Editor,
As an alumnus of Ohio University, I was glad to be back in Athens for OU's win against Miami in
overtime last Monday night. It was certainly a rare occasion lately that Bobcat fans, students, and alumni have had such a reason to rejoice. There are a few things that need to be said from an alumni point of view about the sorry state of Bobcat Athletics -
mainly its management and administration. I have no bones to pick with the players. I know they do their best. I used to be one of them myself.
Our lack of success comes down to one thing - poor leadership and management. Our two decent coaches have been fired or allowed to leave in both football and basketball. The Athletic Department has a poor record of hiring coaches untested at running successful programs elsewhere. Why are we not attracting top talent to coach our teams? The
department is more than happy to hire assistants from somewhere else at less money that haven't proven any success yet. We do not hire nor support the teams in the same manner as other schools in our conference. The fact that our swimming and track/cross-country programs men's and women's teams are both coached by one individual, shows an appalling lack of
commitment to the two most successful programs that we've had for the last 15 years. Other schools have a head men's and women's coach, and full-time
assistants and grad assistants. We don't!
The lack of a quality indoor facility in which our teams can train and compete in over the winter is a huge drawback to the success of almost every team on campus. Every other school in our conference has such a facility. I was at Capital University Thursday in Columbus (with a total student body the size of James Hall) and they have a modern indoor facility that all their teams were training on.
That and the mismanagement shown in removing the track from the stadium to lower the field and adding new seats and a new turf field (TWICE) leads us to believe that our athletics program is dead from the neck up with no vision or direction, while the body furiously tries to keep up with our opponents.
Oh, and one more thing, not asking or involving the students and alumni in the decision to change our school logo was a brilliant move too! President Glidden, on your way out the door of Ohio University, please take Thomas Boeh and the attack cat logo with you!
Washington, D.C
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