Maryland Athletics: A Point of Inflection
COLLEGE PARK, MD: August 14, 2018
President Wallace Loh
A point of inflection, in math better yet in calculus, is the point where the curve of a data line turns either concave or convex along the tangent line. In business, it’s a time of significant change in a situation, a turning point.
For Maryland athletics, specifically the football program this past weekend’s exposure by a variety of national news outlets (ESPN, for one) of the climate/environment of that program’s conduct is under review. Now is their time of that significant change. As to what direction the curve changes depends partly on an outside investigative counsel report on the factors that may have contributed to the death of Jordan McNair, a 19-year old University of Maryland football player from Baltimore. McNair died on June 13, 2018, two weeks after suffering heat stroke in May while at spring football practice.
Over the weekend the University of Maryland reacted to the news reports. The recently appointed Athletic Director, Damon Evans placed football head coach D.J. Durkin and three other assistant coaches on paid administrative leave.
Maryland Media Day – 2016 – Ice Baths after practice
Tuesday, the University of Maryland held a press conference where President Wallace Loh admitted to mistakes made by the athletic training staff and accepted legal and moral responsibility for those mistakes. Specifically stating that McNair’s care was not consistent with best practices. Additionally, early on Tuesday he along with Damon Evans met with Jordan’s parents and apologized to them for their failure and promising to share with them the outside investigative findings prior to its public release as scheduled for mid-September. Evans later announced that the assistant athletic director for sports performance Rick Court’s resignation was accepted by the university. Questions by the media of Evans later focused on the use of an ice bath for McNair while in the university’s care.
College athletics in the past weeks have come to public attention for actions involving trust by head football coaches. Whether it is Urban Meyer at The Ohio State University or D.J. Durkin at the University of Maryland, it now boils down to something other than football wins and losses or making the national playoffs tangent lines.
UMD AD Damon Evans at a news conference
(Photo by Phil Fabrizio for Montgomery Community Media)
The tangent line by which these public universities and their trustees will be measured is the line of abuse. Be it physical, verbal, mental, domestic, sexual or any other means of harm to a student-athlete, be it by a student-athlete or trusted coach/mentor the new success curve for it is measured by points of inflection along those concave or convex curves for addressing abuse. Success or failure (win or lose) is now most dependent upon going forward transparently along the positive curve rather than looking backwards at the prior curve, as in, why did we get here.
Maryland’s football season begins on September 1 at Landover, Md (FedEx Field) with a home game against Texas. By the time that transparently reported information is released Maryland will have played three games (Bowling Green – Away on Sept. 8 and then home against Temple on Sept. 15) under interim coach Matt Canada.
If you are a Terp, or a Buckeye, a fan of either, an alumnus, a MD or OSU student, a parent of a football player at any level you are well aware of the above synopsis on football. You are well aware of, perhaps even opinionated as to where to place blame on your head coaches, their bosses and employers. Now would be the time to keep those opinions in check and allow both public universities latitude to stake out their inflection points.
Head Coach D.J. Durkin – Media Day – 2016
I have covered a variety of sports at Maryland with a slant on covering those former Montgomery County high school student-athletes that have moved onto the next level. Usually, this is nearby in College Park, Md. There are seven student-athletes from Montgomery County on Maryland’s football team and 35 more student-athletes from the surrounding DVM area including Baltimore on this team.
Including their parents, siblings and relatives, this small nucleus of locally affected individuals has concerns about the future of the Maryland program and the coaches employed to support them. We should do our best to keep them in mind as they will be the chosen ones who will have first-hand knowledge of their early measured experience as they travel curves above or below the new tangent line.
All Photos are copyrighted 2016 © Fabrizio, 2018 © Fabrizio – Photoloaf | for MCM
Engage us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Tweets by @mymcmedia