After some consideration, I don’t know what I want for dinner, but I will look into potential meals more soon on my drive home, and I will be considering all of my options thoroughly before I make a decision. That’s pretty much what we got from the Eligible Athletes press release this afternoon. While this is certainly frustrating from a fan’s perspective, I’d much rather the Committees take adequate time than rush to a decision. Here are a few thoughts about the coaching search at this point:
1) We don’t have answers to any of the big questions yet and it looks like we won’t until after The Fork. The Eligible Athletes Committee and the HP Training Listed riders will have a chance to interview David and Leslie at The Fork in a closed session. Phillip said in the press release that The Fork would provide “an easier environment for those participating.” Your guess as to exactly what that means is as good as mine, but the phone connection for the Committee members trying to listen in at the Red Hills open forum was unreliable. Or, perhaps there were concerns that the public nature of the meeting made the open forum…less easy.
2) In an interesting twist of fate, Phillip is now chair of the Eligible Athletes Committee. Amy normally chairs the committee but she is on absence, and so once Phillip withdrew from the application process he returned to his vice-chair (and therefore acting-chair) position. As acting-chair, Phillip will have the responsibility of leading the Committee meetings and interviews.
Some people will be concerned that someone who was competing with the other candidates just a few days ago will now chair an important part of the selection. Others will look at Phillip having an important role in the final choice as an important step because Phillip will be a key member of the team and the new coach’s best rider. My opinion is that I would hate to be the next coach and not feel like I had Phillip’s full support, and making Phillip such a large part of the process will mean that the new coach will almost certainly have Phillip’s support.
Another interesting point that shouldn’t be forgotten is that Bobby is apparently now back as the chair of the High Performance Committee, a committee which suddenly goes from having little to having huge influence in the process if there is a disagreement between the Search Committee recommendation and the Eligible Athletes.
3) According to Phillip, the Eligible Athletes are “reviewing other applicants that were not short-listed by the Search Committee.” You can be the judge about how serious the term “reviewing” is, but the Eligible Athletes have not yet decided that Leslie and David are the only two possible people they might want to recommend.
As far as I know, the goal is still to reach a final decision and hire by Rolex. I can’t see a big reason to put such a hard deadline on the decision, but that seemed like something USEF CEO John Long was committed to at the Red Hills open forum and the press release today didn’t say otherwise. This is a big decision, and the Eligible Athletes should have as much time as they want to interview and reach a decision. The next news from this process will likely come after the meeting at the The Fork. Until then it’s back to photos of cats and posts about college basketball. Go eventing.
