Conboy best AD candidate
Brian Churney
On the Hot Corner
Ding-dong the witch is dead.
Enthusiasm swept campus late Monday night as Domers heard of the impending resignation of reviled athletic director Mike Wadsworth.
The often-elusive truth is, however, that Mike Wadsworth wasn't a bad athletic director.
He was the victim of bad timing, a few very visible, bad decisions and an industry that thrives on results. Would he have taken the fall had the football team gone 10-2 instead of 5-7? Would relatively minor infractions (oh wait, they called them major) and a modest probation hit the Domers as hard if we were winning?
This was the business in which Wadsworth works and was the story of his tenure under the Dome. He was plagued by failures in Notre Dame's two most visible sports — football and men's basketball. And he's judged by these failures.
Never mind that Wadsworth helped to establish Notre Dame as a school of all-around athletic excellence rather than just football achievement. Under Wadsworth, non-revenue sports became respected nation wide.
Notre Dame won a national championship in women's soccer; the women's basketball team became the force it is today. The men's and women's fencing teams finished four straight years as NCAA runner-ups, and Notre Dame has enjoyed success in a multitude of other sports.
But unfortunately for Wadsworth, fencing isn't on television every week and women's soccer doesn't have a contract with NBC. Volleyball doesn't pay the bills.
For each fencing success there was a football failure. For every Matt Doherty he hired, there was a Bob Davie. For every John MacLeod, he persuaded to resign, there was a Lou Holtz he was perceived to have persuaded.
He successfully guided Notre Dame to four consecutive commissioner trophies in its first four years in the Big East, but then took the blame for trying to join the Big Ten. He helped successfully transition the women's soccer program from the Mike Petrucelli to the Randy Waldrum era but botched the transition from MacLeod to Doherty with a Rick Majerus in between.
He ensured the Irish would be seen on television by helping to extend NBC's contract then ensured they'd be seen on Court TV by allowing the Joe Moore fiasco to occur.
Then there's the probation.
But what's done is done. Whether Wadsworth was the executive responsible for a program-gone-out-of-control or a scapegoat, a victim of a game he played all too well, is irrelevant at this point.
His departure leaves open one of the most important collegiate administrative position in the country. It's unknown as to who the powers that be have their collective eye on or even for what qualities they're looking.
They've made one thing abundantly clear, however.
Experience as an athletic director is an important asset to have if not a must.
While it's tempting to then rule out anyone from within the bubble of the Dome and look to other schools to help fill the position, doing so would mean overlooking a perfectly capable replacement.
Melissa Conboy, a 1982 graduate of Notre Dame has worked in the Notre Dame athletic department since 1987, serving first as an assistant athletic director until 1992 when she was promoted to the role of associate athletic director.
She has experience within the athletic department and the NCAA itself.
This experience gives Conboy much knowledge of the intricacies specific to the Notre Dame athletic department and the complexities of the NCAA. These attributes should far outweigh her lack of experience as the head executive.
Plus, she's a Domer.
As arguably the first great female athlete from Notre Dame, playing basketball from 1979-1982, Conboy understands the different standards to which Notre Dame attempts to hold its athletes and coaches. She understands the difficulties Notre Dame faces in recruiting due to these standards, and the difficulties athletes encounter in making sure that both sides of the hyphen in the word student-athlete are equally attended to.
She's proven herself worthy. Conboy currently administers the Irish ice hockey, volleyball and women's basketball teams and oversees both tennis and soccer programs. In her tenure, both women's basketball and women's soccer, debatably the two most successful programs next to fencing at Notre Dame, became national powerhouses. Volleyball and men's and women's tennis made their respective post-season tournaments last year.
Conboy has been in charge of nearly every team that wins consistently.
She conducts herself with class and an amiability that's contagious. She's an eloquent speaker and handles the press well.
She has the experience, the personality, the ability and the knowledge to fill the position. And while the male-centered culture of Notre Dame's student body and administration might find problem in promoting a woman to be in charge of its precious athletic program, leaving Conboy's name off a list of potential candidates would be a grievous omission.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, February 10, 2000
