ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996 TAG: 9604050083
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Bart Bellairs is the same basketball coach he was a month ago. He's the same guy who this winter coached VMI to its best season in almost two decades. However, that isn't what they were talking about on the VMI post Thursday.
At a storied school wringing its hands over an impending Supreme Court decision on admitting women, a school longing to somehow again revel in even modest athletic success, there is one thing besides tradition and honor that is revered.
Bellairs may have realized that in his dalliance with Marshall's coaching vacancy, but it appears he realized it too late. Less than three weeks after signing a six-year contract, the longest deal given to a coach in VMI history, Bellairs made the only decision he could. He hadn't been offered the Thundering Herd job - yet - so he took the sure thing and announced he was staying at VMI.
If there's one thing VMI treasures even more than its male history, it's loyalty. Bellairs may have had an 18-10 team this season, but he's not quite the golden boy he was. If VMI continues to win, there will be other Marshalls in other years.
That doesn't seem to bother old cadets. What was stunning to them is that Bellairs would consider leaving so soon after signing for so long.
``People here are looking at Bart differently now,'' one alumnus said. ``There were a lot of people talking about it. I'd say the feeling was `stunned.'''
One person who didn't want to talk about Bellairs' situation was VMI athletic director Davis Babb. Maybe it's because he was left speechless by what transpired. Maybe it's because he now realizes, if he didn't before, that the six-year contracts he signed recently with Bellairs and football coach Bill Stewart have a missing piece.
There's no buyout clause in either one. That's right. Bellairs could leave today or next year, or any time before 2002 without paying to break the deal. In other words, Bellairs and Stewart have security. VMI doesn't. Coaches are forever wanting long-term or rollover security.
There is a one-way clause in Bellairs' contract that states VMI must pay the coach for the remainder of the deal if he's fired without cause. Shouldn't there by a buyout covering at least a portion of the six years? It's amazing VMI gave out these kind of deals without getting a guarantee of sorts in return.
``I don't want to comment about a buyout or whether we should have one in the future,'' Babb said. ``I do want to say I'm just glad Bart's staying.''
The Keydets' program certainly isn't one that could or should keep someone from trying to advance their careers, but shouldn't there be a reason for a coach to look twice at what he was leaving? For argument's sake, what if Bellairs turns in another winner next season and goes to another program. Where's VMI then?
Bellairs' first VMI contract wasn't yet two years old when he was given a new deal. He is right in that he had to consider Marshall's interest. It's an advancement. It has a better program than VMI, and it's going to the Mid-American Conference after next season. VMI won this winter, but one season isn't a turned-around program.
What galls some VMI alumni is that Bellairs talked with not only another school, but one in the Southern Conference and even the same basketball division, and also that Babb granted permission to Bellairs to speak with Marshall athletic director Lee Moon, a VMI alumnus and Roanoke native.
Babb wasn't wrong to do that. He has to allow his coaches the opportunity to advance their careers. That doesn't mean, however, that VMI shouldn't do what it can to continue any success it might have. Something else to think about: If Bellairs had been offered the Marshall job and gone, would Keydets' star freshman Brent Conley, a West Virginia native, have followed?
This situation is likely to happen again. Bellairs is a promoter. He loves hoops and he loves headlines, and he learned something an hour up I-81 from Lefty Driesell. He's gotten North Carolina and Penn State to agree to visit Cameron Hall this December. His program has future two-for-one deals with Wake Forest and UNC Charlotte, too.
It won't be so stunning when others call in the future. The ink should be dry by then.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB