Sports


	Pay increase might have saved a good coach

			by Kyle Ringo The Metropolitan

	Just nine days after completing Metroâs most successful season, menâs and womenâs swimming and diving coach Rob Nasser resigned March 23 to accept a full-time position in the schoolâs Information and Technology department. The move provides Nasser more than a 500 percent pay increase ÷ from $6,000 a year to more than $30,000 annually as a Network Analyst Administrator One ÷ otherwise known as a big time computer guy. If Nasser does as well with computers as he does with swimmers, Metroâs computer labs might one day be, well, useful. During his tenure, Nasser twice has produced the top academic performance in the nation from a womenâs swimming team. The Metro men were fifth academically for fall 1997. Nasser has coached one national champion in the pool along with countless All-Americans.

	While Nasserâs resignation certainly surprised some ÷ the swimming and diving athletes imparticular ÷ it amounts to another, in a lengthening line, of Metroâs bottom feeder coaches happily bidding farewell to the Athletics department and the measly pittance theyâve been paid. Nasser, 28, is the fourth priority four coach to leave the school in less than two years. He is not the first to cite salary as a primary motivation for quitting. The other three were tennis coaches, two of which listed their meager salaries as at least part of their reason for leaving. Truth be told, Nasser is leaving behind one family of sorts to start another. He has been considering getting married and having children for several years but never believed he was financially able to do so, he said. ãEven making the $6,000 a year that I make, it was a tough decision,ä Nasser said. There are 10 different sports at Metro ÷ a condition of its eligibility for participation in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference ÷ five each for men and women. The funding for Metro sports programs is doled out using a priority system. The menâs basketball team and the womenâs volleyball team receive the most money as priority one sports. Both tennis teams and both swimming teams are priority four sports which get the least amount of funding. The system has been in place since the late 1980s and most administrators seem to think it is working fine. But Metroâs difficulty in retaining its priority four coaches demonstrates that it is not good enough or fair enough. ãAnytime somebody says,Î do you think itâs all fair,âä Athletics Director William Helman said. ãWell, no I donât think itâs fair. ãBut we would have to make all our sports mediocre to make it fair.ä Fair enough. It makes sense to devote more money to sports that are widely enjoyed. Schools are more likely to receive attention for a successful basketball team than, say, a solid swimming team. That is just a fact of life. But it is not fair to the athletes when a school recruits them, promising a stable learning environment and then fails to uphold its end of the bargain. Maybe it hasnât quite gotten that far at Metro, but things are definitely headed in the wrong direction. The solution eluding everyone is this simple. Pay good coaches a livable wage. Helman agrees. He said he would like to see all his head coaches become full-time staff. Helman has also gone to the trouble of trying to find other avenues for part-time coaches in tennis and swimming to make extra money at the school. Nasserâs new job is proof. The Athletics department helped Nasser get started with the Information and Technology department on a part-time basis, Helman said. Nasser has taught swim classes at Metro, coached club teams and even worked at McDonaldâs as a way of supplementing his passion, but he is tired of the hassle. ãI am of the opinion that you reward success,ä Nasser said. ãI think it is outstanding that the basketball and volleyball programs have had success here. ãI think its too bad that swimming isnât looked at in a higher light.ä Anyone wishing for swimming or tennis to rival more popular sports is living in fantasy land.But Metro fields teams in these sports, so it should do its very best if it is going to do it at all. Paying $6,000 to someone to coach two swimming teams while the menâs basketball coach rakes in $58,000 and the womenâs volleyball coach pockets $43,000 is unconscionable if the aim is stability. So instead of saying its a bad situation. Helman, the Faculty Athletic Advisory Counsel, which has the power to make recommendations in this area, and President Sheila Kaplan should fix it. Instead, Metro is letting a dedicated coach walk away. ãItâs unfortunate that the attitude seems to be Î Well weâll find someone. We found you,ä Nasser said. They will. But how long will that person stay?