COLUMN: Soriero decision delayed too long

Josh Callahan, Commentary This decision, however, should have already been made. With April admissions and the final recruiting push just weeks away, now isn't the time for uncertainty in the women's basketball program. Considering its role as the highest profile women's collegiate sport -- a sport which is rapidly gaining fan support around the countryE--the Penn Athletic Department should have quickly ended any confusion over the future of the program. If Penn wants to increase interest in women's basketball, the Athletic Department needs to have a clear direction. It is hard to have direction when there isn't a coach under contract. Two weeks have passed since the end of the Penn women's basketball season, and yet Senior Associate Athletic Director Carolyn Schlie Femovich said Soriero has not yet had her performance review, a process that all coaches undergo at the conclusion of each season. Given the added significance to this season's review, the Athletic Department should have already completed the evaluation. A prompt review would have been most fair to Soriero, the players and the program. Conversely, leaving a coach in limbo damages morale among the rest of the varsity coaches, who form a close-knit community. Myriad issues go into both the performance analysis and final decision to retain or release a coach. Despite the complexity of this issue, however, the Athletic Department should have gathered the information it needed to conduct a fair review well in advance of the end of the season. While not wanting to comment on Soriero's case specifically, Femovich said three broad categories carry a lot of weight in coaching decisions -- fund-raising and alumni relations, recruiting and player relations, and win-loss record. "With every coach we look at everything from A to Z," Femovich said. "It doesn't mean we don't talk about stuff all year long. We'll make a decision and talk about what the future is going to be. That has not happened yet." The number of dollars raised, the recruits brought to campus and the win-loss record were mostly settled before the end of the season, meaning there was no reason not to move quickly following the final whistle. Late season developments have little influence because it would be completely unfair if the decision whether to re-sign a nine-year coach hinged on the win-loss record of the team's final weekend or its close loss to Princeton in the last game of the year. Following her team's final game, Soriero said she hoped she would have the opportunity to keep working with the outstanding group of freshman players she brought in this year. When asked if a one-year contract would be satisfactory, she said that injuries and freak occurrences can alter the appearance of a single season. She is absolutely right. If Soriero is retained, it has to be for a minimum of two years, so that this cycle of uncertainty does not continue next season. While she never discussed it publicly, there was undoubtedly added pressure weighing on Soriero due to her contract circumstances. No coach should be subjected to that kind of uncertainty year after year. Players should not be subjected to uncertainty either. They put in an extraordinary amount of time to an activity the University directly uses to promote itself, meaning that the school owes the players the best circumstances it can provide since it is not paying for their play with an athletic scholarship. Ivy League Rookie of the Year Diana Caramanico said she expects Soriero to be back, wondering what more the administration could ask of her. "In general we are certainly very sensitive to players' feelings as a group," said Femovich of athletes in general at Penn and not as a specific response to the basketball team. "Players need to feel as though they are getting a good experience." The same should be said of recruits looking to join the women's basketball team. They have a right to know who will coach the team before agreeing to come to Penn. There will be damage to this year's recruiting if Soriero is not retained, but even if Soriero's contract is eventually renewed, the administration is undercutting her current recruiting efforts because she cannot guarantee recruits that she will still be here in the fall. When a decision is finally made, there will be plenty of issues to discuss over how a coach earns a new contract. Soriero's teams have struggled during her nine years at Penn, amassing a cumulative record of 85-149 (.363 winning percentage). The l two years previous to this one the team has finished with an overall record 3-23 and 6-20. This year the team made a complete turnaround. With only three healthy returning letter-winners joining nine freshmen on the court, the Quakers finished 13-13 overall and 8-6 in the Ivy League. Additionally, Soriero recruit Caramanico became the Quakers' first Ivy League Rookie of the Year. Femovich said coaching decisions are not made on the basis of one season's results, so it is unclear whether the new momentum of the women's program will get Soriero a new contract. But those issues will have to wait, along with the entire future of the women's basketball program, until the Athletic Department sits down and makes up its mind on Soriero's coaching future at Penn.