't find it officially printed anywhere I thought I'd let you know where I heard that.


A New York Post story on Taylor from 1/9/10

Now Hiring: Kevin Jones ... Former walk-on has sights on coaching career

Kevin Jones - Mount Basketball Class of 2010

Hometown: Gloucester City, N.J.

Major: History

Minor: Sociology


Jones, a three-year walk-on member of the Mount men's basketball team, has not lost his passion for the game since his senior season ended. Although he will begin working for a financial firm this week, his dream is to be a basketball coach.

"I’ve been going to interviews and I just got a job at Wells Fargo," said Jones, who started his job based in Sewell, N.J., this week.

But Jones said the financial gig is just intended to earn money until he can pursue a coaching career.

"Eventually I hope to become a coach. That’s really like my first passion but as of right now I just got this job so I’m just kinda trying to do something to make a little bit of money," Jones said. "That’s my passion ... I want to eventually be a college coach."

Jones says that his dream would be to become an NCAA Division I head coach, although he acknowledged how difficult of a climb that would be.

"That’s not easy to do but I want to be in the coaching business; that’s my dream job and hopefully I can be a head coach in Division I," Jones stated. "It would be cool to come back to the Mount and coach, but definitely somewhere [NCAA] Division I basketball. I would say that in the next 10 years that would probably be my ultimate goal to be coaching somewhere in Division I basketball. It would always be nice to go back to your alma mater."

UPDATED 3:02 p.m.: BREAKING: Alvis, devastated, fired as Mount softball coach

UPDATE AT BOTTOM

Larry Alvis has been fired as head coach of the Mount St. Mary's softball team, and confirmed as much in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Alvis says the he was notified Tuesday that he would no longer be the coach at the Mount, but did not want to offer too many details on the process as he still hopes to retain his position.

"I’m shocked and devastated, yes. That’s the best words I can come up with. I don’t feel I did anything to deserve this," Alvis said. "I want to coach at Mount St. Mary’s. I thought I had the program going in a good direction. I don’t know if I have a chance of staying at the Mount but I would want to stay at the Mount. I don’t want to leave; I want to finish what I started. I would hope I would have some support."

According to a source familiar with the situation, Alvis was likely ousted by some members of the departing senior class as well as some anonymous letters sent to the school's administration, which Alvis also spoke about briefly.

"I’m not sure what the benefit of anonymous letters can [be to] anybody," Alvis said.

The source said that multiple players quit the team near the end of the season and that many of the class of 2010 team members gave negative reviews of Alvis in their exit interviews. The underclassmen, however, were surprised to learn of Alvis's firing and do not all share the same feelings as the seniors, according to the source. Alvis can only hope that this is true.

"I don’t believe I’ve ever done anything to harm anybody. They’re not accusing me of doing anything devastating," Alvis said. "Just ask my players I think they know."

Alvis sent the returning players a text message around noon Wednesday confirming to them that he had been released.

"This is hard for me to write but I’m no longer your coach at the Mount. If you have any questions call me," read the text message from Alvis.

Audibly shook and at a loss for words, Alvis expressed great remorse over the decision and hopes he has the chance to tell his side of the story.

"I was told that it possibly came out of [President Thomas H. Powell's] office. Well I think if the president’s heard some negative things I think the president should hear the positive side, too. Don’t listen to one side of the story and go from there. I believe there’s always two sides to a story," Alvis stated. "I haven’t seen anything yet in writing that tells me that I can’t address what’s my side. It just doesn’t seem right. I feel like I’m being – I love that job. I love working with the young ladies. This ain’t easy.

"I’m trying to figure out my method for what do I do at this point? I don’t want to leave Mount softball. I wish they would reconsider. I don’t want to leave."

The source also stated that after the school's administration received negative reviews on Alvis from the senior class, none of the underclassmen were asked their opinion on whatever allegations were levied against Alvis.

One returning player, speaking off the record, went as far as to defend Alvis on Wednesday:

"I don’t think he should have been fired," the played said.

Alvis also suspects that some of the aspects of the program that he inherited, as well as the impossibility of keeping everyone on the team happy, contributed to his release.

"You got to do what you got to do to keep the program going. And I feel like that’s part of what’s haunting me still is what I inherited and the weeding out process, so to speak. It takes time to get kids," Alvis said. "I don’t know how you can keep everybody happy. I feel like I’m being held accountable of keeping everybody happy and I don’t know how that’s possible. If you’re carrying 22 players, nine of them play. How many does that make that’s going to be unhappy? You do the best you can … but you try to win games also"

This season's team had a record of 25-25 overall including a 7-12 mark in Northeast Conference play, putting the team in seventh place out of 11 in the standings. After beginning the year 7-1 including a tournament championship at the UNC-Wilmington Seahawk Classic, the team stumbled to an 18-24 finish including losses in 11 of its last 15 games.

Rising junior Lizz Christiansen led this year's squad with single-season program records of 11 home runs and 50 RBI. She was also named the NEC's Defensive Player of the Year and a First Team All-NEC selection along with class of 2010 third baseman Amanda Buckel, while Christiansen's classmate Taylor Beebe earned second-team honors at shortstop.

An injury to ace pitcher Nicole Pagano hampered the team as well. The freshman, who had surgery mid-season, began the year 4-1 with a 1.20 earned-run average in five starts including one shutout.

In six years Alvis compiled a 109-175 record in six seasons as head coach. In 2006 - his second season at the Mount - the team went 31-25 and qualified for the NEC tournament for the first time since 1998, earning Alvis NEC Coach of the Year honors.

"I stand on my record – fastest coach to get to 100 wins, right? The program’s got the most wins it’s ever had under my tenure [in 2006]," Alvis said. "I was very proud of what those young ladies [who made All-NEC] did and two of them are coming back. I must be reaching some of them, right? ... I’m not the coach [anymore] but I’d like to be the coach."

Before coming to the Mount, Alvis served as an assistant for the softball team at his alma mater, UMBC.


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An excerpt from an e-mail sent at 1:37 p.m. Wednesday to the Mount softball players from Director of Athletics Lynne Robinson:


"Dear Members of the Mount St. Mary’s University Softball Team:

I am writing to inform you that Coach Larry Alvis will not be returning to Mount St. Mary’s as our head softball coach next season.

While we are grateful to Coach Alvis for his six years of dedicated service to the Mount, we will now begin the process of finding a new head coach. Our goal is to have a new coach hired by August 1^st."