Before I start, congratulations to all the academy seniors who got to throw their caps in the air today.
I wanted to follow up on my article that appeared in today’s edition of The Gazette on Maj. Mike Kazlausky parting ways with the Air Force baseball team.
As I said in the article, some consider this a major blow to the struggling program.
Quick background: Kazlausky was one of the best players in academy history and served as an assistant in three separate stints. During his first, from 1993 through 1995, the Falcons had three straight winning seasons. That still stands as the program’s only stretch of three straight winning seasons since it joined a conference in 1981. During his second stint, earlier this decade, the 2002 Air Force squad set a program record for victories over Division I opponents.
Kazlausky returned for his third stint prior to the 2007 season. And some believe Kazlausky deserves much of the credit for the Falcons showing some signs of improvement in the recently completed 2008 season. One former player said the improvement would continue only if Kazlausky remained part of the program.
But now he’s gone. According to sports information director Troy Garnhart, Kazlausky and head coach Mike Hutcheon decided they couldn’t continue their working relationship, so they mutually decided to part ways (shades of the Avalanche and former coach Joel Quenneville).
Both Kazlausky and Hutcheon declined comment through Garnhart, so speculation about the divorce continues. But it sounds like a personality conflict. Kazlausky is fiery and intense – and maybe Hutcheon thought too much so for an assistant.
Two more notes on this:
-A great point about Kazlausky’s departure was made by a reader of this blog. You can see the reader’s whole post in the comments section of my previous blog post (on the academy award winners). The point the reader made that jumped out at me was that now that Kazlausky is gone, there are no baseball coaches who attended/played baseball for the academy.
As the reader wrote in his comments: “You don’t need to look any further than the football program to understand the benefit of having grads on the coaching staff of the academy’s sports teams.”
Couldn’t agree more. And I wish I had pointed out in my story that Kazlausky’s departure leaves the coaching staff without a graduate.
Having graduates on teams’ coaching staffs is especially important at the academy, where what kids go through is so difficult and so unique. You need someone – like Fisher DeBerry said about football coach Troy Calhoun when Calhoun was hired – who has “walked in the moccasins” of the players. Eight of Calhoun’s assistants went to Air Force and played on the football team – and that’s not by accident. The guys who have been through the academy can much better relate to what the current players are going through, and they have far better credibility when talking to potential recruits.
-Speaking of recruits, I got a call from the parent of an incoming baseball player today. The player was recruited by Kazlausky, and – according to the parent – wasn’t even considering coming to the academy until Kazlausky began recruiting him.
The parent was concerned – to say the least – that Kazlausky was no longer with the program (something he found out about from my article, by the way, not from a call from anyone at Air Force). He said he envisioned Kazlausky being a “second father” to his son while at the academy. He had yet to tell his son the news that Kazlausky would not be part of the AF baseball staff.
I don’t know if anyone has looked at the hirings that Hutcheon has implemented but they are suspect. I can categorically say that Hutcheon refuses to allow those around him who know the game and won’t simply nod their heads “yes.” The program has made strides but they will not progress as well with Kaz gone. He is the reason that they moved up! Now for the coaches:
1) Coach Thompson- pitching coach who played for Hutcheon, would never, ever challenge him.
2) Coach Nelson- an amazing man, one of the best I’ve ever met but does not have the grasp of the game that a guy like Kaz has. Simply didn’t know enough to recognize incompetence.
3) Coach Marchand- again, an amazing guy with lots of enthusiasm and more knowledge than Hutcheon. He was a high schoool assistant coach before he volunteered and helped out. He’s now a Division I pitching coach!!! He owes this to Hutcheon, will he challenge him? Of course not!
4) Coach Rose- young and although I don’t know him he has the face of Thompson and is likely someone who will not voice a dissenting opinion.
I can’t believe that Hutcheon still has a job! How did he get an extension after the way he pushed players out of the program and given all the games he lost? What is going on!
I’m stunned by what I continue to hear about this program. As a grad and a fan of AF athletics in general, I’ve always been curious as to why the baseball results have been so poor for so long. But ever since the Gazette began exposing some of the behind the scenes dynamics, my disppointment in the team’s performance has turned to outrage with a coach who seems to have no clue as to the ultimate goal of a service academy.
These people that this guy keeps running off are not your typical knucklehead college students, and flaky assistant coaches. If Hutcheon is right, and all these people have cancerous attitude problems, how is it that they’re allowed to stay at the academy, graduate and become 2Lts??? I just don’t buy it. The Kazlausky situation just confirms everything I was already thinking, since he was the only person on the staff with any military academy connection!
And finally, why doesn’t the Academy make any attempt to refute any of the allegations out there? I certainly don’t believe they need to answer every little posting that finds its way onto a blog, but when the stories continue to pile up over the course of a year or more, you expect to hear at least something.
Sadly, the Academy’s continued silence over this issue starts to make me wonder about Athletic department leadership in general. I was quick to blame the individual coaches when we had the revolving door at the helm of basketball, but now I’m not so sure. Only the grace of Fisher DeBerry kept that situation from being more publicly ugly than it was. I can only hope that all is healthy with the Calhoun relationship, but part of me is now waiting for the other shoe to drop there!
After hearing the news about Kaz’s departure from the Academy baseball program, many of the same questions that have already been posted, came to mind. As a grad, I feel that this is a sad time in the history of the baseball program as well as Academy Athletics.
I think history has shown that the Academy can compete on the Division I level. Past coaches such as Paul Mainieiri, now at LSU, and Eric Campbell, now working for USA Baseball, showed that the Air Force Academy can truly compete. Neither of these to great individuals were grads, but they always had grads on their staffs. The players always had someone to go to that understood the rigors that each cadet was going through. I think it should also be noted, that Kaz worked with both of the above named coaches and knows how to be successful within the Academy baseball program.
The baseball program does need to make some drastic changes, but I don’t think having Kaz leave is what was needed. The baseball program has lost a key ingredient in the development of Air Force Baseball.
kaz rocks
kaz rocks