Waterworks Wednesday: Pat Summit Steps Down

Waterworks Wednesday doesn't always have to be a story filled with defeat or failure. It can be a story filled with feelings of sadness for the bitter-sweet question of "what could have been?"

Announcing last year that she had been diagnosed with early on-set of dementia- Alzheimers's, Pat Summit was set to test the waters of her diagnosis and coach the Lady Vols for a 38th season. Today, Summit announced that the 38th season at Tennessee would be her last as the head coach for the school's women's basketball team. 

The sadness in this story is not entirely for Summit's health struggles, rather it is for the young women who will no longer be able to look to Summit on a daily basis for guidance and leadership. Coaching college students is more than teaching them the Xs and Os of a playbook, and Summitt exemplified this greatly. With every one of her players graduating who reached eligibility, it was what Summit gave her players after the Ws and Ls that is the most valuable.

Through the gloominess that this news has bestowed upon college basketball, the up side of this story is that a well- equipped Holly Warlick, an assistant to Summit for 27 years, will be stepping into the Head Coach position, and Summitt will remain a part of the program she built as the Head Coach Emeritus. 

"I've loved being the head coach at Tennessee for 38 years, but I recognize that the time has come to move into the future and to step into a new role," said Summitt. "I support Holly Warlick being named the next head coach, and I want to help ensure the stability of the program going forward. I would like to emphasize that I fully intend to continue working as head coach emeritus, mentoring and teaching life skills to our players, and I will continue my active role as a spokesperson in the fight against Alzheimer's through the Pat Summitt Foundation Fund.

"If anyone asks, you can find me observing practice or in my office. Coaching is the great passion of my life, and the job to me has always been an opportunity to work with our student-athletes and help them discover what they want. I will continue to make them my passion. I love our players and my fellow coaches, and that's not going to change."

Summit won 1,098 games in her career, more than any coach ever in college basketball, man or woman. 

Fitting the Mold

Entering a new working environment is difficult for any profession. There are many things to adjust to when coming into a new office: the lingo, the people, the procedures, and perhaps the most important, the culture. As an HR manager, I appreciate the importance of new hires fitting the established culture of a company, or in this case an organization. Perhaps this is why the company I work for firmly believes in promoting from within. Rarely do we hire management from outside the company. In good humor, from now on, I will internally dub this mentality the Bobby Valentine Precaution.

Bobby Valentine and the Red Soxs, along with Ozzie Guillen and the Marlins, were two of the biggest coach/team pairings talked about this winter.  While conversation on this topic may be premature at two weeks into the MLB season, it is inarguably relevant.
Switching gears from media analyst to Red Sox leader may be more difficult for Bobby Valentine than he anticipated. I am not going to rehash all the questionable decisions of Valentine thus far, only to point out there are a number of them, to be seen here. But all these poor decisions show that Valentine is having a tough time switching gears from talking ball behind a desk to calling plays in the dugout.
However, I believe all of this slip-ups could be forgiven, if Valentine could make that connection with his players. The connection that would take the Red Soxs from the unrecognizable, hubristic team they were revealed to be at the end of last season, to the inspiring, second chance team they could be this year.
Valentine will never make that connection if he continues to talk to the media as if he is an analyst of baseball, not the leader of these men. Valentine's decision to call out Youkilis is a daunting misstep in his quest to fit the culture of the Red Sox, pinning players such as Dustin Pedroia against him.
Valentine is not the only newbie tripping over his own feet during this young season. Praising Cuban leader Fidel Castro may not seem like a 5 game suspension inducing comment to New Englanders; however, to the population of Miami, FL this is basic tyranny. Ozzie Guillan's comments regarding Cuba's famous dictator sparked an outcry and the calling for Guillan's job by Miami's Cuban community.
Grateful to be back in the Marlin's dugout, Guillan already knows how he can make this up to the community: "Win. If you're winning and I do what I think I should do in this community, it will be better."

Will winning really be a cure for the damage Ozzie has done in the Marlin's community? I believe so. Winning makes people forgive and forget.
Is Bobby Valentine trying to get himself fired? Seems that way. Will he last the season? Who knows. But I say he starts having his players' backs, like Pedroia suggests, and then maybe they will have his. Losing 18-3 ain't good for coaches and it ain't good for players. Something has to change, and it has to change soon.

#42

It was in the third grade that I first read about the greatness that was Jackie Robinson. I read a chapter book and then wrote a book report. I didn't grow up knowing a lot about sports or athletes; however, I was always very sensitive to the injustices that people have faced throughout America's short history. Stories of men and women, such as Jackie Robinson, have moved me and inspired the way I want to carry myself through life. Jackie's bravery and the significance of what he stood for, stayed with me, stayed with Rachel, and stayed with all those little boys and girls doing that first book report.

As I watched many organizations honor Robinson today, I thought about how unifying it is to witness a day such as this with every team in baseball and hundreds of thousands of fans. Every game day players wear their team's uniform. Today, they all wore the uniform of the man who bettered America's favorite past time. While we are remembering Robinson, we are celebrating the lives he changed and impacted just by playing the game he loved so much.