Mike Ploszek: 3 crucifictions was enough

ORONO – On Good Friday, outgoing University of Maine Athletic Director Mike Ploszek, a devout Catholic, stopped at the Newman Center here to say a prayer. He looked up at the figure on the crucifix and realized that he could relate to Jesus’ persecution, although the circumstances were much different.

Sitting in the office he will occupy for another 10 days, Ploszek on Tuesday appeared as if the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders.

He made up his mind to step down as UMaine’s athletic director “a week ago Thursday,” he related during an interview with the Bangor Daily News.

The institution had been judged guilty of several NCAA violations, and a couple of his staff members, associate athletic director Anne McCoy and former compliance director Woody Carville, had accused Ploszek of intending to cover up a mistake by Carville that led to five graduate student-athletes being ruled ineligible. Carville told the student-athletes they needed six credits per semester when they actually needed eight under NCAA regulations.

First Carville, then McCoy, stated that Ploszek could have prevented two of the athletes from participating in events after he had learned of their ineligibility.

Ploszek has been cleared of wrongdoing by UMaine President Fred Hutchinson, independent investigator Stanley Tupper and university Chancellor J. Michael Orenduff. They felt that mistakes had been made due to misunderstandings and faulty communications.

McCoy charged that Ploszek wanted to cover up the situation and said Ploszek had told her he would plead ignorance if he were confronted before the chancellor got involved.

Ploszek vehemently denied that allegation Tuesday. “The truth of the matter is, and the thing that is so distrubing to me, is that every violation we found here, we reported it to the NCAA. I suggest people look at my history of self-reporting and compare my record to anyone’s. I spent more time in compliance than any AD they’ve ever had at Maine.”

But he felt he was locked in a “cartoon” that would never end.

Enough was enough.

“When everything reared its ugly head again and things began to get stirred up, that’s when I began to think about resigning,” said Ploszek. “What really triggered it was when I went home for lunch and I looked at my wife’s face. I thought `Nothing is worth this.’ I saw the anguish in her face. We had gone through it for the three weeks prior to that.

“I went through three crucifictions and three resurrections,” said Ploszek. “I really believe that. The back side is that I realized I was two ahead of The Big Guy. It was time to get out of town. Somebody had to offer themselves up at one point and I was the one.”

Ploszek acknowledged that he had a poor working relationship with McCoy, but he thought “we had worked things out so that things were better than they had been.”

Carville won’t be receiving a Christmas card from Ploszek, either.

“I was deeply disappointed that they placed their personal agendas before the overall good of the institution, the athletic department and our team in general,” said Ploszek.

Ploszek said that budget cuts totaling $700,000 during his regime had a “very substantial impact” on the situation at Maine. However, he refused to use that as an excuse.

“The budget cuts definitely influenced this, but the truth of the matter is, even with all the adversity, if everybody had done their jobs, a lot of these things could have been avoided,” stated Ploszek. “Some of them didn’t do what they were supposed to do. They let me down, but this isn’t about me. I’m just part of the wreckage. They let the institution down. They hurt the students.”

Ploszek isn’t sure about his future. He indicated that he may stay in athletics despite a “knee-jerk reaction” to get out. He may return to private business or start his own business, he said. If he starts his own business, he may do so right here.

He also said he thought his regime made some significant strides in bridging the gap between the university and the state in fund-raising and gender equity.

“We feel we did a lot to embrace the state. We brought the athletic program back to the state of Maine,” said Ploszek of the Maine coaches who have spent a lot of time speaking at schools and in communities throughout the state.

Ploszek and his staff implemented a reward system that presented middle school and high school students with free tickets to Maine games if they had perfect attendance or received straight A’s.

They also instituted the Maine Center for Coaching Education designed to help coaches improve various aspects of their profession.

He credited associate athletic director Mike Palisi with being instrumental in raising 70 percent more money, from $400,000 to just under $800,000, than was raised during his first year even though the economic climate has been “horrendous.”

As for gender equity, “Despite the budget cuts, we have plans in place to get it done,” he said. “We feel real good about the fact we’ve changed the attitude in terms of how we approach this. Women’s programs need to be given respect, resources and the things necessary to achieve their goals.”

Ploszek said Orenduff and Hutchinson are quality leaders. The next athletic director should be given the authority to do some housecleaning and bring in his or her own team, he said.

He also said the new AD and the administration needs to decide which programs are going to have priority based on tradition, resources and their value to the community.

“They can’t aspire to levels of national prominence in five major sports,” stated Ploszek.