Guest column: Losing assets in athletics

I was very disturbed by last week's news about the departure of women's soccer coach Brian Pensky, who left the university to take the same position at the University of Tennessee. Pensky is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet — and one whom any parent would love to have their daughter play for in college. He is a loyal dog, and has sweat through some rough, injury-riddled seasons during his seven years at this university in order to build a program that now consistently ranks in the top 20. I do not hold his decision against him; Pensky deserves to go where he will be properly compensated for his worth, which has become considerable. Ultimately, after Soccer America magazine recognized him as their 2010 National Coach of The Year, his value went up significantly.

When it came time to negotiate his contract, Tennessee stepped up to the plate and made Pensky an offer he couldn't refuse. Maryland couldn't — or wouldn't — respond to the challenge. This is just an example of what we have become: a financial basket case that has cut non-revenue sports and is now starting to lose coaches. The fact that the head coach of the men's track and field team, Andrew Valmon, is also head coach of the USA track and field team, which will compete in the Olympics in London this summer, did not save the sport from the chopping block. This trend, if it continues, will change the face of Maryland athletics.

Pensky is a rising star in American soccer; he proved that an ACC squad can go toe-to-toe with traditional league powers like North Carolina and Duke. It would only have been a matter of time before Pensky would have helped this university reach the Final Four — a fact I am certain was not lost on Tennessee. And while the ACC is still widely considered the best Division 1A soccer conference in the country on both the women's and men's sides, evidence now suggests ACC prominence in soccer is not enough to keep someone like Pensky here. His departure indicates the university is turning into a stepping stone for coaches to punch their tickets and then move on elsewhere; in this budgetary environment it is only going to get harder to hold onto the best.

Tennessee has a huge fan base and a ton of money, thanks largely to their successful football program. They play in the cavernous Neyland Stadium — the third-largest non-racing stadium in the country with a capacity of 102,455 — and they usually have little problem filling it up.

Contrast this to the situation at Maryland, where our football team plays in 54,000-seat Byrd Stadium and was only able to average 42,355 fans per home game last year. Maryland's biggest crowd was 53,627 against West Virginia. At this point, with football in the tank, the athletics department is now depending on a first-year men's basketball coach, Mark Turgeon, to pay the bills around here. The men's basketball team has been as good as the football team has been bad. Maryland fans should be grateful that Turgeon is employed here or things would be worse — far worse than they are now. Unless there is a quick turnaround in the football team's fortunes, it is difficult to see light at the end of the financial tunnel. When revenue sports catch a cold, the non-revenue sports get pneumonia. It's as simple as that.

If Maryland can lose a coach like Pensky, then it is reasonable to ask who else might leave in the future. We won't have to wait long to find out. In any given two-to-three year period, a fair number of coaches' contracts come up for negotiation. At that point, we will find out if Athletic Director Kevin Anderson is serious about matching the offers of rival schools and holding onto his best coaches. In these circumstances, I cannot fault any coach for making the decision that is right for them and their families.

Mike Fekula is a 1984 university alumnus. He can be reached at fmtico8@hotmail.com.