Coach Fedora—Problems in Paradise
I’m dealing with a problem within my assistant coaching staff. After playing college basketball, Eugene Wallace, my 1st assistant coach, graduated but didn’t find a job and had no goals. He lived hand to mouth doing odd jobs for a while, then when those jobs became hard to find, he became homeless. Living on the streets, he became a user of both alcohol and drugs. This dark period in his life finally ended when he was “saved” by a police officer who, instead of arresting him, got him into a rehab program and followed up to ensure he stayed with it. He did and he got clean. The cop also helped him get back to basketball…doing volunteer coaching at the local boys and girls club and then later as a high school assistant coach. He was obviously over qualified for that, but did it for a couple years and then got hired as an assistant coach at the local community college. His success there led to him becoming an assistant coach in Division 1 basketball at San Jose State. When I arrived at Cal Poly, I was able to hire him as my 2nd assistant coach and have since promoted him to 1st assistant.
Recently I became aware of some personality changes…nothing major but just different from how he had been. Then he was late a few mornings. I finally smelled booze on his breath a couple times. Knowing of his past, I broached the subject with him without accusing him of anything. He deflected the conversation. But this week he finally came to me and sheepishly said, “I have a problem.” We discussed the situation and some possible options. I told him if he wanted to go to rehab that I’d give him a leave of absence. But he wants to continue working. So after a protracted discussion, he said he’d give Alcoholics Anonymous a go. I accompanied him to his first AA meeting yesterday. It was an eye opener for me and I hope that Eugene is able to get a handle on his problem by continuing with AA. But time will tell. Janeka and I are going to have Eugene over for dinner once or twice a week.
I have yet to tell anyone, including our AD, about Eugene’s drinking problem. I’m hoping that Eugene rights his life so it won’t be necessary to raise this problem up the chain here at Cal Poly. I’m feeling somewhat responsible since I moved him from player development to recruiting, which has meant he’s been out on the road on his own quite a bit. I’m concerned that has contributed to the reinitiation of drinking. He says that’s not the case and he wants to continue handling recruiting, but I still wish I hadn’t altered his responsibilities.