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Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread
We were strong in the WVIAC. However, we spend a lot of money on travel and lodging in the G-MAC and I think that has taken away from money spent on scholarships. Some of our teams have been dreadful lately. Fielding a team and being competitive are two different subjects in my book.
When you start to dig and talk to quality people and administrators, you start to learn some things. I certainly did. We hired a new president in 2011 named Rick Creehan. He wanted to make a lot of changes....which were certainly needed at A-B. But he did it without the proper help of a financial adviser and that proved to be a complete debacle. He resigned in 2015 after some news broke about some financial mishaps. It appears we have been on a better trend with our current president. He seems to have tried hard but inherited a tough situation. But Creehan did not resign without making some terrible decisions in the process.
Unfortunately AB got tainted with some poor decision-making by Mr. Creehan in his first years. One of his first moves on campus was to build a multi-sport stadium and start up football. Nothing wrong with that move. He hired his brother as head football coach. Nothing wrong with that move as I believe that man is a solid football coach and has been at several different D2 schools. A real issue that I believe proved bad is replacing the athletic director at the time (JD Long) and naming Creehan's brother, Dennis as AD as well. JD Long was a very good athletic director for AB and made some great hires as head coaches that led us to success during some tough years at the school. JD was well respected in the WVIAC as well. He was a solid volleyball and softball coach at AB. He graduated from AB. He just did a good job as AD. That move turned a lot of alumni off. It did me, and I have to be careful here as JD is a friend of mine. But friend or not, I felt the nepotism involved in the hire was the s.h.i.t.s. Their was an immediate outcry from a lot of alumni when this move occurred, and JD was brought back to AB within a week as an associate AD who also taught classes. It was just two years ago that JD Long was the G-MAC faculty member of the year and was up for a national award. Sooooooooo........it was not just me, or AB alums, or WVIAC administrators that felt highly of JD Long. It showed in the G-MAC......keep that in mind!!!!! I quit giving my financial support as soon as this happened. I had given money to AB athletics in consecutive years for over a decade. But I was not going to support this type of tom foolery. I gave back to Coach Zimmerman and his program in other ways.
Then at the WVIAC president's meeting in March of 2012, the presidents were to vote on WVIAC expansion. The school to add was UVA-Wise. The football schools were going to vote them in and the schools without football were not. If all the football schools and AB (which was forming football) voted for UVA-Wise, then they would be added to the WVIAC. President Creehan had told the football schools that he would vote to allow them in. All looked good. But then the president talked to his brother. Denny was not in favor of UVA-Wise getting in because they recruited heavily in the Norfolk/Richmond/Tidewater area much as the same that AB was doing at the time. So the rug was pulled out of the WVIAC football schools in a move that was looked at as self-serving and not in what was originally promised. Behind the scenes, the move for football schools to breakaway from the WVIAC took place.
What is never mentioned because I personally think a lot of the MEC posters just don't know is that AB was invited to join the Mountain East. Former Glenville athletic director Janet Bailey told me that AB was invited to join over Wheeling Jesuit in 2012 because AB had football. This occurred once Seton Hill got an immediate invite to the PSAC and left the original MEC squadron. Wheeling also voted against UVA-Wise going into the conference and they didn't have football. There was one condition: Dennis Creehan had to either resign as AD or resign as head football coach. The NCAA was frowning on AD's being head coaches. The league AD's and presidents also did not like the fact that a head football coach was not only going to be AD at the school, but he was the brother of the president. President Rick Creehan wouldn't remove his brother from one of the positions because "he didn't want other league members telling him how to run his school". Again, a move made out of nepotism that was done to protect a brother rather than probably doing what was in the best interest of AB. It was self-serving and I don't know how else to put it. It made AB look completely ridiculous. We are still having problems regaining that trust as Denny Creehan is still AD. I was actually hoping that last year he would get the Edinboro head football job as he was a finalist for it. He didn't. And here we are. Wheeling Jesuit was the last team added to the MEC. This isn't revisionist history. This is how it went down from a well-respected AD in the league at that time.
As far as the West Liberty posters, their president resigned recently under serious ethics violations. Robin Capehart was found to use state funds illegally and unethically. Those state funds were directed towards West Liberty. He took money from that and used it for HIS private company that makes 3rd-rate movies. He was caught by the state auditor. His faculty and student body called for his resignation and gave him a vote of no confidence. Mr Capehart was the ringleader of the formation of the MEC. He nominated his communications director at West Lib, Reid Amos, to be commish. He wanted a huge say in how things were done. West Lib posters are the worst attackers of AB. But yet, their president was using state funds for his own private company.
The G-MAC is a better league than the MEC. However, for a little school like AB, the travel and lodging are costing a lot of money. I know the Trevecca basketball coach told our staff that the same thing is happening to them as an athletic department. I personally don't feel that AB will get invited to the MEC as long as Denny Creehan and Reid Amos are involved. Maybe necessity eventually changes that compass. That is just opinion based on people that I have talked to.
Originally posted by BlueBlood
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When you start to dig and talk to quality people and administrators, you start to learn some things. I certainly did. We hired a new president in 2011 named Rick Creehan. He wanted to make a lot of changes....which were certainly needed at A-B. But he did it without the proper help of a financial adviser and that proved to be a complete debacle. He resigned in 2015 after some news broke about some financial mishaps. It appears we have been on a better trend with our current president. He seems to have tried hard but inherited a tough situation. But Creehan did not resign without making some terrible decisions in the process.
Unfortunately AB got tainted with some poor decision-making by Mr. Creehan in his first years. One of his first moves on campus was to build a multi-sport stadium and start up football. Nothing wrong with that move. He hired his brother as head football coach. Nothing wrong with that move as I believe that man is a solid football coach and has been at several different D2 schools. A real issue that I believe proved bad is replacing the athletic director at the time (JD Long) and naming Creehan's brother, Dennis as AD as well. JD Long was a very good athletic director for AB and made some great hires as head coaches that led us to success during some tough years at the school. JD was well respected in the WVIAC as well. He was a solid volleyball and softball coach at AB. He graduated from AB. He just did a good job as AD. That move turned a lot of alumni off. It did me, and I have to be careful here as JD is a friend of mine. But friend or not, I felt the nepotism involved in the hire was the s.h.i.t.s. Their was an immediate outcry from a lot of alumni when this move occurred, and JD was brought back to AB within a week as an associate AD who also taught classes. It was just two years ago that JD Long was the G-MAC faculty member of the year and was up for a national award. Sooooooooo........it was not just me, or AB alums, or WVIAC administrators that felt highly of JD Long. It showed in the G-MAC......keep that in mind!!!!! I quit giving my financial support as soon as this happened. I had given money to AB athletics in consecutive years for over a decade. But I was not going to support this type of tom foolery. I gave back to Coach Zimmerman and his program in other ways.
Then at the WVIAC president's meeting in March of 2012, the presidents were to vote on WVIAC expansion. The school to add was UVA-Wise. The football schools were going to vote them in and the schools without football were not. If all the football schools and AB (which was forming football) voted for UVA-Wise, then they would be added to the WVIAC. President Creehan had told the football schools that he would vote to allow them in. All looked good. But then the president talked to his brother. Denny was not in favor of UVA-Wise getting in because they recruited heavily in the Norfolk/Richmond/Tidewater area much as the same that AB was doing at the time. So the rug was pulled out of the WVIAC football schools in a move that was looked at as self-serving and not in what was originally promised. Behind the scenes, the move for football schools to breakaway from the WVIAC took place.
What is never mentioned because I personally think a lot of the MEC posters just don't know is that AB was invited to join the Mountain East. Former Glenville athletic director Janet Bailey told me that AB was invited to join over Wheeling Jesuit in 2012 because AB had football. This occurred once Seton Hill got an immediate invite to the PSAC and left the original MEC squadron. Wheeling also voted against UVA-Wise going into the conference and they didn't have football. There was one condition: Dennis Creehan had to either resign as AD or resign as head football coach. The NCAA was frowning on AD's being head coaches. The league AD's and presidents also did not like the fact that a head football coach was not only going to be AD at the school, but he was the brother of the president. President Rick Creehan wouldn't remove his brother from one of the positions because "he didn't want other league members telling him how to run his school". Again, a move made out of nepotism that was done to protect a brother rather than probably doing what was in the best interest of AB. It was self-serving and I don't know how else to put it. It made AB look completely ridiculous. We are still having problems regaining that trust as Denny Creehan is still AD. I was actually hoping that last year he would get the Edinboro head football job as he was a finalist for it. He didn't. And here we are. Wheeling Jesuit was the last team added to the MEC. This isn't revisionist history. This is how it went down from a well-respected AD in the league at that time.
As far as the West Liberty posters, their president resigned recently under serious ethics violations. Robin Capehart was found to use state funds illegally and unethically. Those state funds were directed towards West Liberty. He took money from that and used it for HIS private company that makes 3rd-rate movies. He was caught by the state auditor. His faculty and student body called for his resignation and gave him a vote of no confidence. Mr Capehart was the ringleader of the formation of the MEC. He nominated his communications director at West Lib, Reid Amos, to be commish. He wanted a huge say in how things were done. West Lib posters are the worst attackers of AB. But yet, their president was using state funds for his own private company.
The G-MAC is a better league than the MEC. However, for a little school like AB, the travel and lodging are costing a lot of money. I know the Trevecca basketball coach told our staff that the same thing is happening to them as an athletic department. I personally don't feel that AB will get invited to the MEC as long as Denny Creehan and Reid Amos are involved. Maybe necessity eventually changes that compass. That is just opinion based on people that I have talked to.
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