A Volley of Conflict : Was Suwara a Victim of SDSU Politics or the Budget Crunch?

When Rudy Suwara turned 50 last fall, his San Diego State women’s volleyball team, as a joke, presented him with a rocking chair.

He even coached a match that night from the rocking chair.

What he didn’t know was that the rocking chair would turn out to be his first retirement gift.

This summer, after 16 years of coaching SDSU volleyball teams, Suwara was fired by the Aztec athletic department.

And so this morning, one day after the expiration of his contract, Suwara is looking to lead SDSU into a different court--the courtroom.

Suwara argues he has been replaced by a low-cost, less-qualified coach who, Suwara, two assistants and several of the SDSU players say, has broken NCAA rules and disobeyed Suwara in the past while serving as an Aztec assistant.

And in an interview this week, Suwara said Fred Miller, SDSU athletic director, is “killing” sports other than football and basketball at SDSU and that Jayne Hancock, SDSU associate athletic director and senior women’s administrator, has been “after” him since the parents of one of his players--Shannon Matthew--filed a Title IX complaint against the school in 1990.

Miller attributed Suwara’s dismissal to the school’s ongoing budget crisis and said the department had done a preliminary investigation--without finding any substance--regarding allegations that Myles Gabel, Suwara’s former assistant and the new head women’s volleyball coach, broke NCAA rules by holding illegal mandatory practices last spring.

Now that the alleged NCAA violations are cropping up as part of Suwara’s case, though, Miller said he and John Wadas, an SDSU associate athletic director in charge of NCAA compliance, will conduct a full investigation.

Suwara was informed July 9 that he was out as coach after an SDSU committee interviewed each of the four full-time men’s and women’s volleyball coaches. He said he offered to take a pay cut because of the budget problems but was never given the opportunity. According to Miller, Suwara’s pay-cut offer was “after the fact.”

The story takes even more turns:

--One player, Jennifer Wrightson, has transferred to the University of San Diego because of Suwara’s dismissal. A couple of other players have threatened to leave as well.

--An SDSU volunteer assistant coach, Bob Cremeans, who lived at Gabel’s house for about three weeks this summer has moved out because he says that Gabel worked behind the scenes to back-stab Suwara. That charge is backed by Suwara, another assistant and several players. Cremeans said he will not return to SDSU this fall if Gabel is the coach.

Suwara has hired the lawyer, Kirk Boyd, who filed a sex-discrimination suit and eventually won an out-of-court settlement last spring in which Cal State Fullerton agreed to improve its women’s sports programs.

“We’re going to bring out the truth,” Boyd said. “We’re going to show that Myles Gabel is not nearly as qualified as Rudy Suwara.

“We’re going to show that the interview process was a sham, that Rudy was railroaded, and that their budget pleas were a sham. They never offered Rudy the position at the same amount of money they’re paying Myles.”

Said Suwara: “I’m happy to have legal representation because I’m completely defenseless in the way they assaulted my career. I take it as a vendetta against the team because one player’s parents one time filed a Title IX suit. . . .

“I think that’s when I became a marked man.”

Said Miller: “There is no validity to that. This very simply is a president (SDSU President Thomas Day) asking for three (fully funded) positions to be returned to the university. Those three have been returned--the women’s volleyball coach, the track and field coach (Gary Stathas, who was eliminated early in the summer) and the football recruiting coordinator position (eliminated after NCAA legislation this summer).

“It’s part and parcel of the economic situation in California.”

THE FIRING

Suwara said he was told July 6 by Miller that he had to attend a meeting the next morning because the volleyball program was being restructured. Suwara, who has coached volleyball at SDSU for 16 years, said he was told that the coaching staff would be reduced from four to two coaches and that all four coaches would be interviewed. The final two would be chosen on the basis of merit.

Suwara was leaving for a vacation in New York at 9 a.m. July 7, so he was told to be in for a 7 a.m. interview. He arrived and interviewed with a committee consisting of Al Luginbill, SDSU football coach; Dave Ohton, SDSU strength coordinator; and Jayne Hancock, SDSU associate athletic director.

Suwara, whose salary was about $70,000 last year, said he telephoned Miller on Thursday morning, July 9, and reminded him that he was willing to take a pay cut.

At 11 p.m. July 9, from Buffalo, Suwara telephoned Miller and learned that he was being jettisoned.

“I said, ‘Fred, on the basis of what?’ ” Suwara said. “He said, ‘On the basis of the evaluation, the other people interviewed better.’

“After 16 years of successful coaching. . . .”

Gabel, who was the head coach at New Mexico State for three seasons before arriving at SDSU in 1990, was named as the women’s volleyball coach, and Jack Henn is the men’s coach. Mark Warner serves as an assistant to both programs. Neither of the three positions are fully funded.

“Hey, I’ll match my record against Gabel’s or Warner’s,” Suwara said.

Suwara’s SDSU women’s teams have gone 431-204-3 and qualified for the NCAA tournament in nine of the past 11 seasons. They have won 20 or more matches in 11 of his 16 seasons.

As it turned out, Suwara said he later discovered that during the July interview process, Gabel was rallying players on the team in an effort to drum up support. Several players confirmed that Gabel telephoned them and asked them to send Miller letters supporting him.

“The nerve of Myles to call me and disturb me while I’m coaching (at a camp) and tell me I need to call Fred Miller and give (Gabel) my support,” said Gracie Schutt, SDSU’s best player. “I called Fred Miller and told him I wouldn’t choose between them. I told him I don’t think players should be involved.

“One thing I respect about Rudy: He was confident enough not to get the players involved. Myles wasn’t.”

Said Gabel: “Sure, I was applying for a position, and I looked for support from the coaches and people I have worked with.”

Graduate assistant coach Missy McLinden also said Gabel undermined Suwara as far back as last season.

“There were numerous times when Myles would encourage girls to talk to him instead of Rudy,” McLinden said.

Said Gabel: “I’ve never done anything to undermine Rudy. Obviously, a head coach and assistants have their differences, but we worked them out inside our offices. I respect Rudy as a coach and as a friend. He brought me to SDSU.”

Cremeans, 39, a volunteer coach last fall, lived with Gabel and his wife for about three weeks this summer when he was without a roommate. But Cremeans, after investigating the situation on his own, moved out of Gabel’s house and has decided not to return to SDSU this fall.

“Some things started happening to open my eyes, things Myles was doing that weren’t right,” said Cremeans, who sent the letter testifying to Gabel’s alleged NCAA infractions to Boyd. “The administration was doing some things that weren’t right, either. The lying that was going on . . .”

Cremeans, for example, said Gabel offered him an assistant’s job for this fall for $12,000 a year. Then, Cremeans said, in early August, Gabel offered him the same job for $2,000 a year, with no explanation of the reduction in salary.

“This comes out of left field,” Gabel said. “The state has no budget yet. The only time I’ve talked to Bob about money was when we wanted to help him until we got a budget. We talked to him one time and said we’d like to give you some money because you’ve worked here for a year (as a volunteer).”

Cremeans also said Gabel telephoned him in early July asking for his support before the administration’s decisions were announced.

“He told me he had Fred’s support and that they had finally found a way to retire Rudy,” Cremeans said. “He wanted my support by way of a letter or fax to Fred Miller.”

Cremeans said he could not and would not choose between Gabel and Suwara.

‘ASTERISK PAPER’

What especially bothered Cremeans and others was a two-week period last spring when they say Gabel blatantly violated NCAA rules and Suwara’s orders by calling for mandatory practices.

Suwara, assistant coaches McLinden and Cremeans and players Schutt and Pam Hope all say that while Suwara was on a fishing trip to New Zealand in March, Gabel ordered mandatory practices during a time which no practices were supposed to be held.

They say Gabel scheduled mandatory practices and, when some players and Cremeans and McLinden complained that the practices were against NCAA rules, Gabel typed up what later became known as the “Asterisk Paper.” It was, according to Cremeans, McLinden and Hope, a mandatory practice schedule for the two-week period, but in place of the word “mandatory,” Gabel typed in asterisks.

Said Cremeans: “He said to the team, ‘You see the asterisks? You haven’t heard this from me, but the asterisks are for mandatory practices.’

“It hit the fan when Rudy came back and the girls showed him the paper. Myles denied it, of course. . . .

“That’s important in two senses. First, Rudy says no (practices), but the NCAA says no, also.”

Gabel denies there were any mandatory practices.

“The sheet given to the team was a calendar for two weeks of practice,” Gabel said. “The asterisks were days that the gym was available. At no time was I ever in the gym.”

Suwara said he reported the incident to SDSU administration officials. Jim Malik, SDSU’s NCAA faculty athletic representative, said Suwara did report the incident to him, but not until after Suwara was dismissed as coach.

“This is such a minor infraction,” Malik said. “Assuming there is something there, if I take another month or two (before investigating), that’s OK. It sounds like the coach pushed the rules a bit, and we’ll take care of it. This would not jeopardize any student-athletes’ eligibility.”

Malik said he orally notified the NCAA but, he said, the NCAA might not even accept the paperwork because it is not a major infraction.

Said Miller: “We’ll take all the appropriate steps and give a full, written report to (President Day).”

Suwara is bitter over several things. He said he asked repeatedly for a three-year contract such as those given to football coaches, new basketball coach Tony Fuller and women’s basketball coach Beth Burns. He never got one.

He also is angry that former football coach Denny Stolz is still on the payroll when he was fired in 1988; that the school has reached a settlement with Dave Lay, who was fired as an assistant football coach last spring; and that Dan Underwood was reassigned away from his role as an assistant football coach last spring but was still on the athletic department’s payroll through last week.

“We have to cut volleyball because of the mistakes made in football?” Suwara said. “That’s what we’re talking about?

“Fred Miller is supposed to be the savior of this department and he has been killing it. He has been killing the minor sports.”

Said Miller: “We are faced with maintaining a balanced budget. We examine the income producers we have--mainly football. Basketball is not a budget plus for us, but it’s not a loss. What sports do we cut if we have to come back to fiscal solvency?”

Suwara said he also complained from time to time that women’s volleyball, classified as a Tier I (high-priority) sport at SDSU, was not being treated equally with other Tier I sports, especially football and men’s basketball. Among his complaints were inequities in how practice time is assigned at Peterson Gym and in what meals were available for his players during preseason training camp.

And he believes that Hancock has wanted his exit since the Title IX complaint was filed in 1990. In that matter, player Shannon Matthew’s parents complained that there were disparities between men’s and women’s sports in practice facilities, locker rooms, equipment, transportation and coaching contracts, among other things. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigated, and SDSU agreed to beef up its women’s program.

Suwara also said he originally wanted to hire Lindy Viras, the current women’s volleyball coach at Fresno State, as his assistant instead of Gabel but that Hancock forced him to hire Gabel--an old acquaintance of Hancock’s from when they both worked at USC.

Hancock denied that, saying she wasn’t even on the search committee that Suwara chaired.

“We haven’t gotten along the last two, 2 1/2 years,” Suwara said of his relationship with Hancock. “I thought we got along OK until (Gabel was hired). . . .

“I think she’s been after me. In all the years I’ve coached, I’ve never been treated as poorly as by Jayne.”

Said a source in the SDSU athletic department: “Basically, he and Jayne do not get along. I think from day one she did not like him and was determined to get rid of him.”

Hancock refused to comment on the accusations.

HIS SUPPORTERS

Wrightson has transferred. A handful of others have talked of doing so, according to Schutt. Hope, a junior from Phoenix, asked for a letter of release from her scholarship before changing her mind, saying she didn’t want to be “forced out of school.”

Still, she is not happy.

“I thought they completely treated Rudy unfair,” Hope said.

Suwara and Boyd say the lawsuit will name “a lot of defendants,” including Gabel, Hancock and Miller.

A letter-writing campaign has been started; Gracie Schutt says she and her husband, Bill, have collected about 100 letters of protest to deliver to Day.

Donna Lopiano, the executive director of the National Organization for Women, has written a letter of protest to Day, as has Doug Beal, who coached the 1984 U.S. Olympic women’s team to a gold medal and is a longtime friend of Suwara’s.

“After 16 years, what about loyalty?” Suwara asked. “I’ve had a successful program that obeyed NCAA rules.”

As Boyd continues to gather information for his lawsuit, he says he has enough material to document his belief that Gabel was going to be installed as coach even before the interview process began in July.

“It was rigged,” he said.

Miller denies that assertion.

“Factually, he’s totally inaccurate,” Miller said. “It’s a slap at the individuals involved in the process. I reject it categorically.”

In the suit against Cal State Fullerton, Boyd won an settlement by which the school promised to reinstate women’s volleyball, create women’s soccer, create a gender equality committee and establish a concrete timetable for the school to improve women’s sports by way of increasing the number of positions available and funding.

At SDSU, another season has arrived. Gabel opened practice on Friday. He said he had no idea Cremeans moved out of his house because he was upset. And, he said, as of Wednesday, he thought Cremeans would be returning to the program.

“I never had any inclination that he was upset,” Gabel said.

For their part, Suwara and many members of the current SDSU volleyball team are hoping Boyd’s magic can work one more time.

“It was a great place to work but now, with all of this, it kind of sours your taste on Division I,” Cremeans said.

Said Schutt: “We want justice done. This wasn’t handled properly. We want to help Rudy out.”

And as their first match in early September closes in, Schutt remains hopeful that somehow, some way, Suwara will be back.

“I have a lot of faith,” Schutt said. “I do a lot of praying.

“It hurts.”