FSU Coaching Situation/Changes in Tallahassee

by **StrykerFSU** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:02 am

It appears that the Bill Harkins era has come to an unexpected end at Florida State. The word on the street is that Harkins resigned over the weekend after some dialogue with the team's captains concerning the future of the program.

My interactions with Coach Harkins were always positive and as a fan of the program, I'm discouraged by this turn of events. Good luck to both Coach and the team.

**Sponsor**

by **CATLAX MAN** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:27 am

This, obviously, would be huge news, but it might be better from restraining from speculation until official word comes from either Coach Harkins or the team.

by **AlumniLax** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 12:33 pm

i wonder if the team has done again what they did to hugh?

by **EvanFSU** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 1:25 pm

I would like to take the time to clear up the situation before it gets out of hand. Last week, five members of the team authored a letter to coach Harkins about the current state of the team. This letter was written only after several unsuccessful attempts at meeting with the coaches in person. The intent of the letter was only to offer input into making us a better team. What I will mention is that it focused around Coach Harkins refusal to scout our oppenents, while our opponents recently knew everything about us. It also voiced our concern for the lack of stability we have had in practice and in games. This letter came from the elected leaders of the team and nobody else.
Needless to say, Coach Harkins took our firm stance as an insult to what he's done with the program. His response to our letter insulted members of the entire team, even those that had no prior knowledge of the letter. We as a team have met since Coach Harkins announced his departure, and have decided to move on with our season despite his cowherdous act. Once again, I stress their was no malicious intent on our part towards him, we just wanted to get better! We are very grateful for what Coach Harkins did for our program, but we remain shocked and angered by the fact that such a successful person could quit on an entire team over some constuctive criticism.

by **onpoint** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 1:45 pm

This begs two serious questions:

1. Who will coach the 'Noles the rest of the way?

2. What becomes of the $350,000 donation to the school for a turf field?

Yikes, appears things are not at all well in Tallahassee. :shock:

by **StrykerFSU** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:27 pm

While I don't know what will happen with the donation and I won't speculate...ground has been broken on the new field and the work continues as of today.

by **Danny Hogan** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:29 pm

i wouldnt' be surprised if the rest of teh team is currently authoring a letter to the 5 members who wrote the original one.

by **onpoint** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:44 pm

On the subject of scouting, you might be surprised to know that CSU's head coach Flip Naumburg rarely does any of it either. His focus is on getting his team to play the game his way and everything else takes care of itself. Most of the scouting falls in the hands of the older players and the assistant coaches. Just some food for thought.

by **Gopherlax29** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:27 pm

this could bring up another subject on scouting of other teams. As we recently played FSU and we had no idea about them at all, and apparently they had none about us. The game was a very well contested one and fun to play in. My question is how many of your coaches do hardcore scouting for OOC games vs in-conference etc..?

Also, sorry about the loss of your coach he seemed like a very nice guy when we were down in tallahassee.

by **AlumniLax** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 5:05 pm

why does this seem to happen to FSU? is it the players or some other factor hear....

by **concerned FSU parent** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 9:49 pm

I also would like to take the time to clear up this situation, which is already out of hand. When last I checked, none of the five authors were any more qualified to coach a lacrosse team than me. The elected “leaders” (a debatable title) of the team clearly showed lack of respect for themselves, their coach and especially the other 35 members of the team when they took it upon themselves to write such an unprofessional, amateurish letter to our coaches.

What EvanFSU calls a firm stance is nothing more than a whiny attempt to discredit two very knowledgeable, respected individuals. After discussing the contents of their letter with other teammates, I heard absolutely no one say they were insulted by Coach Harkins’ response. Matter of fact, they said they to would have resigned if they had received such a letter. The letter written by the “elected leaders” makes no attempt to amicably settle any issues, but rather is a personal attack on two undeserving people. Anyone who has read the letter would not be shocked or angered at all that Coach Harkins resigned. If the “elected leaders” were so worried about the team, they should have waited until the 2004-2005 season came to an end to air their dirty laundry. “Elected leaders” are supposed to keep their personal feelings out of leadership decisions. Guess we will just have to wait and see how they their expertise to work.

I only wish Coach Harkins and Coach Waesche would reconsider and come back to FSU.

by **s-kim77** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:28 pm

Gopherlax29 wrote:this could bring up another subject on scouting of other teams. As we recently played FSU and we had no idea about them at all, and apparently they had none about us. The game was a very well contested one and fun to play in. My question is how many of your coaches do hardcore scouting for OOC games vs in-conference etc..?

Also, sorry about the loss of your coach he seemed like a very nice guy when we were down in tallahassee.

Back when I played in the MDIA, we scouted the top tier teams, (BYU, CSU, Sonoma) and it helped a little, but I don't think it was a determining factor in whether or not we won or lost the games. I suppose it would help to know who the top guns on a specific team are, but I played on the defensive side of the ball, so i may be biased. I guess, scouting helps the defense more so than the offense??? Not sure.
It's too bad things have turned kinda ugly over in Tallahassee, it almost sounds like a case of he said-she said with the contents of this letter.
Best of luck with the rest of the season FSU.

by **EvanFSU** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:34 pm

To all Concerned FSU parents and the MDIA community;

This is the last message you will hear from the FSU players about this topic. To begin, I want to make sure this situation is not looked upon in compariosn to the firing of Hugh Nunn several years ago. Very few players currently are on the roster that date back to Hugh, and the situations only comparison is that they are only several years apart.

When I mentioned earlier the resons for the letter, I only touched on certain things that were mentioned. I should not have gone into any details, but scouting and such was just one of several issues brought up. Many of you are probably thinking that this letter was written emotionally after a hard loss to Minnesota, but do note it took 4 days to prepare. In fact, I made sure we didnt send it out distraught right after the Minnesota game.

In no way did we loose faith in our coaches. In fact, this was told to them on several occasions. We know what they did for us. However, the policy on our team involves player input. It always has, and will continue that way until FSU can support a large coaching staff. This concept of player input was also supported by Coach Harkins, and was a successful component to our team.

Nothing else can be said about the situation other than no malicious intent was intended. We were simply at a down point in our season, and were looking for a spark. The team has been in contact with Coach Harkins, but emotions are split on the situation. Contrary to Concerned fsu parents beliefs, MANY players are offened by his decision and his comments that he sent back to the team. For if this were not the case, there would be an overhwelming majority beggining him back.

Nobody uninvolved in this situation can truely grasp what it has done to our lacrosse team. While we stand united and determined to finish the season, we are at odds about how we go forward. FSU lacrosse was certainly better with Coach Harkins, and he will be missed. The five of us are devistated by the events, and those that think we were being ungrateful and immature, that is simply not the case.

A very upset FSU player rep
Evan Goldberg

by **onpoint** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:45 pm

I had a long reply worded, but instead I will just say that this is an unfortunate turn of events for the FSU program. Good luck to all parties in getting back on your feet. Who knows? It might be what the team needed to kick it up a notch this year. But for the future? I guess we'll have to wait and see what will become of Florida State lacrosse.

by **Walter** on Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:47 pm

I am very sorry for this turn of events, but as I believe we will see, you were better with him than without him. I cant imagine it but i do believe that FSU will now not make the playoffs and will go downhill for several years until they can get some new people in there to run things correctly. It is to bad but FSU will now go back to where they were after Nunn, and be a middle of the pack team.