What's the best job in sports? A first base coach in baseball has little pressure. An NFL punter seems like a cozy spot, or a third string quarterback. There's not a lot expected out of a middle reliever in the big leagues. Of course, head coach at a Division III school's not a bad racket either.
Think about it. You're head coach of the sport you love. You get to deal with kids who are intelligent, love the sport enough to play it without incentives or pipe dreams of a pro career, and you make enough money to live a comfortable life. Oh yeah, you have pretty nice job security.
In the 20 years that Athletic Director Bill Gehling has been at Tufts as both a coach and administrator, he has never seen a coach get fired for not winning. And that doesn't mean coaches here haven't won. Tufts is far from residing in the basement of the NESCAC, but it's not exactly the toast of the conference either. There have been Tufts teams that have spent some serious time looking skyward in the standings, but all their coaches have lived to tell about it.
And maybe that's okay. Maybe it is good that at Tufts, coaches aren't so pressured to win that they have to buy cars for recruits or take tests for star players. Maybe it's nice to live in a sporting environment where winning isn't the end all. But where do we draw the line between creating a positive, healthy environment, and rolling over to competition?
"I don't want to understate the importance of winning," Gehling said. "But it is important to put winning in perspective. For us, striving to win is more important."
It's a thin line Gehling draws, the difference between winning and striving to win. It is the same message that is printed in his department's mission statement, but what does it mean? How does it affect the coach, and how does it affect the players? Finally, how does it affect the fans?
For coaches, it is probably positive that their performances as members of the athletic department are not evaluated solely on winning percentage. Rather, Gehling looks at a number of other aspects when evaluating his staff. He looks at how the players on the coach's team are doing academically and socially. He takes into account the coach's professionalism on and off the court, whether the coach is a team player in the department, and whether the coach is always trying to improve.
"Personally, I've never felt pressure from the athletic director to win," men's basketball and golf coach Bob Sheldon said. "They put pressure on me to do the right thing, graduate kids and things like that. Pressure to win comes from me and the players. I think that's the way it should be."
For the players, this attitude of striving to win being more important than winning itself is two-sided. On one hand, it allows players to keep up with the rigorous demands of being a Tufts student and a Tufts athlete because a coach can allow more flexibility for a player. On the other, though, it can promote mediocrity, as players realize that no matter how the team finishes one year, the personnel will be the same next season.
As fans, we would probably like to see some coaches get fired. Don't take this the wrong way, there isn't a list of coaches that should be shown the exit. I think, though, that the firing of coaches and the hiring of a few more competitive coaches would improve the athletic department.
In this case, though, the sentiment of the fans must take a backseat. Sure it would make things more interesting if coaches were at risk of losing their jobs, but it wouldn't make Tufts a better place. Some teams would win a few more games, which would be appreciated, but Tufts would lose its special status as a haven for those passionate about both school and athletics. In the end, it would tip the balance too much in favor of athletics, an ailment of most Division I schools. We may not compete in the big time, and we may not even beat Williams very often, but at least we can call our players "student-athletes" and not feel ashamed.
"We could fire coaches, but that's the problem with Division I," Gehling said. "Then you get coaches behaving in a way that's not what Tufts is about."
In this matter, the athletic department is right. It understands that Tufts should always strive to improve, and that it's demoralizing for players and fans to lose on a consistent basis, but nevertheless winning is not everything.
It comprehends these things and works to make sure that the department doesn't become complacent and at the same time doesn't emphasize winning over providing student-athletes with a quality education. Just because the women's soccer team finished second in the nation last year doesn't mean Gehling wasn't working over the summer with coach Martha Whiting to find ways to further improve the program.
At the same time, though, Gehling realizes that his coaches are dealing with student-athletes, not paid athletes, on a campus that doesn't have to win basketball games to feel better about itself.
And in the end, that's the way things probably should be.
