Good Coaches Must Prove It With Record

By most accounts, Tom McCloskey is a fine basketball coach. Infive seasons at Riverside-Brookfield, he was well-liked, taughtplayers more than basketball, stressed fundamentals and representedthe school with honor.

"He could relate to us," senior captain Matt Howe said. "Hetaught us a lot of things, like perseverance - never quitting - thatwill help us later on."

What McCloskey didn't do was win. With McCloskey as head coach,Riverside Brookfield went 14-11, 11-15, 11-14, 4-21 and 4-20.

That record might get a college coach fired after the fourthseason.

On the high school level, where character development andparticipation have been more important than winning, a losing recordgenerally has not been good enough reason to dismiss a coach.

But such idealism isn't that prevalent anymore. Even in highschools, you have to win to survive these days.

And McCloskey knows it too well. He was fired after thispast season.

"It's the American way. Everybody wants to succeed,"Homewood-Flossmoor athletic director Ken Shultz said. "In somecommunities the expectations are higher than in others."

Surrounded by good basketball programs in the south suburbs,Homewood-Flossmoor doesn't expect to win every year, but did expectto win more than it had under Horace Howard.

Howard, who posted five seasons of mediocre records, was firedafter the 1992-93 season.

Howard, the school's assistant athletic director, is a qualitycoach and "one of the nicest people I know," Shultz said. But Shultzdid not feel the program was headed in the right direction.

"Sometimes people think, `That guy got released because hedidn't win.' But that's a very simplistic way to look at it," Shultzsaid. "There are many factors. Like the continuity of the program -does the head coach have his staff buying into his offense anddefense so they can develop from the sophomore level to the varsity?We want a take-charge guy who will look at the entire program and notjust the varsity. When you don't see that, you look to make achange."

But the bottom line is the desire to win. And while winningmight not be everything, on any level it counts for something.

"This is an education business, not a basketball business,"Glenbrook North athletic director Jim Bloch said. "But we need to besuccessful. It reinforces all the principles we're trying to teach:work hard, stay focused, think `We' not `I' and commitment.

"A single (poor) season should not (be reason to changecoaches). But over a long period of time, it could be an indication that something more isgoing on. Any athletic director worth his weight will look at anumber of contributing factors, one of which is leadership."

It would be naive to believe coaches could lose year after yearand not put their jobs in jeopardy. But it also depends on where youare.

At Proviso East, with its great tradition and outstanding talentyear in and year out, a couple of 11-14 seasons would have a coach introuble, let alone a couple of McCloskey's four-win seasons.

But at places that don't get the great athletes or don't havethe tradition - like Riverside-Brookfield - should coaches have towin to keep their job?

"Absolutely not," Niles West athletic director Jerry Turry said."The whole purpose of high school sports is to educate. It hasnothing to do with winning or losing. The purpose is to learn how tofocus and set goals and take small steps necessary to attain thosegoals, which might include winning.

"But I don't think we should ever make judgments on retention of coaches based on records. The minutewe do that, we buy into the professional model. With all that comesthe phantoms - the cheating and win-at-all-costs. All the values godown the tubes."

Turry believes he has the support of his community.

Niles West, an area power in basketball in the 1960s and 1970sunder Billy Schnurr, is 69-151 in coach Tom Meyer's nine seasons -including records of 4-20, 2-22 and 9-15 the last three seasons.

"But no one has ever called for his job, except one guy," Turrysaid. "The parents really feel the direction is right and what he'sdone for their young man is the right thing. It would be great towin, but that's not the only reason our team was put out on thefloor."

Glenbard West hasn't had a winning basketball season since1980-81 and is 16-84 the last four seasons under coach Don McGee.But athletic director Blaise Blasko doesn't feel pressure to make achange.

"No doubt winning is important," Blasko said. "But at GlenbardWest we're interested in the development of the individual from theeducational side. We have quality coaches and they do an excellentjob of getting the best out of their athletes."

Besides, Meyer and McGee are respected in their field and areproven winners. They have won with talent.

Meyer's Oak Park team reached the Elite Eight in 1976 and McGeecoached Wheaton Central to the Elite Eight in 1981.

But sometimes making a change does make a difference.

Brother Rice fired longtime basketball coach Will Kellogg (477victories in 28 years) in 1989 after an 8-17 season. New coach PatRichardson, then 28, rejuvenated the program, building up the summercamp and recruiting better players. Now the Crusaders have one ofthe area's top programs. They were 25-5 and won the sectional thisseason and should be rated among the area's top five teams nextseason.

In that situation and almost every other one like it, theoutgoing coach has his detractors as well as supporters. But inMcCloskey's case, the supporters overwhelm the detractors.

"He was very good for the school for a lot of reasons . . . forthe type of human being he is," said Gary Franks, whose son Jeremyplays basketball at Riverside-Brookfield. "Some kids said he was theonly reason they continue to play. In my opinion, it was allpolitics, and a very, very good man was hurt by it."

Riverside-Brookfield athletic director Doris Hardy insistsMcCloskey's record "had nothing to do with it. We don't hire orevaluate coaches on win-loss record."

But McCloskey finds that hard to believe. He has talked withHardy, the school board and the school administration and still hasnot gotten a clear explanation.

"If they would have told me it was because of my record, I wouldhave walked away," said McCloskey, 39. "But (the reasons) were veryvague. I still don't understand what went on. The athletic directorsaid my communication skills needed improvement. Some of the reasons(they gave) were my greatest assets as a coach."

Hardy was unwilling to shed any light on the subject.

"I believe coaching evaluations are personal and private andbetween the administration and the coach," she said. "Beyond that Ihave no comment."

McCloskey had the support of the community and the parents ofthe players. He even received a letter of encouragement from Indianacoach Bobby Knight (McCloskey is a friend of Indiana assistant RonFelling).

A recent hearing on the situation, at which about 125 parents andmembers of the R-B community got a chance to air their views to theschool's superintendent, principal and athletic director, drewoverwhelming support for McCloskey.

"It really was a shock (that McCloskey was fired)," said TimHowe, whose sons Dan and Matt played for McCloskey. "I haven't heardany negative comments from the community. The basketball program wasa project. As long as he handled the kids right and they wanted toplay for him, that was the important thing."

But that hearing produced nothing.

"We expressed the fact that we really liked coach McCloskey andbelieve in him," Franks said. "We asked a lot of questions but wegot no answers. We were stone-walled pretty much. We sort oflearned that schools don't have to tell us anything as parents or acommunity."

And that winning might not be everything, but it helps -especially if you are a coach.