VCU fires gay volleyball coach

[Drip]

Coach was 25-6. Claims he was canned because of his sexual orientation.
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8695613/vcu-rams-volleyball-coach-james-finley-says-was-fired-gay

 

[Football_Bat]

Unless the coach had a digital recorder in his pocket, it's going to be hard to prove the AD's intent.

 

[Grover]

Shoddy headline. The coach was not fired, as his contract was up and was not renewed.

 

[Drip]

Shoddy headline. The coach was not fired, as his contract was up and was not renewed.

Coach says he was fired. Just going by what he said.

 

[sprtswrtr10]

Not renewing a contract is the same as firing.
There's still being the coach, resigning and being fired.
And sometimes even resigning is being fired.

 

[User 11148]

Not renewing a contract is the same as firing.
There's still being the coach, resigning and being fired.
And sometimes even resigning is being fired.

He'd have been fired if he had not been allowed to finish out his contract. His contract had an end date ... December 31. He was not offered a new contract. That's not being fired. That's being told you're not going to be hired again.

 

[heyabbott]

Not renewing a contract is the same as firing.
There's still being the coach, resigning and being fired.
And sometimes even resigning is being fired.

He'd have been fired if he had not been allowed to finish out his contract. His contract had an end date ... December 31. He was not offered a new contract. That's not being fired. That's being told you're not going to be hired again.

so the difference between being fired because you're gay and not having your contract renewed because you're gay is...?

 

[User 11148]

Not renewing a contract is the same as firing.
There's still being the coach, resigning and being fired.
And sometimes even resigning is being fired.

He'd have been fired if he had not been allowed to finish out his contract. His contract had an end date ... December 31. He was not offered a new contract. That's not being fired. That's being told you're not going to be hired again.

so the difference between being fired because you're gay and not having your contract renewed because you're gay is...?

There's no difference, but I'm not touching that. I'm simply saying he wasn't fired. For what it's worth, though, I'm doubtful that his being gay had anything to do with it. Had he come out recently, I'd be much more inclined to think that.

 

[wicked]

How do we know that?

When did he come out? Is he on an annual contract? Did he come out after signing his last contract?

Also, there's been an AD change this year. How does that play into it?

Lots of questions to answer before coming down on either side.

 

[User 11148]

How do we know that?

When did he come out? Is he on an annual contract? Did he come out after signing his last contract?

Also, there's been an AD change this year. How does that play into it?

Lots of questions to answer before coming down on either side.

Per the article he's been there several years, but he's also got sons with his spouse (not sure of the details on that) but I got the sense his life was no secret.:

VCU has become a special place to Finley, he said, because of how fully it embraces diversity, and how it always made the coach, his husband, John Sternlicht, and their three sons feel "welcome, not tolerated." Sternlicht said much of the athletic department attended their wedding 2½ years ago.

Of course the new AD played a huge role in it.

 

[wicked]

He also may have signed a contract multiple years ago (doubtful, I know), before he was out, and it expired and gave the university an opening.

 

[heyabbott]

How do we know that?

When did he come out? Is he on an annual contract? Did he come out after signing his last contract?

Also, there's been an AD change this year. How does that play into it?

Lots of questions to answer before coming down on either side.

Per the article he's been there several years, but he's also got sons with his spouse (not sure of the details on that) but I got the sense his life was no secret.:

VCU has become a special place to Finley, he said, because of how fully it embraces diversity, and how it always made the coach, his husband, John Sternlicht, and their three sons feel "welcome, not tolerated." Sternlicht said much of the athletic department attended their wedding 2½ years ago.

Of course the new AD played a huge role in it.

Is Kevin Anderson the new AD at VCU, too?

 

[dixiehack]

I'm not ready to declare he was fired for being gay. But he better have broken a bunch of laws or NCAA rules to get canned at 25-6.

 

[Beef03]

Just playing devil's advocate here, this can't be the first time a successful head coach has been pushed out because a new AD has their coach lined up that they want to bring in.

I have no idea if the new AD is a homophobe or not, but, unless there is direct evidence to suggest he was fired/not extended because he was gay, it is pretty difficult to prove on conjecture and assumptions by the now ex-coach alone.

 

[dixiehack]

Yes, but it may be enough to draw a settlement.

 

[Beef03]

Yes, but it may be enough to draw a settlement.

This is true. Which, if I am in his spot, is what I would be shooting for anyway. If I'm a coach and an AD froze me out and then refused to offer me another contract after a 25-6 year on the assumption that it was because of my sexual orientation, I wouldn't want to work for him. I would, however, try to force a big settlement out of the school.

 

[Drip]

From what I can gather, VCU claims it wasn't happy with his performance. Yet, he was a winner. Something definitely isn't right.

 

[Mark2010]

From what I can gather, VCU claims it wasn't happy with his performance. Yet, he was a winner. Something definitely isn't right.

That happens plenty of times. Coaches (Bobby Petrino comes to mind immediately) get canned for off-the-field stuff.

But if the case was they simply decided not to renew his contract, that's perfectly legit. Unless he had some rollover clause in the contract. Otherwise, contract is up, either side is free to walk away. Would anyone howl if he had resigned to take another position?

 

[old_tony]

In 1995, Wisconsin won the men's soccer championship. That winter, the coach was fired because he offended the sensibilities of the assistant AD who oversaw the program. She hired some unaccomplished friend of hers and Wisconsin hasn't done **** in soccer since.

 

[wicked]

From what I can gather from the ESPN story, VCU claims in the ESPN story it wasn't happy with his performance. Yet, he was a winner as it said in the ESPN story. Something definitely isn't right.