Wanted: A UM athletic philosophy

ORONO – While singular efforts have been made to begin the healing process needed for University of Maine athletics to recover from the roller coaster ride of 1993-94, more needs to be done.

Two of the principals in the series of events that plagued the university since last fall – athletic director Mike Ploszek and compliance officer Woody Carville – took themselves out of the mix by resigning and retiring. Others, one would expect, might move on.

Sitting in Ploszek’s office here during an interview on Tuesday, it was hard to believe that just a year ago – April 3, 1993 – the state was revelling in its first-ever national championship after the Maine hockey team had beaten Lake Superior State 5-4 for the NCAA Division I title.

UMaine was on the top of the heap for the first time ever, and we loved it. Later that month, the team was honored by President Clinton at the White House.

But the attendant notoriety of being a defending national champion we expected to continue into this school year was brought to a screeching halt in early fall with the discovery of NCAA eligibility problems in the hockey program. A scheduling error in women’s basketball and other athletic eligibility problems created by administrative error made matters worse.

In less time than it took for students to go through add and drop, their defending national championship year was badly bruised. Before they headed home for the Christmas, it was buried.

The lessons to be learned from this experience are many. Attention to detail is one. Teamwork is another. Knowing when to put other interests above your own is a third.

But the lesson we must pay most close attention to is this: Maine, know thyself.

We must ask: Who are we? What do we want? Where are we going? On this point, I agree with Michael Ploszek.

He learned, the hard way, that University of Maine athletics has no direction. He thought it did, but he was wrong. Ploszek thought he had the authority, when hired by interim president John Hitt, to prioritize UMaine athletics. He tried.

But when he attempted to re-focus certain programs, he “came to understand very quickly, philosophically, what the culture was about here,” Ploszek said Tuesday.

What he discovered was this: Not my kids. Not in my backyard.

There was no UMaine program he could touch without causing a rebellion. Each has its vocal and powerful proponents. That is what a new administrator will face if Maine does not face reality and face it now.

We have the time. We should take it. A year, perhaps. There are people who accept interim appointments during transitions. A year – more if needed – would give time for a collective dialogue on UMaine athletics in which we could all participate. Underline the all.

It is time, as Ploszek said, “for Mainers to step back and ask what it is we want to be.”

Ploszek found, in his travels throughout the state, that Maine people have a wide range of opinions on UMaine athletics that he believes should be heard.

“It has to be a collective decision,” he said. “We need to bring a very broad group to the table. Trustees, administrators, the people in this department, and members of the community.”

The only way a comprehensive athletic philosophy can be arrived at is if Mainers come to agreement. It is a tall order, but we must have consensus on this issue.

“The whole point is, if it is going to be successful, we all have to get into a critical mass,” he said. “We cannot have people out here at points on the horizon worried about their own programs. We need to prioritize.”

Ploszek believes that Maine people desire “participatory opportunities” for the young people they send to their state university.

The decision, now, is what those opportunties should be and at what level.

The people who can best answer those questions are the people who own the University of Maine. The decision cannot be left to the trustees alone.

It must be addressed by individuals from every walk of life, from every corner of this state, from every county. Leading private supporters need to be included in the process as do young men and women who look to their university to meet their educational and athletic needs.

A broad-based strategic planning committee, meeting in groups at the University of Maine System campuses, should gather information from their communities and funnel it to the trustees for a final concensus on the philosophy of Maine athletics.

We must work together, make the hard decisions, and then support those designated to carry them out.