Black Coaches Bring Pride and Wins to EMU

http://www.emyouthemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/PakmodeWebLogo.pngBy Jason Idalski
jason.idalski@emyouthemagazine.com

According to the Black Coaches Association, Eastern Michigan is the first of 120 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) to have six blacks lead its athletic department.
Athletic director Derrick Gragg, associate athletic director Stephannie Vandenberg, football coach Ron English, men’s basketball coach Charles Ramsey, women’s basketball coach AnnMarie Gilbert and baseball coach Jay Alexander are all African-American. Five of the six (with women’s basketball assistant coach LaTonya Tate filling in for Gilbert) had a town-hall meeting Sunday night at the Student Center Auditorium called “From the Playing Field to the Front Office.”
“I like hiring the best person for the job,” said Gragg, passed over for six AD jobs before becoming AD at Eastern. “It just so happens that (blacks) have been the best people.”
In sharing their stories, EMU coaches illustrate that while strides are being made, there is still work to do.

FOOTBALL COACH RON ENGLISH
By all accounts, Ron English should be at a bigger school.
English said “a bunch of people” told him not to take the Eastern Michigan job, considered by some as a coaching graveyard.
“You should’ve got the Michigan job, you should’ve got the Louisville job, you should’ve got the Arizona State job when it was open,” English said, repeating some things he’d heard. English interviewed for all three jobs, along with the opening at the University of Arkansas filled by Bobby Petrino.
“But I didn’t get those jobs,” English continued. “This is my job.”
English says part of the problem is that (mostly white) athletic directors, and people in general, tend to hire people they know and are familiar or comfortable with.
“Don’t get caught up in ‘it’s not fair,’ ‘woe is me’ crap,” English said as advice to those in attendance.

MEN’S BASKETBALL COACH CHARLES RAMSEY
Like English, at least one person thinks Charles Ramsey is too good for Eastern Michigan.
Ramsey had been an assistant coach for 15 seasons at five schools (EMU, Tennessee State, Drake, California, Michigan) without getting his chance to be a head coach. When Jim Boone was fired in 2005, Ramsey interviewed for and received the job at his alma mater. But not everybody in his life was happy for him.
Ramsey said a good friend of his in the coaching ranks (a white coach Ramsey described as “esteemed”) told him not to take the job. “You can get a better job,” the coach told Ramsey.
Ramsey then listed some people who got “better jobs” with a lesser resume than his.
“When you and I look in the mirror every day, we don’t see the same thing,” Ramsey said to the coach.
Ramsey said despite the strides being made (eight of the 12 men’s basketball coaches in the Mid-American Conference are African-American), there’s still work to do.
“We have some deep resumes and put in a lot of time,” Ramsey said. “That’s not always perceived in the community.”

BASEBALL COACH JAY ALEXANDER
For Jay Alexander, perseverance paid off.
Alexander became used to rejection, saying he applied for 20-30 jobs without getting so much as a letter or call back. He came to EMU after being the baseball coach at Division II Wayne State.
Early in his coaching career, Alexander fell short of getting a job he desperately wanted: recruiting coordinator at the University of Michigan. U-M coach Rich Maloney told Alexander he simply didn’t have the experience. Alexander then had to motivate his Wayne State team when he wasn’t motivated to coach them.
After Roger Coryell’s firing about a year and a half ago, Alexander was a finalist for the job at EMU, but it went to Jake Boss (who is white). Alexander told his wife that maybe he should go into administration; that he might be done as a coach.
Boss turned in one successful season at Eastern and parlayed that into getting the head coaching job at Michigan State. Again, Gragg had to search for a baseball coach. A couple of days after Boss’ resignation, Gragg got a call from Alexander.
“I’m your guy,” Alexander said. “This search shouldn’t take long.”
Eventually Gragg agreed. Alexander went 25-35 (13-14 Mid-American Conference) in his first season, and the team won seven of its last 10 regular-season games, along with two wins in the MAC tournament.
Alexander is one of three black baseball coaches in the NCAA (excluding Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs). The other two are San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn (San Diego State) and Elton Pollock (Presbyterian).
“Baseball is one of the most political jobs to get,” Alexander said, meaning that more than any other sport, it’s about who you know. “I’d like to thank Dr. Gragg for taking a chance on this young African-American.”http://www.emyouthemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/PakmodeWebLogo.png