Doctor, heal thyself

Editor's note: This is a column that I contemplated submitting for the Tuesday edition of The Brandon Sun but decided better of it and am instead using it just for this space. My reasoning being that I feel the high road is the best to travel in this instance and saving it for my small little space on the Internet best accomplishes that.

Brandon University announced its newest women's basketball coach Monday holding a press conference to unveil Jaime Hickson as the fourth coach of the past five years for the losingest basketball program in the history of Canadian university basketball.

With Brandon's volleyball teams set to begin a promising second year of play in the fall and the men's basketball team again among the more talented in the Canada West conference, it is safe to say that BU athletics is in a reasonably happy place. That is save for the woeful women's team that is undoubtedly poised to repeat its unseemly losing tradition for at least one more year.

For all of Hickson's chutzpah and eagerness to coach this BU team to success on and off the court, there appears to be little thought that the Bobcats have a focus on being competitive right away and without a major overhaul — which is not forthcoming — it's naive to think they'd have a chance at doing so.

So this team that has gone 0-40 in the conference the past two seasons and has won just four of its past 100 conference games is back on the path to dirtying up that abysmal record while the higher ups at BU shrug with nary an interest in seeing these players put in a successful athletics atmosphere.

At Monday's press conference, BU president Dr. Louis Visentin used his time at the podium — meant to be an introductory speech — to lash out repeatedly with thinly-veiled insults towards the sports writer who regularly covers BU athletics for the city's lone daily newspaper. Anyone in the room knew what — and whom — he was getting at, yet the supposed esteemed president could not pump his breaks to avoid embarassing himself, the school he represents and his newest employee.

Hickson hadn't even been introduced to the media gathering yet Visentin proceeded on a rambling tirade in which he clearly stated that winning and losing is not everything when it comes to university sports; that academic success trumps any and all misfortune on the court and that "what sports writers don't understand" is that universities are for learning first and that wins aren't what marks a success. He opened his condescending address by insulting a reporter's comprehension of the english language — passed off poorly, it should be added, as a joke — and followed that by suggesting that turnover in employment at the university level is a common thing (more on this later), even going so far as to call out the Brandon Sun by name and equate BU's coaching changes to the Sun's changeover at the managing editor position.

Apples to oranges indeed.

Visentine's lecture continued for the better part of 10 minutes and a lion's share of it was devoted to jabs, barbs and all in all topics completely unbefitting of the event.

Printing the facts of the Bobcats losing ways has routinely been a source of angst for some involved with the women's program of late. Apparently that goes for Visentin who almost fell over himself in his desperate attempt to put a spin on the university's most athletically unsuccessful group. Listen, everyone knows that student-athletes are at university to gain their education and no one is going to argue the merits of having a strong academic lineage. Yet if a student is adding the "athlete" designation, then it goes to suggest that the university should be in the business of making that aspect of their school life equally as rewarding as the one spent in the classroom. BU's indifference to doing that over the past two decades speaks for itself and it is highly hypocritical to preach about the quality of the education when its actions towards athletics have clearly undercut that.

No one in this industry, least of all anyone from the paper I am employed by, is in the business of intentionally burying the BU women's basketball team just for the sake of making scandal. What we are more than willing to do, however, is do our job of printing the unalienable truths that present themselves. Until I'm assigned to report on BU's first-year Intro to Psychology class, my job will be to report on what happens within the lines of that court and these are the facts: Four coaches, five years. Four wins for the last 100 tries.

What I would like is for Dr. Visentin to inform the public what other school in this country — and even this continent — has the unfortunate track record of coaching turnover that BU does. While he's busy espousing the apparent regularity of turnover in the university ranks, he'll find he's going to be hard-pressed to find any school remotely close to BU in that area.

What I would also like is for Visentin to inform the public what the benefits of such instability are to the school and to the players who work hard to wear the BU uniform.

Mostly, though, what I would like is for Visentin to represent himself properly as the prominent community figure he is supposed to be rather than choosing precisely the worst time and worst venue to serve as his misguided soapbox.

Unfortunately the president, as its figurehead, went and spoke for all of Brandon University on Monday and what he chose to say did more to the detriment of the school than 96 losses in five years ever could.