Coaches wanted for the long haul

Athletic department is trying to transform the campus into a ‘destination institution.’

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Updated 1:28 PM Sunday, June 12, 2011

By Pete Conrad

Staff Writer

OXFORD — Miami University is trying to tweak its image as the Cradle of Coaches.

The process has been in full swing for the past couple of years. It revolves around a few of the school’s key coaching jobs and making them more attractive in a market that is loaded with blockbuster budgets.

Over the years Miami’s wealth in the big business of college sports could be counted more in terms of tradition — with its reputation as the Cradle of Coaches — than in cash flow.

People who otherwise would swear that Miami University is nestled among the palm trees of Florida know better, because it has been drilled into the consciousness of college sports fans that Ara Parseghian, Thad Matta, Bo Schembechler and dozens of other famous coaches of the past and present achieved that fame after spending time in Oxford.

Sweet but short

But there is a catch, always has been. At some point these budding Hall of Famers on the Miami campus pack their bags, wave one last time and head for U.S. 27.

Often the departure takes place after the coach has toiled for only a brief time at Miami. Woody Hayes was the head football coach in Oxford for two seasons before moving on to greater glory with the Buckeyes.

That’s where the term “destination institution” comes in. Miami athletic director Brad Bates likes the thought of hiring coaches for the long haul.

“A lot of what we’re trying to do is identify people who can see Miami as a place they want to stay for a long time and develop a championship program that’s nationally competitive,” Bates said.

“So in some ways, (the Cradle of Coaches reputation) runs antagonistic to that objective and evolution,” he said. “Certainly the history of coaches coming here, having success and having opportunities beyond Miami is lucrative to them ... We’re trying evolve as much as possible toward being a destination institution.”

Bates said the RedHawks have done exactly that in several sports.

“We have coaches on our staff, particularly those who are Miami graduates such as Rico Blasi, Maria Fantanarosa, Pete Lindsay and Charlie Coles, who have demonstrated that this can be a destination institution,” he said.

Those demonstrations have taken practical forms.

• Blasi has coached hockey at Miami for 12 years, guided the RedHawks to two straight NCAA Frozen Fours and came within a whisker of winning a national championship in 2009.

• Fantanarosa has been women’s basketball coach for 13 years and led the team to its first-ever NCAA Tournament berth in 2008.

• Lindsay has coached men’s swimming for 25 years and has been named Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year six times.

• Coles has coached men’s basketball for 15 years and took the RedHawks to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1999.

Donors lend a hand

Still, near the end of the last decade there was the cold reality that Miami’s coaching salaries were at the lower end of the MAC pay scale.

In 2008, Shane Montgomery’s salary as head football coach was $181,325, which did not compare favorably to his conference colleagues.

Finally, Miami’s athletic administration took action.

When Michael Haywood replaced Montgomery as Miami’s football coach in 2009 his base salary was $300,000, and although that still ranked near the bottom of the MAC, it was a dramatic increase.

Last season, after Haywood led the RedHawks to the MAC championship and then made the fateful decision to accept the Pittsburgh job, Don Treadwell became the new coach and the football salary was boosted even further, to $400,000.

Bates is careful to point out that the additional money did not come from the university budget.

“We’ve been very, very fortunate because we’ve got some alums and donors who’ve made substantial financial commitments to invest in what we refer to as our coaching investment fund,” Bates said, “and that investment has allowed us to keep some of these really talented coaches and to attract some of these really talented coaches.”

A boost for Blasi

Blasi was one of the talented coaches Miami wanted to keep.

He has worked wonders on the ice, taking the RedHawk hockey program into uncharted territory. But his salary a couple of years ago was $140,000. Among fans, the fear arose that other schools might offer him at least twice that.

Miami made the decision that Blasi was a treasure worth keeping. Donors who felt the same way came through big time.

Earlier this year, Cox Media Group reported in its Insight edition that Blasi’s total compensation of $495,917 in 2010 made him the highest-paid public employee in Butler and Warren counties. Last month, the Business Courier in Cincinnati reported that Blasi was the fourth-highest paid public official in Greater Cincinnati, behind only University of Cincinnati football coach Butch Jones, UC men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin and Dr. Ronald Sacher, director of the Hoxworth Blood Center.

Blasi’s total is a little misleading because his contract was being restructured during that year.

According to Jason Lener, Miami deputy director of athletics who oversees the athletic budget, “that was at a time when we crossed over contractual years. There was some retroactive pay that was owed to him.”

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