Article on Plonsky

Curious what opinions are on the WBB portion of this article. It explains a lot to me about the Goestenkors era.

http://www.scout.com/college/texas/story/1792379-texas-women-s-ad-plonsky-asset-or-divisive

 

In my opinion the only reason some people view Plonsky negatively is because she's a woman. With the wbb program getting back to national prominence and will continue to be for years to come Plonsky isn't going anywhere unless she wants to. Her hiring Coach Aston was obviously a great hire when a lot of people including some fans thought it was a bad one. Not to mention Plonsky also hired a really good golf, rowing, and tennis coach.

 

Wow.

So much of what was written explains unexplained oddities coming out of Belmont. I know that without response from many of those mentioned in the article, it's a one-sided, negative view of Plonsky. But man, it does sure explain (if true!) why Goestonkors left. If true.

 

I'm a woman, so I don't view anyone negatively because of their sex. I don't have enough knowledge about the inner workings of the athletic department to even know if some of the things in the article could be true. It did shed a little bit of light about Goestenkors was my only opinion. And, like I said, who knows if it's true. It just came from unnamed sources.

 

I slightly disagree. Steve Patterson was an a**hole and he was a man.

 

In Chip's defense (a position I rarely take) he gave Plonsky an opportunity to tell her side of the story.

 

Her gender has nothing to do with her ineptitude and her totally inexplicable inability to fire Connie Clark. The level to which Longhorn Softball has sunk under CC is indefensible. G.Fenves needs to step up to the plate and fire Plonsky and Clark and consolidate the 2 Athletic Director positions when replacing Mike Perrin.

 

and Kelly.

 

The article had me agreeing and disagreeing. On one hand, it says that Plonsky is tied to the hip with Jody. Okay. But then, it says she told Gail to not return Jody's ex-coaches, especially Travis Mays! Which then Plonsky was okay with Karen hiring back?

Confused.

But then, she fires the old male soccer coach who was much more successful than the new(er) female soccer coach.

Implied in the article is the seeming reverse sexism that is being exhibited here. Remember Rod Page? He was let go because Lopiano wanted a woman in that job. Makes you go hmmm....

 

I'm really interested in opinions about this. The "sources" in the article make it seem like Plonsky wanted Goestenkors to fail. But, why? Why hire her for that reason? When she was at her prime as a Coach? Like you, I'm also confused with it all.

 

There's no doubt that Clark should be fired but that doesn't negate the fact that when you look at the majority of the women's coaches at Texas they are really good. And firing Plonsky isn't going to happen with the program that Texas spends the most money on being really good again. Coach Aston was a homerun hire for Plonsky.

 

That argument doesn't hold any water Plonsky has hired male coaches, And in my opinion there's nothing wrong with wanting to hire a female coach for some coaching positions. After all it is the women's athletic department.

 

This article doesn't seem definitive at all. But it does raise some questions.

Odd things:
- basically no one interviewed except disgruntled tennis coach was a big part. But in the end, even if the Yale coach wasn't right for the job, the new coach is fine (and presumably better than the coach supplying much of the shade in this article).
- now, the track girl who went to Alabama is interesting. But the story doesn't make total sense to me as I read it.
- if you're going to talk about Coach Kelly, why not also talk about Coach Clark. That seems to be a glaring (and odd) omission from the story. At least link her as a Plonsky favorite.
- the "getting rid of Conradt's coaches" part was just confusing and doesn't make a lot of sense to me given how things are now.
- the splitting hairs and cherry picking done about male to female staff comparisons is incomplete to me and just seems to add some ridiculous "reverse sexism"-mongering.
- in an article about Chris Plonsky, not sure how you don't mention the volleyball program.

All in all this article does raise some questions but you can sense some faulty journalism from the details that are and are not included (as well as the organization).

 

Unless this is just meant to be a hatchett job, it raises lots of suspicions about Chris. I withhold judgment, because I certainly don't know how athletic departments are run, but it all sounds horribly political. She comes across in this mostly as authoritarian, micromanaging, and going with her own hunches, rather than being a consensus builder. Where there is smoke.... Maybe it is unfairly one-sided. I'm glad she hired Aston. She got this right, but I believe she hired Goestenkoers, and then, according to this, was perhaps a big factor in undermining Gayle's success. As much as I liked Karen, I liked Goestenkoers, too, and felt bad that she had so little succes

 

My computer is driving me crazy. Oh well, I said enough. Interesting that volleyball wasn't mentioned. Did she hire Elliott? The story about the player at Alabama was bad.

 

Whatever the truth on Plonsky, Lopiano is surely dreaming if she thinks the university would hire a female to be A.D. for the men and women, if that is what she meant. Sad but true. Our society isn't there yet, especially in the macho world of sports and in a system where football is king.

If Plonsky micromanages so much, is she calling the shots on Joyner's situation?

 

To me the Coach G situation is irrelevant at this point. Coach G didn't get the job done not because of Plonsky's but mainly because of bad luck with injuries.

 

There are 2 female ADs at Power 5 schools: Penn State, NC State.

I would have no complaints if UT hired a female AD for all athletics but I don't think Plonsky is right for the job. Yesterday's article, while one-sided, highlighted how divisive Plonsky is. The UT athletic department is rife with agendas and whoever is in charge needs to be able to pull as many stakeholders together as possible and it just doesn't seem Plonsky's management style would work. Interesting side note: the current Penn State AD, Sandy Barbour, was previously the AD at Cal-Berkeley from 2004 to 2014 which overlapped with President Fenves' tenure at Berkeley.

 

"Sources said Plonsky, who has her own locker in the Texas women’s basketball locker room..." That seems weird and inappropriate to me. She's an administrator, not a coach, not a player. Why have it?

 

In previous conversations, I know that Travis believed that GG wanted to keep him on but was told to start with a clean slate. So I can say that piece is undoubtedly true

 

I just do not get that at all.

 

There's a lot of stuff in that article.

My biggest issue recently with Plonksy has been her decision to hire soccer coach Angela Kelly from Tennessee; her teams W/L records got worse each of her last few years there. She's been very disappointing at Texas, and can't understand Plonsky's decision to give her a contract extension after 5 pretty weak seasons.

Connie Clark's situation is a little different than Kelly's. Her teams at Texas the last few years have been pretty weak; but, they still make the NCAA tourney but don't advance past the round of 32, if that. But, she did have some great seasons prior to that. Still, I think it's time for a change.

 

As for those statements about how Plonsky allegedly treated that track student athlete, I just don't have words as to how cruel that seems. Hope it's not true. If it is, Plonsky should be held accountable and perhaps disciplined.

The Plonsky and Bev Kearney situation has been interesting to me since the termination occurred several years ago. If it is determined (based on Plonsky's upcoming possible deposition) that Plonsky did something which could be viewed as discrimination, then she should be held accountable and perhaps disciplined.

 

For a while, it seemed like Plonsky refused to hire male head coaches. I realize that these programs consist of female athletes, but across the country male coaches leading female programs is pretty much the norm. I don't know the percentages/ratios nationally among male/female head coaches for women's programs, but even before Plonsky became the AD, Texas had male head coaches for Volleyball (Haley), Soccer (Petrucelli and his predecessor), Swimming, and Tennis. I believe that hoops, golf, and T&F have pretty much always had female head coaches.

Since Plonsky took over, she has hired:

Soccer - one female head coach
Hoops - two female head coaches
Swimming - two female head coaches
Rowing - one female head coach (I think), and the current male head coach
Golf - one female head coach, and the current male head coach
Tennis - two female head coaches, and the current male head coach
Softball -- none
Volleyball - I still don't know for sure if it was Conradt or Plonsky; regardless, it was a male head coach replacing the prior male head coach
Track - I guess she hired Mario Sategna, but that could also have been Deloss Dodds'
decision

For me, I don't care about the gender or sexual orientation of the coaches. It should be about at least interviewing the most qualified candidates who express interest and/or apply. And, then you make the best hiring decision possible. The only fact I will throw out is that a female head volleyball coach has never won a national title; it's always been a male head coach.

As for recent male head coach hires in rowing, golf, and tennis, they are having quick success. This is where I think Plonsky has "grown" in her hiring practices. She seems to have hired the best qualified applicant, regardless that the were male.

 

I think the best way to evaluate Plonsky is comparing her record to our biggest rivals and when you do that she gets a D- at best. While both OU and aggy have consistently been at the top in most women's sports, overall UT hasn't even been on the same field. Only VB has been consistently better than our rivals and the only reason SB had any success at all was because the best player in the history of the game just fell into CC's lap.

What about soccer, tennis, golf, womens BB up until last year, of course SB, T&F is trending down since Bev left, etc. The fact is our biggest rivals have been embarrassing us and that is embarrassing when it should we the other way around. Maybe Karen was a good hire, but maybe someone else would be doing even better at this point. The fact is we are Texas and it shouldn't be that difficult to recruit and build great teams here, but it's been just the opposite in most sports. I just don't see how anyone can think she's done a good job.

 

and she could not win at least 1 NC.

 

One quick reaction...Run Pincher comments that maybe someone else might be doing even better than Aston in hoops. Well, as far as X's and O's go, who knows? But no one else would have done better in recruiting. Nobody.

 

Hiring head coaches is kind of like recruiting. Sometimes the coach with the better on-paper resume does not meet expectations while the coach with the less impressive resume exceeds expectations. We have Goestenkors and Aston as a great example. No way to know where we would be today if for example, we hired Louisville's Jeff Waltz; we don't even know if he had any interest in the job, or was approached.

 

Hiring a coach is as big of a lottery as recruiting and signing a player so the hiring issues are minimal compared to the relieving of duties. SB and soccer have shown nothing to suggest those coaches should be retained past today.

 

I think there are a lot of logical holes in the original story that make us question the accuracy of the whole article. But on the other hand, no one other than those who have left the program would go on the record with a response (obviously if you want to keep your job at UT or not be blackballed in the profession).

Some people can take bits of the stories and say, "Ahhhhh, that explains why so-and-so did that or left UT". I've read somewhere that the tennis coach left because Steve Patterson bulldozed the tennis center and didn't have firm plans to build a replacement and...you know, why coach at a big university that won't even give you a straight answer as to where your home court is located?

So, incomplete journalism, but in this world of "gimmie something to consume now", it was written poorly and then published.

My wife used to work at the University, but not in any sporting capacity. When I forwarded her the article, her response was:

Very interesting!
The couple of times I was in meetings with her, she came across abrasive.
​

But that's one person's recollection and you can take that response and force it to your perspective/agenda towards Plonsky's tenure.

Based on her hiring/firing/lack-of-firing history of good and bad coaches, I hope she doesn't succeed Perrin. In fact, I want Perrin to stay.