Headed for the border

As University of Idaho’s director of tennis, Jeff Beaman was the stabilizing force in UI’s tennis program for almost a decade. Beaman served as the head coach of the men’s team and supervised the women’s team.

He pulled double duty last semester, assuming both the men’s and women’s head coaching positions after former women’s coach Myriam Sopel left to head her own team at the University of Texas El Paso.

In a previous interview, Beaman said he rarely spent a weekend at home that semester, often traveling with the men’s and women’s team to away matches. He declined to be interviewed for this story.

Despite the extra responsibility, Beaman led both teams to win Western Athletic Conference Championships and appearances in the NCAA tournament.

Beaman’s nine years at UI came to a close this summer, as he headed nine miles west to Washington State University to become the associate head coach for the women’s tennis team.

He’s not the only UI coach to recently head for the border.

After winning a fourth-straight WAC Championship, Wayne Phipps announced in May he would step down to become director of cross country and track & field at WSU.

In his 19 years at UI, Phipps built a dynasty. He led the program to 13 conference titles in cross country and track & field and was selected 10 times as conference coach of the year. Under Phipps’ coaching, the program produced dozens of indoor and outdoor track & field champions. Phipps declined to be interviewed for this story.

Going west

The loss of coaches to larger programs has been a persistent struggle for the UI Athletic Department.

“WSU will always be a challenge to UI,” said Rob Spear, UI athletics director. “We do the best we can with our resource base.”

Spear said moving to WSU often results in a significant salary increase for coaches, and the opportunity to coach in a larger conference without having to move.

In some cases, he said coaches can see up to a 40 percent salary increase by coaching at WSU — a number he thinks is a large factor for many.

Athletic administrators have also made the move to WSU, like Matt Kleffner, who departed UI in 2013 to become senior associate director of athletics.

Kleffner said the expanded resources were one of the main draws toward WSU.

“It was a great opportunity in my career to fight some new battles,” he said. “It was a hard decision.”

With 18 years at UI, Kleffner said he dealt with similar problems year after year, such as a lack of athletic resources, restrictive policies from the state board and a lack of funding.

While he enjoyed his time at UI, Kleffner said it was the right time for him to move on in his career to face new challenges. He said WSU offered the opportunity to work with more robust programs with greater financial capabilities. He said he also saw a salary increase of about 30 percent by taking the position at WSU.

From a coaching side, Kleffner said Pac-12 schools like WSU have more academic support for student-athletes and greater athletic resources for programs. He said schools like WSU have greater facilities, which helps in training and recruiting athletes.

A new opportunity

While it’s never good to lose a coach or administrator, Spear does not see the turnover in the department as a negative.

“I think turnover, in some cases, is healthy for an organization,” Spear said. “It allows you to restructure and keep things fresh.”

Spear said the fact that coaches have been picked up by larger, more prominent programs speaks to the success and experience they have gained at UI, and helps in recruiting a replacement coach.

“If people can grow and advance their careers in your organization, then that’s a good thing,” Spear said.

He said a vacant coaching position is an opportunity for a new coach to have an impact on the program and to be successful at Idaho.

As for the impact on athletes, Spear said the coaching turnover allows for a flow of new ideas in the program, and is an accurate reflection of life in the real world. He said learning to adapt to real-world situations is an important lesson for student-athletes.

Spear said the amount of turnover in the department is a bit troubling, because of the financial costs associated with filling a vacant coaching position.

Kleffner said losing a well-established head coach has a large impact on a program. From the players they recruit to how they run practices, he said coaches can have a wide-spread control on how they run their programs.

Kleffner said Beaman and Phipps were committed to their programs at UI and stayed much longer than most coaches — who usually stay for around 4 to 5 years. He said he saw the coaches leaving as a natural progression of turnover within college athletics. He said coaches are inherently competitive in nature, so it makes sense for them to want to compete with larger programs at a higher level.

Both coaches were successful during their years at UI and left the program in better shape than when they found it, Kleffner said. He never took it personally when a coach left to take a better opportunity.

“I’d say good for them,” he said.

Spear said the department has been successful in raising money through popular sports, like football, basketball and volleyball, but thinks an increase in funds would help retain coaches and administrators.

Other coaches leave

WSU is not the only place coaches go after parting from UI.

Peter Showler led the UI women’s soccer team for almost a decade before announcing last December he would leave UI to become the Sporting Director at Eastside Timbers, a youth development program in the greater Portland area.

As head coach, Showler led the Vandals to their first conference tournament in 2010, and amassed 50 wins over his 9 years — making him the winningest coach in program history. Showler could not be reached for comment for this story.

Ashley O’Brien, who was assistant coach at the time, took over for Showler as interim head coach second semester before leaving to take an assistant coaching position at Brown University in July.

O’Brien said she enjoyed her time at UI, but took the position at Brown in order to learn from a new head coach and be closer to family.

“I really enjoyed Moscow, I think there’s a great community there,” she said. “Just for me, this was the right move at the right time.”

Moving forward

It’s a new start on many fronts for the UI tennis program.

The program left the Western Athletic Conference this summer to rejoin the Big Sky Conference, and the director of tennis position was divided into two head coaching positions.

Spear said the salary for the director of tennis will be split between the men’s and women’s head coach. He said the restructure will allow for a stronger administrative oversight of the teams.

The women’s team already has a coach, Mariana Cobra, who took over before the season started. The men’s team was not as fortunate, and began the season without a head coach. In the meantime, Art Hoomiratana, associate head coach, will coach the men’s team until a head coach is hired.

Spear said he hopes to have a men’s coach hired around Nov. 1.

As for the open head coaching position, Spear said he sees it as an opportunity for the next great UI coach.

“Next man up, next woman up,” he said. “Our goal is to put people in position to be successful, if they are, they are going to have opportunities.”

 

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