FAMU track coaches fired

[RQ]

http://rattlernews.tallahassee.com/article/20090520/FAMU08/905200325

Hayes said the year-to-year contracts of men's coach Rey Robinson and women's coach Maicel Malone will not be renewed. Their terminations come while they were preparing five athletes, three men and two women, for the NCAA East Regional championships next weekend in Greensboro, N.C.

While the terminations are effective immediately, Hayes didn't say who would coach the team at the regionals. Robinson said he would declare the athletes' participation before the end of the NCAA's required 24-hour period for doing so, beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Malone said she had not been informed of her termination until she was reached for comment. However, she said she did not intend to be at practice on Wednesday.

Robinson said he was called to his office by FAMU counsel Avery McKnight, who handed him his termination letter. Robinson said he was conducting practice with the men's team when he received the call from McKnight.

The news came just four days after he was assured by Hayes that his job was safe, Robinson said, expressing surprise at the turn of events.

Robinson said he wasn't sure about his future plans, although he expressed an interest in continuing his coaching career.

[ndamix]

Surprising & shocking development considering Coach Robinson is a FAMU icon (both as an athlete & coach).

Considering AD Billy Hayes' previous run-in with track folk during his tenure @ NC Central, is the FAMU program on the chopping block in spite of Hayes' assertion he wants the program in "another direction"?

[NumberCruncher]

FAMU has little to no money, and simply cannot afford the 2 coaches, both of which do not deserve this, however FAMU financially has been going down hill since the 80s. They will hire someone young that they do not have to pay as much.

[Marlow]

So why did they have to fire them now? Their contract can't expire in mid-May! This makes no sense.

[jhc68]

Good question, Marlow. Don't you wish that AD's, and everyone else, had the cajones to be at least marginally honest?

I mean, these two coaches are not even going to be allowed to take their kids to the end of the season, yet the AD says, he, "was grateful for what both coaches had accomplished during their tenures..." What kind of logic could possibly be used to reconcile the statement with the facts of the situation?

[ndamix]

So why did they have to fire them now? Their contract can't expire in mid-May! This makes no sense.

Technically, school ended a week or so ago; although I don't know what exact wording in their contract spells out when their contract would actually end.

[Bruce Kritzler]

Maicel Malone was quitting anyway, moving to Atlanta, and marrying Nate Page.

[EPelle]

So why did they have to fire them now? Their contract can't expire in mid-May! This makes no sense.

They may have each had a bonus clause in their contracts. If they did (this is purely speculation), bonuses may have included training athletes in post-season meets (regional and NCAA).

Other than that, it just may have been convenient to fire following a ninth-place finish at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

The previous press coverage of her hiring:

Florida A&M announced the appointment of Maicel Malone as the University’s head women’s track and field coach. A graduate of Arizona State University, who also enjoyed a supremely distinguished competitive track career, Malone comes to FAMU after a lengthy stint as assistant women’s track coach at Florida State University. Malone joined the FSU staff in 1999, becoming instrumental in the success of the women’s program in Atlantic Coast Conference competition. She also assisted with men’s 2002 and 2003 ACC championship teams. While at FSU, Malone also coached Olympian Kimberly Walker, who earned a spot on the 400 meter relay team from Trinidad & Tobago.

[gcheves]

FAMU has little to no money, and simply cannot afford the 2 coaches, both of which do not deserve this, however FAMU financially has been going down hill since the 80s. They will hire someone young that they do not have to pay as much.

Or will they cut the men's program? The AD says his goal is to restore the program to the elite level ... like he restored North Carolina Central to the heydays of Larry Black (may he rest in peace).

[ndamix]

FAMU has little to no money, and simply cannot afford the 2 coaches, both of which do not deserve this, however FAMU financially has been going down hill since the 80s. They will hire someone young that they do not have to pay as much.

Or will they cut the men's program? The AD says his goal is to restore the program to the elite level ... like he restored North Carolina Central to the heydays of Larry Black (may he rest in peace).

By making moves to get rid of the coach there only to find out the coach got induct'd in the D2 HOF and had several All-Am athletes @ D2 Nat'ls that year.

[gcheves]

[/quote] By making moves to get rid of the coach there only to find out the coach got induct'd in the D2 HOF and had several All-Am athletes @ D2 Nat'ls that year.[/quote]

That's right .... I agree. The North Carolina Central program has not even come close to its prominence of the 70s when it produced all these Penn Relays Wall of Fame inductees. Incidentally, Rey Robinson was Larry Black's team-mate on the Munich Olympic team and is the Penn Relays record-holder in the 100 yard dash.

Wall of Fame Inductees

1995 1972 Sprint Medley Relay
Julius Sang, Jeff Horsley, Larry Black, Robert Ouko

2002 Larry Black (1974)

2005 1972 880y Relay
Jeff Horsley, Mel Bassett, Julius Sang, Larry Black

Athletes of the Meet
1972 CM-R Larry Black

Olympic Gold Medalists
participating at the Penn Relays

1972 Munich Larry Black
4x100

1972 Munich Robert Ouko
4x400

1972 Munich Julius Sang
4x400

[ndamix]

[quote-"ndamix"] By making moves to get rid of the coach there only to find out the coach got induct'd in the D2 HOF and had several All-Am athletes @ D2 Nat'ls that year.

That's right .... I agree. The North Carolina Central program has not even come close to its prominence of the 70s when it produced all these Penn Relays Wall of Fame inductees. Incidentally, Rey Robinson was Larry Black's team-mate on the Munich Olympic team and is the Penn Relays record-holder in the 100 yard dash.

Wall of Fame Inductees

1995 1972 Sprint Medley Relay
Julius Sang, Jeff Horsley, Larry Black, Robert Ouko

2002 Larry Black (1974)

2005 1972 880y Relay
Jeff Horsley, Mel Bassett, Julius Sang, Larry Black

Athletes of the Meet
1972 CM-R Larry Black

Olympic Gold Medalists
participating at the Penn Relays

1972 Munich Larry Black
4x100

1972 Munich Robert Ouko
4x400

1972 Munich Julius Sang
4x400[/quote] That's a pretty big path the current coach is following considering who blazed the trail. :wink:

[gcheves]

That's a pretty big path the current coach is following considering who blazed the trail. :wink:

Again, I agree. It's hard to duplicate the success of someone of the stature of Dr Leroy Walker, former track coach at North Carolina Central.

And it is equally as difficult to replicate the success of Robert Griffin, who coached Bob Hayes, and Bobby Lang, who coached Rey Robinson, and was himself coached by the great Jake Gaither as a footballer at FAMU.

[ndamix]

That's a pretty big path the current coach is following considering who blazed the trail. :wink:

Again, I agree. It's hard to duplicate the success of someone of the stature of Dr Leroy Walker, former track coach at North Carolina Central.

And it is equally as difficult to replicate the success of Robert Griffin, who coached Bob Hayes, and Bobby Lang, who coached Rey Robinson, and was himself coached by the great Jake Gaither as a footballer at FAMU.

However, those guys had more institutional support during their era unlike what Bill Hayes provided both Rey Robinson & Maicel Malone.