Inkara1
Well-Known Member
Anyone besides me follow Fresno State athletics? You guys really should, especially now that the Robert Blake and Scott Peterson trials are done with. It's a great alternative to the Michael Jackson case.
Anyways, it started off a few years ago (early 2002), when athletics director Al Bohl (who later got shitcanned at Kansas) left Fresno State for the same job in Kansas. He got replaced by one of his former assistants, Scott Johnson. this is right after Fresno State was declared to be in compliance with Title IX (the gender-equity law) after a 9-year process. Johnson immediately decided to reorganize the department. Dianne Milutinovich, one of the top admins in the department and the largest Title IX advocate, got re-assigned to a job in the student union at the same salary in the proceess. Right about then, Bohl's top financial guy "resigned" because Bohl's budgets were secretly sipping cash from a fund that requires approval to get into without getting the approval in order to balance the budget. So now we had Milutinovich complaining of being reassigned because of her Title IX stance and a budget shortfall of around $1 million a year. Quick solution? Cut men's indoor track, men's soccer, women's swimming and diving and men's cross-country... but add women's golf.
I can't remember which coach "left" first: Bob Bennett, Britt King or Jerry Tarkanian.
Bennett was kind of forced into retirement from coaching baseball, as he'd done for more than 30 years. He was replaced by Mike Batesole, who had good teams at Cal State Northridge but has had no success at all at Fresno State.
Let's also mention Lindy Vivas, the women's volleyball coach. Her teams did OK every year; some years were better than others but she never had a losing record that I can recall. But after the new $105-million on-campus arena, the Save Mart Center, was built, the volleyball team only got to play in it if Hawaii was coming to town (Hawaii's almost always in the top five in women's volleyball) and spent the rest of the time in the North Gym... which Vivas says (and is probably right) is an inferior facility to the high school gyms of her potential recruits. Anyways, her "contract wasn't renewed" after this past season, so next year the team will be coached by Ruben Nieves, a former Stanford assistant. Johnson said it was because her schedules weren't strong enough and the team wasn't nationally prominent enough. Vivas said it probably had something to do with her loud Title IX voice.
Britt King seemed to be a decent recruiter but couldn't coach, apparently. Scott Johnson fired her after a 9-20 season in 2001-2002 and replaced her with Stacy Johnson-Klein. Her face almost instantly went up on billboards area-wide for all kinds of stuff; she was a local celebrity. The team went 21-11 its first year under Johnson-Klein and made it to the third round of the WNIT. The team regressed the next year and went 14-15. This year, they're doing better... except that Johnson-Klein got suspended on Feb. 9, and the investigation that led to her firing said she had gotten prescription painkillers from one of her players and had asked others for them on several occasions... plus was insubordinate and untruthful. So now top assistant Adrian Wiggins is the interim coach, and will coach the team in this year's WNIT... and plus his "interim" status was extended through the end of next year.
About the same time Britt King was fired, Jerry Tarkanian was forced to "retire" because of various NCAA infractions... never mind the Samurai Sword Incident, the 60 Minutes piece trashing the university, the rehab stints, etc. Anyways, Johnson hired Ray Lopes to coach the team. The team unexpectedly won 20 games its first year, but some new NCAA stuff was found out from Tarkanian's tenure, so the university withheld the team from participation in the postseason. The next year, the team had a losing record. A couple months after the season ended, a young local girl was murdered, allegedly by Terry Pettis... one of Lopes' first recruits. That's still ongoing. Meanwhile, the team didn't suck as bad this year as they were expected to, but there was still no postseason beyond the conference tournament.
Soon before Johnson-Klein was officially canned, Scott Johnson announced he's retiring, and Paul Oliaro is the new interim AD.
So what brought all this up? I got online after work today and found out there's now more to the story. See, one of the players sat out the last few games of the season due to questions on his eligibility. I don't know if that has anything to do with Lopes resignation due to his involvement with NCAA recruiting rules violations, but it's a natural connection to make.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention Shana Eriksson. In September 2003, she died from her injuries sustained during an accident during equestrian practice. The $10 million negligence suit is ongoing. The family alleges that Fresno State understaffed and underfunded the equestrian program that they set up as a quick and cheap way to get 100 more female athletes to make their Title IX numbers look better.
Oh, Fresno State's being re-investigated for Title IX, as well.
Nothing ever seems to change there.
Anyways, it started off a few years ago (early 2002), when athletics director Al Bohl (who later got shitcanned at Kansas) left Fresno State for the same job in Kansas. He got replaced by one of his former assistants, Scott Johnson. this is right after Fresno State was declared to be in compliance with Title IX (the gender-equity law) after a 9-year process. Johnson immediately decided to reorganize the department. Dianne Milutinovich, one of the top admins in the department and the largest Title IX advocate, got re-assigned to a job in the student union at the same salary in the proceess. Right about then, Bohl's top financial guy "resigned" because Bohl's budgets were secretly sipping cash from a fund that requires approval to get into without getting the approval in order to balance the budget. So now we had Milutinovich complaining of being reassigned because of her Title IX stance and a budget shortfall of around $1 million a year. Quick solution? Cut men's indoor track, men's soccer, women's swimming and diving and men's cross-country... but add women's golf.
I can't remember which coach "left" first: Bob Bennett, Britt King or Jerry Tarkanian.
Bennett was kind of forced into retirement from coaching baseball, as he'd done for more than 30 years. He was replaced by Mike Batesole, who had good teams at Cal State Northridge but has had no success at all at Fresno State.
Let's also mention Lindy Vivas, the women's volleyball coach. Her teams did OK every year; some years were better than others but she never had a losing record that I can recall. But after the new $105-million on-campus arena, the Save Mart Center, was built, the volleyball team only got to play in it if Hawaii was coming to town (Hawaii's almost always in the top five in women's volleyball) and spent the rest of the time in the North Gym... which Vivas says (and is probably right) is an inferior facility to the high school gyms of her potential recruits. Anyways, her "contract wasn't renewed" after this past season, so next year the team will be coached by Ruben Nieves, a former Stanford assistant. Johnson said it was because her schedules weren't strong enough and the team wasn't nationally prominent enough. Vivas said it probably had something to do with her loud Title IX voice.
Britt King seemed to be a decent recruiter but couldn't coach, apparently. Scott Johnson fired her after a 9-20 season in 2001-2002 and replaced her with Stacy Johnson-Klein. Her face almost instantly went up on billboards area-wide for all kinds of stuff; she was a local celebrity. The team went 21-11 its first year under Johnson-Klein and made it to the third round of the WNIT. The team regressed the next year and went 14-15. This year, they're doing better... except that Johnson-Klein got suspended on Feb. 9, and the investigation that led to her firing said she had gotten prescription painkillers from one of her players and had asked others for them on several occasions... plus was insubordinate and untruthful. So now top assistant Adrian Wiggins is the interim coach, and will coach the team in this year's WNIT... and plus his "interim" status was extended through the end of next year.
About the same time Britt King was fired, Jerry Tarkanian was forced to "retire" because of various NCAA infractions... never mind the Samurai Sword Incident, the 60 Minutes piece trashing the university, the rehab stints, etc. Anyways, Johnson hired Ray Lopes to coach the team. The team unexpectedly won 20 games its first year, but some new NCAA stuff was found out from Tarkanian's tenure, so the university withheld the team from participation in the postseason. The next year, the team had a losing record. A couple months after the season ended, a young local girl was murdered, allegedly by Terry Pettis... one of Lopes' first recruits. That's still ongoing. Meanwhile, the team didn't suck as bad this year as they were expected to, but there was still no postseason beyond the conference tournament.
Soon before Johnson-Klein was officially canned, Scott Johnson announced he's retiring, and Paul Oliaro is the new interim AD.
So what brought all this up? I got online after work today and found out there's now more to the story. See, one of the players sat out the last few games of the season due to questions on his eligibility. I don't know if that has anything to do with Lopes resignation due to his involvement with NCAA recruiting rules violations, but it's a natural connection to make.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention Shana Eriksson. In September 2003, she died from her injuries sustained during an accident during equestrian practice. The $10 million negligence suit is ongoing. The family alleges that Fresno State understaffed and underfunded the equestrian program that they set up as a quick and cheap way to get 100 more female athletes to make their Title IX numbers look better.
Oh, Fresno State's being re-investigated for Title IX, as well.
Nothing ever seems to change there.