It’s the end of an era in Westchester. The women’s volleyball coach at LMU, Steve Stratos, has coached his last game as the Lions head coach. It was announced today that Bill Husak will not renew his contract as Head Coach. While the Lions have had a less than stellar year, and I do think change is important in an athletic program, I think it’s important to examine the real reason why LMU Athletics has been unsuccessful the past few years.
The answer: Bill Husak.

Bill Husak is a man who has done nothing good for LMU Athletics during his tenure. Yes, I am biased because he was responsible for cutting the men’s volleyball program that I was a member of, but he has also completely destroyed the sense of athletic community that was once present at LMU.

I only made a couple of LMU volleyball games this year, but my jaw hit the floor each time I sat in Gersten Pavilion, and not in a good way. One of my favorite memories of my college days was attending athletic events and cheering on our squad with the kind of spirit and tenacity usually reserved for a World Cup final. We would dress up, bring things to bang on and make noise with, we’d scream so loud you would lose your voice before the match was over. In a matter of five years, Bill Husak as managed to kill the very thing I loved most about our school, the athletic spirit.

When you go to catch a game a Gersten these days, it now has the atmosphere of a museum more than a collegiate sporting event. It is literally so quiet you could hear a mouse fart. It’s like Hank’s House has been turned into a giant vacuum that sucks the spirit and life out of those who are bold enough to actually attend a sporting event.

Yes, Bill Husak is to blame. His lack of vision and his determination to take successful programs and run them into the ground has to stop. Why, at a school that is one of the most beautiful in the world, should we have a men’s basketball team that would lose to most girls J.V teams? The answer is we shouldn’t.

While I feel the time is right to make a transition in the women’s program, the real question is when are we going to get a new Athletic Director? Hopefully sooner than later. You won’t be catching me at Gersten until it does.

Tags: BIll Husak, LMU, Steve Stratos, Volleyball