WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010


KLMNO COLLEGES


S


D3


Eaton aims to get answers for Maryland ‘Straight shooter’ steps into role of interim athletic director with a new focus on how he delivers the message


by Steve Yanda


There still are days — such as those when the NCAA offers a faulty interpretation of the color wheel — when the old Randy Ea- ton rears his obstinate, ear- steaming head. For the most part, though, that man has been re- placed by a 49-year-old with a more enlightened approach, one that earned him unanimous de- scription as a sound choice to di- rect Maryland’s athletic depart- ment while the school seeks someone to fill the role full-time. This spring, Debbie Yow rec- ommended Eaton — the depart- ment’s chief financial officer — read “The Speed of Trust” by Ste- phen M.R. Covey, and when Ea- ton was named interim athletic director on June 28 after Yow left to take over the athletic program at North Carolina State, he real- ized some of the book’s themes applied to the task he suddenly faced.


Regardless of whether Eaton ends up a candidate for the per- manent position — he said he has not yet made that decision — three of the primary subjects he must address in the coming months stem from questions posed in Covey’s book, which stresses the importance of build- ing trust: What’s the one thing the Maryland athletic depart- ment does that it should stop do- ing? What’s the one thing Mary- land does that it should continue doing? What’s the one thing Maryland is not doing that it should start? Eaton said he doesn’t have the answers yet, but as he reaches out to Maryland boosters and follow- ers over the next few weeks, those are the feelers he’ll be extending — the kind he believes will help his successor develop a vision and a direction for a $55 million op- eration. “I don’t think we need to re-


invent the wheel here, in the in- terim, but I think it’s vital that when the next AD comes in, they have this information from the people who support our pro- grams,” Eaton said. “Give him or her some ideas when they step in the door.” Last week, Maryland assem- bled a 17-person search commit- tee to vet athletic director candi- dates, though the process will not gather steam until a new school president is named. Current president C.D. Mote is retiring


community to get the answers he desired.


Via e-mails and a phone call,


Eaton picked the brain of one of his first cousins, Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione, but the maturity he’d developed over the past dec- ade already had equipped him with the mind-set necessary to face his tasks.


JUANA ARIAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Randy Eaton moves from chief financial officer to interim athletic director at Maryland, replacing Debbie Yow, who is leaving for N.C. State.


Aug. 31, and Chancellor William E. Kirwan said he expects Mote’s successor to be named sometime in August. Kirwan also said he ex- pects the school’s athletic direc- tor search to take three to four months.


From the time Eaton first as- sumed an interim athletic direc- tor role — in November 1997 at East Tennessee State — he’s al- ways been the interrogatory type. Back then, though, he didn’t yet understand the delicate link be- tween message and delivery. When there was a challenge to be met, Eaton did so in a manner that would make a Fourth of July celebration seem subtle. He knew no other way. When


Eaton, then 25, was a medical technologist preparing to enter dental school in San Antonio, he decided he instead wanted to pursue a career in college athlet- ics. His wife, Jeannette, told Ea- ton he had five years to receive all


the schooling and training he needed. At that point, he had to have attained “a real job.” Within five years, the Eatons had moved to Johnson City, Tenn., where Randy found work as ETSU’s tick- et manager.


When he became interim AD six years later, ETSU faced a $400,000 deficit. For a program not in the upper echelon of col- lege athletics, that was a signifi- cant hole. So Eaton made clear to his staff that temporary sacrifices would have to be made until a so- lution could be found, and then he worked to finalize dates at Mi- ami (Fla.) and Mississippi State team the following football sea- son, so-called guarantee games that netted ETSU enough payoff to close its financial gap. “That’s what you appreciate, when an athletic director comes in and closes the door and tells you like it is,” said Paul Hamilton, who was the ETSU football coach from 1997 to 2003 and now is the coach at Brevard (N.C.) College.


“There were no gray areas as far as what we needed to do from a standpoint of not only the foot- ball program, but the athletic de- partment itself. And that’s what you want in an athletic director. You want somebody that’s going to shoot straight with you and that you can talk to and solve problems with.” The ability to simultaneously give bad news and engender re- spect has been one of Eaton’s most invaluable traits through- out his career. When he moved to the University of Houston and took over an in-house ticket op- eration in need of considerable restructuring, Eaton accom- plished the task efficiently, ac- cording to Chet Gladchuk, Hous- ton’s athletic director from 1997 to 2001. “I don’t think anyone walks into a job and all of the sudden you say, ‘Hey, they have all the an- swers,’ ” said Gladchuk, now the athletic director at the Naval Academy. “But what you look for


PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL MICHAEL WILBON For James and Wade, choosing life’s course is no easy decision wilbon from D1


I was gone. Then I’d wake up the next morning convinced I couldn’t possibly endure those Midwestern winters again, and anyway I couldn’t at that point in my life tell Benjamin C. Bradlee, the greatest editor in the history of newspapers, that I was leaving The Washington Post for another paper. Last week, former major league outfielder Eric Byrnes told me about one free agent winter when he bounced back and forth, convinced one day he would go to Cleveland only to change his mind the next day and become certain he’d wind up in Arizona. It went on that way for days.


Of course, the conversation turned to LeBron James and D-Wade, mostly LeBron, and Byrnes said: “I imagine those guys have to be all over the place. People think you know all along where you’re going and there’s no possible way . . . and I wouldn’t even dare compare my situation to LeBron’s.” Oh, but it is comparable in


one way. Whoever is confronted with the decision, it’s only your whole life. That’s not to be confused with one’s quality of life; that’s not going to change one iota for any professional athlete choosing between $20 million per year offers. But in the case of LeBron and Wade, maybe even Chris Bosh, we’re probably talking about their decisions affecting the way the modern history of professional basketball will be written, the way their careers will be assessed, criticized and/or celebrated. So, Bosh is not only weighing whether he wants to live in Cleveland, Miami or Chicago, but whether playing with LeBron James in Cleveland (or Wade in Miami) is better than playing without either in Chicago. Making these


NBA NOTEBOOK


James makes decision: to open Twitter account


Associated Press


LeBron James has made one decision — he joined Twitter. The NBA’s most ballyhooed


free agent opened an account on the social networking site Tues- day. Publicist Keith Estabrook confirmed the moniker king- james is indeed LeBron, and the first tweet appeared at 4:15 p.m. “Hello World, the Real King


James is in the Building,” it read, before going on to credit New Or- leans Hornets guard Chris Paul for pushing him to open a Twitter feed. It was not known whether


PHIL LONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS Ohio native LeBron James will have fans anywhere, but the tug of home is a hard pull to resist.


decisions in partnership with another person who has a million considerations of his own would be impossible for me. During my own personal debate, I didn’t really need to take into account how competing with the Chicago Sun-Times’s Jay Mariotti was going to affect my life. Ultimately, I think whoever is


in Wade’s ear last is going to win him over, and right now he’s physically in Miami. I can’t imagine him, while in South Florida, telling Pat Riley goodbye, not even to go to Chicago where he’d return a conquering hero. If you took a vote in that city as to which player natives prefer, Wade or LeBron, the bet here is Wade would win comfortably because that’s the way Chicagoans are wired. LeBron, in any basketball circle, would be considered the better player but Wade is ours. There would be so much more


pressure on LeBron to win in Chicago (or anywhere else) than there would be for him to win in Cleveland, where the love for one of their own is closer to unconditional. While following this story as closely as I’ve followed anything in years, and in the process talking to agents and executives and other players, I’ve changed my mind a half-dozen times about where I think each is going to wind up, so not nearly as much as they have. I’m at the point now where I think Wade is going to stay in Miami and LeBron is going to stay in Cleveland, and what that probably speaks to is life being pretty damn good where each man already is. (I keep hearing Kornheiser tell me “If people can make you happy where you are, then stay.”) Maybe the only thing more difficult than going home again is leaving home. Meanwhile, my home town, as happened at the


end of the Olympic bidding, appears likely to be shunned again. I remember at the most stressful point of my own ordeal thinking I couldn’t make a bad decision, which was of great comfort. Don Graham was the best boss in the world. My editors, Len Downie and George Solomon, were my Micky Arison and Riley, to continue the Wade analogy. I stayed in Washington, happily as it turned out. It could only have been a fraction as complicated as the stuff Wade and LeBron are navigating, though it was my whole life at the time. The free agent drama has been pretty good theater since before the end of the playoffs, even during the NBA Finals. Decisions are going to be announced soon. It’s fair to wonder if either man believes now, or in 10 years, that he couldn’t make a bad one. wilbonm@washpost.com


James was going to post his own messages or have someone do it for him. He had been reluctant to join Twitter or Facebook and had even joked in the past about how other athletes discussed their personal lives online. Paul, one of James’s closest friends, posted on Twitter at mid- day Tuesday that while he couldn’t persuade the two-time MVP to tell him which team he’ll sign with, he talked him into join- ing the service. Less than an hour after Paul’s


tweet, James had nearly 18,000 followers — even though he had yet to make a single post. He passed 90,000 before 4:30 p.m.


No answers from Wade Dwyane Wade isn’t ready to


give any answers. So he’s not go- ing to take any questions. Not yet, anyway. His appearance at a Tuesday morning news conference in South Florida was postponed, the latest chapter in a free agency saga that has the Miami Heat on edge about the possibility of los- ing him to another team. Wade’s youth basketball camp for children was beginning Tues- day, and part of the day’s itiner-


ary was to include a question- and-answer session alongside Alonzo Mourning about the char- ity weekend they will headline in South Florida later this month. Wade’s side had concerns that


free agency would be the only matter discussed at the news con- ference, and there had been in- ternal discussions for several days about canceling the event.


Pistons sign Monroe


The Detroit Pistons have signed first-round draft pick Greg Monroe. Terms were not dis- closed. The 6-foot-11Monroe averaged


16.1 points, 9.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 34 games as a sopho- more for Georgetown last season.


Duhon heads to Orlando


Chris Duhon reached an agree- ment with the Orlando Magic for a four-year, $15 million deal, his agent said. Teams can’t officially sign free agents until Thursday.


Nets have backup plan


The New Jersey Nets have a Plan B in case LeBron James re- jects their offer. The agent for New York Knicks


forward David Lee says the Nets have talked to him several times since free agency began. An official within the league who is very close to the Nets’ management team said the team would also consider going after Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer if James rejected the Nets’ offer.


Martin: No return date set Kenyon Martin says he has no


timetable for his return from his latest knee operation. The Denver Nuggets forward told the Associated Press his sur- gically repaired left knee was feeling better but he had no idea when he’ll hit the hardcourt again.


in leadership is people that can grow into positions and instill confidence in the people around them.”


When Eaton met with the


Maryland staff on June 29, he ex- pressed two initiatives: To not screw anything up and to re- double the department’s focus on its student-athletes. Then the man who pursued the vacant ath- letic director position at Coastal Carolina in 2009 but was told he did not have enough external ex- perience set out to determine how best to meet those objec- tives. He already had established sol- id relationships with football coach Ralph Friedgen and men’s basketball coach Gary Williams, who guide Maryland’s two rev- enue-generating sports. (“I like straight shooters,” Friedgen said, “so that’s not a problem.”) But Ea- ton knew he had to extend him- self further into the Maryland


“Being honest with people, not spinning things, laying it out as briefly and as concisely as I know how to present something leaves no room for me having to think six months later: ‘What did I tell this person? How did I tell them something?’ ” Eaton said. “It gets me in trouble at times. And I’ve tried to work on not changing the message, but maybe altering how the message is presented. “Earlier in my career I had a tendency to beat people over the head with the truth, rather than maybe sharing the truth. And I think there’s a difference. The message doesn’t change at all.” There are times, though, when his old habit comes in handy. At the NCAA tournament in Spo- kane, Wash., in March, the men’s basketball team was told it could not wear its preferred gold jer- seys against its first-round oppo- nent, Houston, because color- blind television viewers might not be able to differentiate be- tween gold and red, Houston’s jersey color. The Terrapins also were told they could wear gold if they advanced to play Michigan State in the second round be- cause gold and green — the Spar- tans’ color — were far enough apart on the color wheel. But after watching Marquette


(gold jerseys) play Washington (purple jerseys) on TV, Eaton be- came curious. He pulled up a digi- tal color wheel on his cellphone and then stormed over to the nearest NCAA representative to show off his findings: Gold was at 12 o’clock, green was at 10 o’clock and red was at 5 o’clock. Eaton de- manded an explanation in a tone loud enough to be heard across the arena, and though his appeal was denied, his action was not lost on the team. “It was a big deal for the kids,”


Eaton said. “Honestly, and I tell this to our coaches, if you don’t get your way, eh. We’re adults. Get over it. If it really impacts the kids and we can do it, why don’t we?” Add that to the list of questions


Eaton will attempt to answer over the next few months.


yandas@washpost.com


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