By KIRK BEY | La Crosse Tribune
UW-La Crosse athletic director Joe Baker has had to hire a wrestling coach under less-than-ideal circumstances before. Now he’ll have to do it again.
Baker said Monday that UW-L’s search for a new wrestling coach has been closed due to an administrative error. It was an error that Baker said was not discovered until late last week.
Baker said parts of the paperwork outlining the position, which had been initially approved and was advertised nationwide in July as a three-quarter time position (50 percent running UW-L’s adventure program, 25 percent coaching), had somehow been changed to describe the job as a 12-month position after it had been posted.
Baker said the discrepancy was not brought to his attention until after former UW-L coach Tim Fader, Russ Peloquin and Brad Bruhn, the three finalists for the job, had their on-campus interviews. All three had applied for the job under the premise it was a nine-month position.
Fader served as UW-L’s head coach from 1998 until July 2004, when he resigned to take the head-coaching position at UW-Whitewater.
“The (search-and-screen) process has been shut down, “said Baker, who hopes to make an emergency hire by Aug. 29. “Now we are in another process, one where I can go out and contact any one who I think is qualified for the job and might want it.”
Whomever Baker hires will be coming in on a one-year interim basis. It’s the same situation as a year ago when he hired Nate Skaar after Fader resigned.
Skaar, who led UW-L to a WIAC title and fourth-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships last season, applied for the job on a full-time basis. One of the requirements of the position is a master’s degree, something Skaar does not have.
Baker said the structure of the position, which had been 50 percent running the adventure program, 25 percent coaching and 25 percent coordinating the climbing wall in the Eagle Center, was revised to be a nine-month position when the job was posted in early July.
However, Baker said at least six different departments at UW-L ” including the College of Exercise and Sports Science, Human Resources and Affirmative Action ” reviewed the paperwork. Baker said while some of paperwork listed the position as it had been advertised, other parts of it had been revised to list the job as a 12-month position.
“No one made an intentional mistake. It just slipped through the cracks, and no one could have noticed it, “Baker said. “We’re all human.”
UW-L senior Ryan Allen, the two-time defending Division III national champion at heavyweight, did not know the severity of the situation until late Monday afternoon.
“It is kind of frustrating, especially after losing Tim last year, “Allen said. “We didn’t know what was going on, but everything turned out OK.
“I think some of the guys are worried and frustrated. But at the same time we have some good upperclassmen around who can lead the way. Billy (UW-L assistant coach Billy Huebner) is still around, and he’s keeping things together. We wish we could get a head coach, but no one is panicking.”
That includes Baker, who knows the university is in a difficult position.
“We’ve been through this before and ended up getting quality people, “Baker said. “We’ll try to do it again and go from there.”
Kirk Bey can be reached at (608) 791-8414, or at [email protected]
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