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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
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By Brian Bailey |
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'As the Pirate turns'
©2005 Bonesville.net
What a week it has been in
Pirate land! If I didn’t know better, I would swear that we are all part of
a new soap opera.
I was out of town for the
weekend and missed the
e-mail correspondence that took the
East Carolina web site by storm.
When I first heard of the
original e-mail and Terry Holland’s response,
I was stunned.
After reading the Pirate
athletic director’s e-mail, I came away thinking that it was very well
written.
I still don’t think it
belonged on a university’s athletic web site, but I’m not the AD. Evidently,
Coach Holland thought better of it as well, and had it removed after a
shorter run then the movie Cat Woman had from this summer.
I still don’t completely
understand the timing of the
news from last week.
Evidently, Holland wanted to
keep his decision under wraps until the end of the season.
This is Greenville though, and
word that Herrion wouldn’t be retained leaked faster then Grandma’s faucet
on a cold day.
What we do know at this point
is that Herrion won’t be back as the Pirate coach, and East Carolina will
add yet another fired coach to its list of those still on the payroll.
Herrion leaves with three
years on his contract at 160 thousand dollars per year.
As far as a successor goes,
the word around East Carolina is that Ricky Stokes, a former player and
coach under Holland, will get a long look. Stokes didn’t get the job done at
Virginia Tech, but it can be argued that the Hokies' program has made a
splash in the Atlantic Coast Conference with the players that Stokes
recruited.
Stokes was the hot name around
the coliseum during Tuesday night's high school playoffs. The coaching
fraternity is a small one, and word gets around quickly. Several different
sources indicated that they felt Stokes was in the running.
The Matt Doherty rumors have
been squelched for now. Doherty reportedly has no interest in the position
at East Carolina. That could change, of course, if Holland would decide to
go in that direction.
Dave Odom was instrumental in
getting Holland to East Carolina. Now, there is word that Odom may have had
his fill in Columbia, and could want to return to East Carolina to help out
his friend, Holland.
Odom’s return might also give
son Lane a new start in coaching. Lane Odom is a former ECU assistant who
ran into trouble as an assistant at Missouri. The theory goes that Daddy
Dave might come to ECU and help his son get back into the business.
The Odom family reportedly
loved their time in Greenville. Daddy Dave, by the way, holds a Masters in
Education from ECU (1969).
Each scenario makes sense in
some aspects, but the collective speculation just adds to the “As the Pirate
Turns” soap opera.
Stay tuned, because another
chapter seems to come out daily!
First pitch coming Friday
Every time I ride down Charles
Boulevard the new baseball castle looks that much prettier.
It’s hard to believe that the
work of so many will finally be able to be enjoyed by baseball fans from all
over.
It’s a big day on Friday, as
East Carolina hosts Michigan in the Keith LeClair Classic.
The weather is expected to be sunny, but cool.
March baseball couldn’t be any
other way, could it?
I can’t wait to tour the berm,
sit in the press box, and enjoy Pirate baseball from a true gem,
Clark-LeClair stadium.
We’ll see you bright and early
on Friday!
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Brian Bailey.
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02/23/2007 01:31:34 AM |
