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Date Posted: 05/19/03 5:26pm
Author: Colt
Author Host/IP: 66.117.129.20
Subject: John McCutcheon Your Report Card is Here!

With the conclusion of the baseball and track seasons this past weekend, now is an appropriate time to review the 2002-2003 Mustang year in sports and provide an overview of how John McCutcheon is doing as athletic director. Further, John owes an explaination to students, alumni and fans (all of whom pay his salary and the rest of the bills) as to why he refuses to terminate the contracts of coaches that clearly are not able to win.

Cal Poly has an excellent reputation and is located in a beautiful area, These assets alone are more than most schools could ask for. OK, maybe we don't have full funding but two out of three ain't bad.

As a preface, to the overview below, it's important to review the fact that Cal Poly competed in 16 sports. During the 2002-03 season, 2 finished conference in 1st place, 1 finished in 2nd, 2 finished in 3rd, the remaining finished 4th or below. With this as background and by assigning 4 point for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd and 1 for 4th or lower, one can assign John McCutcheon a GPA.

Here's how he looks on paper:
26 total points/16 sports = a 1.625 GPA

Note from academic senate to John - you're flunking and it's time to move on!

Listed below is a breakdown by sport and comments about the coaches:

Football - Overall Rec 3-8
Rich Ellerson's Mustangs were a complete disappointment in 2002 after delivering a promising year in 2001. However, most observers believe he and his staff need time to rebuild from the disasterous Larry Welch era. An interesting fact about Cal Poly football is the fact that only 1 of 3 football coaches hired by John McCutcheon has an overall winning record. The one coach? Andre Patterson who finished his three year run with a barely .500 winning percentage.

Note to John: fire yourself.
Note to Rich Ellerson: Get on the field with your teams during games. The players need to observe and be inspired by your leadership. They can't when you're up in the coaches box.

Baseball - Conf Rec. 9-12, Overall Rec. 27-25-1, 4th place finish

John McCutcheon hired Larry Lee to replace Ritch Price who McCutcheon also hired. Price has a losing record in 7 years at Cal Poly and Lee needs time to recruit. The Stangs are very thin on pitching but Lee's a winner as he proved at Cuesta so he deserves to time to build his team.

Basketballl (M) - Conf. Red 10-8, Oveall Rec 16-15, 4h place finish

McCutcheon elevated Kevin Bromley to head coach 2 years ago and he's done a masterfull job in his second full season. Not only has he turned the Mustangs into a serious contender, he's been able to clean-up the mess left behind by Jeff Schneider a John MuCutcheon hire. Schenider had a losing record in 6 years at the helm.

Basketball (W) - Conf. Rec. 6-10, Overall 10-17, 4th place

Faith Minmaugh, another McCutcheon hire has never had a winning record in 5 seasons. Moreover, during the 2001 season, Minmaugh lead Cal Poly to defeat at the hands of Cal despite the fact that the Stangs held and 18 point lead with little more than 2 minutes left in the game. GREAT COACHNG!! However, Minmaugh has done a better job than Karen Booker the coach she replaced. Booker had 7 wins in three seasons at the helm. Note: McCutcheon hired Booker as well and when she as was fired, filed a wrongful termination suit against the school. Good eye for talent John.

Volleyball - Conf. Rec 13-5, Overall 15-13, 4th place

Steve Schlick was hired by John McCutcheon to replace the woeful Craig Cummings who McCutcheon inherited from former Poly AD, Ken Walker. For the most part, Schlick has turned into a .500 coach and has never finished above 3rd place in conference. Schlick has guided the Mustangs to the NCAA tournament three times but that has only occured because the NCAA expanded the playoff format to accommodate 64 teams. In the post season, Schlick is 1-2. Steve, you're on the bubble!

Softball - Conf. Rec 7-14, Overall 22-38, 6th place.

Lisa Boyer is another coach McCutcheon inherited from Ken Walker. However, under McCutcheon's direction her performance has been under .500 including 3 straight losing seasons. Since the departure of All-America pitcher, Desiree Knipher (sp?) Poly softball has been pathetic. This despite the fact that Boyer stated at the opening the new sports complex that Poly softball would improve dramatically based on the fact that she could use the new facilities as a recruiting tool to attract some of the nation's best softball talent. Coach Boyer, you've had the facilites now for 3 years and your team is 16 games under .500. Hello!!!

Soccer (W) - Conf. Rec 8-1, Overall Rec 14-7, 1st place finish

Year in and year out, Alex Crozier and his team have delivered the goods and served as a quality benchmark for all other Mustang teams. With the exception of the 2001 season, Crozier has delivered winners. He's a keeper. Further, he was not hired by McCutcheon another reason to keep him around.

Soccer (M) - Conf Rec 1-9 Overall Rec3-16, Last Place Finish

Wolfgang Gartner has been at Cal Poly for 25 years and with the exception of 1 appearance in the NCAA DI playoffs in the late 90s, it's been 25 years of horror. For the 3rd straight year, Gartner's teams have been cellar dwellers. Additionally, 4 years ago several players from the team were caught breaking into student's dorms and stealing stereos. Not only can't Wolfgang coach, he can't recruit honorable student athletes. Nevertheless, McCutcheon stuck-by Gartner and continues to extend his contract each year. What are you waiting for John? A no wins season?

X-Country (M&W) - Men 2nd in Conf., Women 6th in Conf.
With very thin resources and almost no scholarships, Terry Crawford and staff have cobbled together a fair team. The men finished 1st in 2001, 2nd in 2002 and won the Stanford Invitational. Thankfully, McCutcheon didn't hire. She's got all she cn handle. However memeber of John's staff were crowing last fall that the team had and excellent chance of winning Cal Poly's first DI National Championship. Not only did the men not win the Big West, they weren't invited to the NCAAs as a team. One runner, David Jackson, did receive and invite, however, he finished 198th. Yeah, a NCAA championship is just around the corner!

Swimming (M&W) - like cross country, swimming does not compete in dual meets. Therefore, determining a won, loss record is impossible. However, both teams finished 4th in conference. I guess this isn't too bad but Rich Firman, swimming's head coach was quoted 6 years ago as saying that Poly would develop into a swimming power once they moved to DI. Hey Rich...we're waiting!!

Golf (M&W) - With no scholarships the golf teams in their third year finished 3rd for the men and 4th for the women. Moreover, Travis Bertoni just finished 16th at the NCAA West Regional. More than any other sport, golf shows what pull Cal Poly has due to its academics. With no scholarships, the Stangs have a golfer that finished 16th in the Western US and he's a freshmen. The other coaches should go to school on how golf is attrracting talent with no financial aid.

Tennis (M) - Overall record 14-11, Conference Finish - 4th
Men's tennis is clawing is way to respectability with very little help. Further, Coach Trevor Kronemann is really just completing his first year and will need time to recruit. With new facilites, things should be looking up for men's tennis.

Tennis (W) - Overall record 27-7, Conf. rec 9-1

In just his second year, Hugh Breem has the Stangs on a winning track. Too, he's a proven winner with excellent contacts in the tennis community. Breem was hired by McCutcheon, but even this is colored. Breem, a Poly grad, left McCutcheon's staff for San Diego State 7 years ago due to lack of support. He returned last year when McCutcheon was unable to find a replacement for the vacant women's coaching spot. Hugh had been coaching and managing a local tennis club near Pismo Beach...Talk about blind luck!

Wrestling - Overall rec. 12-7 Conf. finish 4th

Lennis Cowell may be the most likable coach on the staff but he has never delivered the goods. Once again, his teams are barely over .500. What's interesting is that Cowell has said each of the past three years that his teams will be ranked in the top 10 nationally. He's never broken the top 30 despite the fact that he's been able to recruit multiple California State High School Champs.
Time to hang them up Lennis. Your formula for success is not working.

Final comment: although the Cal Poly athletic department is pressed for money, John McCutcheon is preparing to unveil a near life size bronze statue of Ozzie Smith at Baggett Stadium in 3 weeks. Very nice jesture John until one considers the fact that Ozzie Smith has never really given any money to support Cal Poly athletics. In fact 4 years ago he reneged on his promise of delivering $1M for the construction of the new sports complex.

Oh Yeah, when Smith was inducted last year into the Hall of Fame, neither McCutcheon nor Pres. Baker were invited. They decided to attend anyway.

YES!! Let's erect a statue and give him an honorary doctorate degree. Good outside the box thinking John. Unlike Robin Baggett, Ozzie Smith has been very generous to the college that paid his tuition for 4 years and gave him a quality education.

Oops I forgot, I should expect this from someone with a 1.65 GPA.

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