Air Force baseball coach Mike Hutcheon told his team after Friday night’s 5-4 loss to Georgia Southern in Atlanta that he will resign at the end of the season, according to several sources with knowledge of his post-game remarks.
The resignation will end a tumultuous seven-season tenure that was marked by trying times on the field and problems off of it.
Friday’s loss was the Falcons’ ninth in a row and dropped them to 7-26 on the season. During Hutcheon’s tenure, Air Force is 72-271 including 13-143 in Mountain West Conference play.
A week ago, Air Force announced the suspensions of five players for violations of academy standards. The suspensions came shortly after the Falcons removed two players from the team for disciplinary issues.
The suspensions continued a trend of roster upheaval under Hutcheon. A pair of former starters left the team during the 2009 season, and four more players were cut after it. And when two juniors decided to stop playing in August, the Falcons had just one junior remaining on their roster – and there had been 14 members of the Class of 2011 on the roster when they were freshmen.
Hutcheon, who was investigated – and cleared – by the academy for religious proselytizing early in his time at Air Force, had been under significant fire recently from some parents of former players and baseball alumni, who reached out to academy leadership seeking his removal.
Hutcheon and athletic director Hans Mueh could not be reached for comment Friday night.
Well, that is the best news I have had all week. Hopefully we will get a military coach who can mentor these athletes and prepare them for a career as an officer not a college experience as merely an athlete.
Coach Hutcheon needs to leave now. He was given an ultimatum and this is the choice WE get? and sacrifice for the rest of the season for the Academy?
His legacy is a STAIN on the LONG BLUE LINE. Hire a coach who respects the Academy and respects future officers who came to the Academy because of their love of country and honor.
Still too little and much too late!!
Jake,
I hope SERIOUS CONSIDERATION is given to Mike “Kaz”, former star player who bleeds for USAFA and the baseball program!!!
Hutcheon is a extraordinary man, father and coach. It is a shame that this has gotten so ugly. Hutcheon has dealt with this ugliness with the utmost integrity and class.
How “Nicey-Nice!!!”
in the above post, is ” mh ” short for Mrs. Hutcheon ?
AF fans, show your class. Man has a family and personal assaults are unnecessary and beneath you.
No this is Martha. Not Mrs. Hutcheon.
Well this is nice. it only took 6 years to completely destroy the baseball program. Good call Dr. Mueh and Ms. Gasser! Maybe next time you guys can hire a qualified coach that works well with the Cadets. You proabably should have looked at what you had right in front of you before you hired this guy.
Applegate?
Kazlowski?
Thank goodness he had the fortitude to recognize he was a menace to the Academy. Where was the good doctor in all of this? He still didn’t have the guts to do the right thing and fire the guy after all the shenanigans both on and off the field.
You don’t need to know the man to know that this guy was the worst disaster to hit AF Sports in it’s storied history, yet the chemistry professor did nothing.
I’d like to see a second resignation.
yes, he has a family, but so do the boys who passed up D1 baseball opportunities to be officers. The program will be just fine because there is a lot of talent in the AFA corridors who wouldn’t play for Hutch. Hans wouldn’t even let them have a club team because he knew they would be better self coached than the the collegiate team. The sun is rising and things will get better! I’m sure Hutch is a great guy, I personally loved him on the “visit” but he doesn’t know jack about baseball and young men. Good riddance.
finally!
susie,
I don’t understand the second half of your comment. Are you stating that the current baseball players aren’t being trained to be officers in the USAF? If you think these guys aren’t being trained properly or are just getting “a college experience as merely an athlete”, you have absolutely no idea of what you’re talking about.
Ah Chuck, 7 athletes are suspended from this team. Granted from their own actions, but coaches were not present at the time of the infraction. What kind of coaching staff takes a group of kids on spring break and lets this happen? Also, baseball always comes first. This I know way more about than you. I lived thru that mantra and he made it clear he didn’t really care about what experiences went on off the field. Funny, those are the experiences that groom an officer. Something like 75% of incoming students were athletes. It takes a special kind of coach to know what they are going thru when practice is over. Especially the 4*.
susie,
HELLO (now that’s not nice, is it?) Your tone smacks of inside information. I’m not defending the coach, and have no inside information. I’m certainly not as close to this mess as you seem to be. You and others hold the coach and players to a competitive standard (D1 & D2) where baseball does come first, and believe me I do know that. These guys come to the AFA to become USAF officers 1st, and baseball players maybe 2nd or 3rd. Did your coaches know where you were and what you were doing every minute that you were traveling with your college athletic team? Mine didn’t. There was always plenty of free time for whatever monkey business we were up to. Some crossed the line and paid a price. Do you think that this stuff isn’t covered up every weekend somewhere in the country. Was there a coverup here? I certainly don’t condone any of it, but I know it happens. My problem with your comments concerns your criticism of the training of the current players to be outstanding officers in the USAF. Your inside info, can’t begin to know what’s in their minds and hearts.
My advice to the next baseball coach . . . get really, REALLY close to Coach Calhoun and Coach Seratorre. Figure out what their approach is to balancing athletics and Academy life, and copy it precisely. Clearly, Hutcheon made no attempt whatsoever to do this. The fact that he wouldn’t leverage the knowledge and experience of a couple of coaches who have obviously cracked the code was an act of pride and arrogance, and that’s a big part of his downfall.
The whole thing is so sad to me. Everyone on here seems to be focusing on the coach and everything he did wrong. Yep, he is/was a terrible coach. Big deal…sadly, there are many of them out there. Why not focus on anything positive with the team. They had an All-American for Christ’s sake last year. Why are we not praising this Mr. Alexander’s efforts on the field despite being on a losing team for his whole college career? (imagine what he would have done with a real coach) Those other players that ‘quit’ seem to show little intergrity to me. Are they going to quit when they don’t like their commanding officer? It seems to me that the players that stayed and still had success on the field and in the classroom have gotten real training in life. Let’s give praise to the one junior and four seniors that have stayed on the team and stayed out of trouble.
I think an interview with Kaz would make for an interesting article. Just saying.
tbang is right! That would be great but it won’t happen. It would also be nice to actually get interviews with players from the last 7 years or maybe Mike’s assistants now? It won’t happen because people want to keep their jobs, it is just a shame for the assistants because they have had to carry out Mike’s plans.
Citizen . . . this coach was either recruiting quitters, or recruiting good kids and turning them into quitters. And it happened year, after year, after year. After a while, you have to realize it’s the coach more so than the players.
I agree with this much . . . I do applaud the kids who stuck it out.
Something that’s lost in this whole mess . . . what on earth is this guy doing remaining in the athletic department? In my opinion, his biggest offense was not that he was a bad coach; rather, it was that he was profoundly out of touch with the Service Academy experience, and unable to tap in any way the unique talents and capabilities of “Academy Kids” (to use Troy Calhoun’s phrase). And it doesn’t take a grad to be able to do this . . . see Frank Serratore and Joe Scott for starters.
This guy needs to be barred from having any 1-on-1 interaction with cadets . . . athletes or otherwise!
MKL,
“Moving” Hutcheon to the status of full time PE instructor is an act of simply “rearranging the deck chairs” in my opinion.
Both Mr and Mrs Hutcheon should be permanently barred from ANY future contact with the members of the cadet wing. For different reasons, but they both do not have the character necessary nor do they possess anywhere close to the leadership skills necessary to interface with America’s future military leaders.
Simply moving the problem is not resolving the problem….and they are BOTH significant problems.
Good riddance. Coach Hutcheon taught his baseball team members only one thing about leadership…………what NOT to do.
Citizen,
Some of the players that quit were not “quiters” and did not quit due to lack of integrity. Quite the opposite. Some of the players who quit were given a direct ultimatum from the coach: either quit or do something that some of them felt was unethical. And, yes. I DO have insider information.
The players quit because it’s the coach. He now owns 13 loosing records in the NCAA and MWC. That’s happens when you make up baseball stats you loose. Much less change players religious beliefs. Which is banned.
2010 3-20 13-42 .236 Record
2009 3-18 14-37 .274
2008 4-20 18-33 .352
2007 0-23 Record 8-44 Record .153 Record
2006 1-21 Record 10-38 .208 Record
2005 4-24 9-42 Record .191 Record
2004 0-28 Record 6-49 Record .109 Record
He wanted in the record book so bad that he sure got in it.