Ryan Jerz :: Reno Blogger

Misc: RGJ finally broaches touchy subject - in the Sports section

Apparently, life goes on for Nevada soccer. And the title of this post is probably unfair in its intent. The Sports section is about the only place this could have been brought up.

The RGJ ran a profile on Saturday of the new soccer coach, and emphasized how he makes the players compete against each other in drills.

It’s really a standard preview piece of the team who has a new coach after a year that can only be described as turmoil. That turmoil resulted when, according to documents from her whistle blower hearing, the former coach resigned within a week of the season’s start, only to rescind that resignation and be fired a couple days later.

The situation that the team was put in was very unfortunate, and they struggled all year. The fired coach had contact with players, which can’t have been easy on them, regardless of how they felt about her. She filed lawsuits while claiming that she just wanted her job back. She was ultimately banned from campus and all university events after the soccer season had ended, presumably because her presence at events and games had a negative effect on her former team and the general mood surrounding any situation she thrust herself into.

The writer didn’t neglect that aspect of the situation at all:

But Frias said his new approach and the fact that he and his assistants have nothing to do with former coach Terri Patraw has brought confidence back to the team.

Patraw was fired in August 2007 and promptly filed lawsuits against the university claiming NCAA and Title IX violations, two of which are ongoing.

Frias said Patraw is no longer a distraction.

“From day one, administration has done a great job of keeping that within the previous coach and them,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the kids, it has nothing to do with me, so we’ve had no disadvantages because of that and it hasn’t taken away from our focus from day one.”

Senior Jessica Thompson agreed.

“We don’t talk about that (Patraw) anymore,” Thompson said.

The inclusion of this section is very interesting. You don’t just mention the coach that was fired two years ago for no reason. Why not talk at all about last year’s coach, Antoinette Marjanovic, who was named interim head coach immediately following the firing? That’s because people’s minds are still on that fired coach. Her talking to players during the season (something she told me she did) and showing up in the stands for games had to have played a role in the team’s performance—something she was very critical of to me. She blamed it on the UNR administration, but the instability that came with her presence can’t have helped.

I have a hard time believing she’s having zero impact. If she had her way, she’d be dragging the new coach into court along with everyone else named in her several lawsuits. This quote from one of her sites:

Patraw is substantially more qualified than the person filling her position. The program has suffered without her. The new coach has violated NCAA rules, giving UNR cause for termination. UNR knows of this violation, but it is apparently following its standard to ignore such reports.

I bolded the bolded part. Wow. She offers no evidence as to what the cheating might be, and from what she told me, she officially talked with NCAA investigators well before this coach was even hired. It’s curious why someone who threatens people with defamation suits would state something so boldly and potentially damaging to another person’s reputation without a modicum of proof to back it up, isn’t it?

Now I take us back to my original point. I’ve been critical about the RGJ‘s lack of telling the full story regarding these people who have filed lawsuits against the university. Before the public runs to back them up, as it seems has happened based on the comments I read following the stories, it’s important to realize that they have had very negative effects on the places they were asked to leave. And they’re also in the unique position of being able to say whatever they want about the people they’re fighting while the university’s hands are tied because of Nevada law and standards they have put into place. The above quote shows what the university is dealing with here. This is someone who will make accusations against the innocent person who replaced her in order to further her cause, and it’s ugly.

I wish nothing at all but the best of luck to this new soccer coach. He is entering a very difficult situation and will undoubtedly have to deal with a person who, as I have said before, will stop at nothing to clear her name. He has talent on that team, so let’s hope that he can make us all proud.

Good luck, Jaime Frias!

Update

The post with the offending paragraph has been (surprise!) removed. Look here for further developments.

tags: jaime frias, nevada, reno, soccer, university of nevada, unr, wolf pack
posted by Ryan Jerz on 07/29/2008

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