The Star's longtime columnist on Pima Community College athletic director Jim Monaco's retirement and the continued inflation of college football staffs. Also: the passing of former Desert View tennis coach Stacy Haines, the absurdity of UCLA's Mick Cronin, former Salpointe Catholic pitcher Gianna Mares' college softball debut, and supposedly smart people leading Pac-12 schools making "unsmart" decisions.Â
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Pima AD Monaco on retirement: 'I believe this is the right thing to do.'
In 63 intense years on planet Earth, Jim Monaco has survived diabetes, a stabbing, a heart attack, being shot at by street criminals and blowing out a knee, ending his football career.
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The son of a barber from Lynn, Massachusetts, Monaco moved to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ in 1990 for Part II of his 25-year career as a policeman. On the side, he became a football coach at Sahuaro, Catalina, Desert View and ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ high schools before becoming the head coach at Pima College, leading the Aztecs to the nation’s No. 14 ranking.
In 2018, Monaco became Pima College’s athletic director, one of those non-stop jobs overseeing 13 sports on a shoestring budget that needs more this, more that and more everything.
On April 23, Monaco will retire. “I’m done,’’ he says. “I believe this is the right thing to do.’’
Although he has been Pima’s AD for a short 5½ years, Monaco put the PCC athletic department on a higher trajectory, creating unprecedented sponsorships with Adidas and Chapman Automotive, building a new soccer facility, refreshing a 50-year-old gymnasium and maintaining PCC’s priority as a national power in soccer, basketball and baseball.
Monaco’s uncompromising approach to the job, a 24-7 jolt of energy, guarantees him a legacy in the 52-year history of PCC sports, along with AD predecessors Larry Toledo and Edgar Soto.
“God gives you a lot of hints and in all honesty, this isn’t a time for me to keep rolling the dice,’’ Monaco says. “I was super sick over the holiday break, in the hospital for a week, very close to death, my body in so much pain that even morphine didn’t help. I’ve put in 43 years of full-time work, and now is the time to take a step back.’’
There are no excesses in a junior college athletic department, especially at Pima. To operate 13 sports and assist 342 student-athletes, Monaco’s support staff includes just five full-time employees. One of them, volleyball coach Dan Bithell, is also the school’s events and facilities manager.
Another, women’s basketball assistant coach Pete Fajardo, is also PCC’s equipment manager.
Full-time job, indeed.
One thing that always struck me about Monaco is that he isn’t afraid of a fight. He agreed to be the head football coach at Desert View High School when it was coming off a daunting 8-54 record over six seasons. He accepted the head coaching job at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ High a few days before the 2005 season opener, a period in which THS had six losing seasons over eight years.
And he pursued the AD job at PCC when less-than-sports-friendly former chancellor Lee Lambert talked openly about eliminating all but four sports at PCC. Monaco kept pushing, even though the PCC sports budget kept dropping.
When Lambert pushed, Monaco had the backbone to push back.
“The kids here know I’ll go to the wall for them,’’ says Monaco. “They’ve done all the hard work. I’ve just been a spectator to their commitment to excellence.’’
Monaco says the administrative support staff of Jerry Stitt, Keith Martin, Vince Majalca, Shonda Jones and Raymond Suarez has been excellent.
The search for a new AD at Pima College doesn’t have to go off campus. If interested, women’s basketball coach Todd Holthaus and baseball coach Ken Jacome have the acumen, experience and people skills to keep PCC near the top of the ACCAC in terms of athletic success.
What’s next for the former policemen from Boston?
“My wife, Dannielle, and I, would like to get away to Italy in the summer,’’ he says. “At 63, I still feel pretty young. My kids and grandkids are all doing well. I’ve got a lot to look forward to.’’
Fans will foot the bill for Brennan’s UA football staff
Brent Brennan’s quickly assembled ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ football staff includes a CEO, a Chief of Staff and a Director of Football Operations. Combined yearly compensation: probably close to $800,000.
Does a college football program need to have a CEO, a Chief of Staff and a Director of Football Operations? Of course not. As recently as 2014, the year ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ won the Pac-12 South football title, Rich Rodriguez’s staff included one administrative assistant for football, Mike Parrish.
But because soon-to-be Big 12 rivals Texas Tech has 45 people on its football support staff, Oklahoma State 46 and West Virginia 49, the pressure on ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to keep up and remain relevant is never-ending. Jedd Fisch’s staff had 39 members in 2023.
The ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Board of Regents recently said it plans to “streamline the UA athletic department from the ground up,’’ which is an empty threat. To compete in the Big 12, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ must add to its operational budget, not cut.
No outside agency is going to be able to find a way to save tons of money and pay off the UA’s $87 million athletic budget deficit. If anything, the deficit will grow.
The reality is that firing Dave Heeke as ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s AD won’t add a cent to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s bottom line. Outside of the football behemoths such as Alabama, Ohio State and Texas, stand-alone, self-funded athletic departments with a balanced budget are no longer possible. It’s not 2003 anymore.
So schools like ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ pass as much of the bill as possible to fans by raising ticket prices. There’s no better example than prominent ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ realtor Bill Mesch, whose family has been season ticket holders at McKale Center since it opened 51 years ago.
Mesch’s tickets were $4,630 last year. They are $5,090 this season. They will balloon to $6,100 next year.
“When McKale opened in ’73 we had seats right behind the bench.’’ Mesch told me. “We then moved straight across the court and have been there ever since.
“It seems it is no longer about relationships, but just about money. I know the current administration couldn’t care less about my history with the school. Or the fact that we have had three generations graduate from the UA.’’
In many ways, the Mesch family is paying for Brennan’s CEO, Chief of Staff and Director of Football Ops.
“I know many who say they will not renew,’’ Mesch said. “I am on the fence as I will be forced to share games with friends who will offset the cost.’’
Short stuff: Mares' college softball debut, Haines' passing, Cronin's embarrassing tirades
• In her final two softball seasons at Salpointe Catholic, pitcher Gianna Mares was almost unhittable. She went 30-0, leading the Lancers to two back-to-back state championships. Her ERA was 0.55 for a team that went 35-1.
Mares signed with BYU and quickly became the Cougars’ No. 1 pitcher for last week’s opener against Missouri-Kansas City. It was then that the difference between high school and college softball became manifest. Mares gave up eight runs in the first inning of her college debut.
Given another start Thursday against ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ State, Mares gave up five runs in the first inning. No one said it would be easy. In her start versus ASU, Mares faced two-time ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Gatorade Player of the Year Marissa Schuld, a sixth-year player who began her career at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ in 2019.
Schuld gave up five runs in two innings and is 2-7 the last two seasons. I’m betting on Mares to adjust and soon become a positive factor in Big 12 softball. ...
• Sad to learn of the death of former Desert View High School girls tennis coach Stacy Haines, who spun straw into gold with the Jaguars, turning an 0-16 program into a steady region title contender for almost 15 years, becoming an enduring father figure as much as a tennis coach for dozens of young women. A celebration of Haines’ life was held Saturday, organized by ex-DVHS all-state tennis player Claudia Meza, who went from beginner to two-time ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ City singles champion with Haines as her mentor.
Haines, a former screenwriter and talent agent at the renowned William Morris Agency, was so influential that Meza once told me, “he taught me that dreams were possible if only I had faith in myself. I love him to death.’’ ...
• I turn on ESPN and see UCLA’s Mick Cronin screaming at his Bruins players (and the refs). He is hostile. A volcano of negativity. It is the same thing I see when I watch ASU’s Bobby Hurley, Illinois’ Brad Underwood and TCU’s Jamie Dixon. They are college basketball’s Mount Rushmore of hostility. Why do school presidents, athletic directors and referees permit this to continue? It is an embarrassment to the game and to the school.
Cronin is famous for making excuses and throwing his UCLA players under the bus. He says, “listen to my message, not the tone.’’ Hey, Mick, that act went out with Woody Hayes and Bob Knight. As ESPN’s Jay Bilas said the other night, “Coaches need to be accountable for the tone and delivery of the message. Your tone and delivery is not on the players, it’s on you.’’
My two cents: 'Unsmart' decisions by supposedly smart Pac-12 peopleÂ
In May 2021, five Pac-12 presidents — WSU’s Kirk Schulz, Oregon’s Michael Schill, Washington’s Ann Marie Cauce, USC’s Carol Folt and Colorado’s Phil DeStefano — formed a committee to make a “comprehensive global search’’ to find a commissioner to replace fired Larry Scott.
They also paid an estimated $250,000 to TurnkeyZRG to help coordinate the search. What a waste.
When they hired Las Vegas entertainment executive George Kliavkoff to replace Scott, Schill said, “This is the new prototype for a commissioner.’’
Talk about a swing and miss. The damage is beyond words; the Pac-12 will cease to exist in 3½ months. Kliavkoff was relieved of his duties last week.
How could so many smart people be so “unsmart?’’ Perhaps they should’ve researched the league’s history in hiring commissioners and used that as a guide.
In 1940, the Pac-12 (then the Pacific Coast Conference) hired its first commissioner: former FBI agent and Department of Justice executive Edwin Atherton. The 10 PCC presidents were concerned that the lack of a governing body (there was no NCAA) made cheating commonplace, especially in recruiting and payoffs from boosters. Sound familiar?
Atherton produced a 2-million-word report on what had to be done to reform the PCC and make it a collegial operation. Atherton died of cancer four years later, and the league presidents then hired Los Angeles attorney Victor Schmidt as commissioner, followed eight years later by former Navy football All-American and the Midshipmen’s national championship coach Thomas Hamilton.
The PCC thrived. It wasn’t about money. It was a collegial competition and brotherhood. The league wasn’t looking for “a new prototype’’ it was looking for a responsible leader with common sense, not a “visionary’’ like Scott or Kliavkoff.
If some latter-day Edwin Atherton today wrote a 2-million-word epistle on what’s wrong with college sports and how to reform them, it would be dismissed and tossed to the wind.
Just like the Pac-12.
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at GHansenAZStar@gmail.com. On X(Twitter): @ghansen711