MORGANTOWN — Sometimes the heart is far better leading you through life’s twists and turns than the most advanced GPS on the market.
Then there are other times when it will only take you down blind alleys.
Today the heart says WVU President Jim Clements made a mistake in deciding to end Ed Pastilong’s 20-year run as athletic director at West Virginia.
It says so not because Pastilong has an unblemished record in his job, for that certainly is not true.
But when you are a decent person, a down-to-earth, caring person who really does have his school and his family at the top of his priority list, when you have a list of accomplishments that far exceed those blemishes we speak of, you deserve to go out on your terms.
When Mike Garrison, a man miscast in the role of university president, came in to replace David Hardesty, he did all he could do to push Pastilong out the door. Pastilong’s decision to step down on June 30 this year was made not out of anything other than a belief he could best serve his school by not serving in a contentious relationship under Garrison.
When, however, Garrison got himself entangled in a situation he could not survive, all bets were off. Clements replaced him and, by all the early returns, he is a decent, honest, hard-working person whom Pastilong could serve as he had those presidents before Garrison.
When you looked at the accomplishments, at the growth of the athletic department in stature, in facilities, in finances, all of it on Pastilong’s watch, you knew that even though he often seemed bewildered by much of what was going on, he had a way of allowing things to succeed.
Oh, you will never get me to agree that the right move was made to ditch five sports, including its nationally acclaimed rifle program in 2004. That public pressure mounted to reinstate rifle and Pastilong was willing to take that step to rectify the mistake spoke volumes of the man.
To err is human, to admit it is stand tall.
And, in hindsight, the athletic department, did take off then.
Then, too, there was the Gale Catlett-Dan Dakich-Jonathan Hargett-John Beilein fiasco on his watch, a terrible period of mismanagement, one which Pastilong surely will tell you was the low point in his career.
But to turn that into a positive, to come out of it with Beilein, who regenerated a dying basketball program and then be able to turn the volume even higher with the return of Bob Huggins, whom Pastilong thought he had once before only to have him slip away after talking with Hardesty, was a master stroke.
With this in mind, with as clean a record as Pastilong has, it is so simple to let the heart lead you to the conclusion that he should be allowed to stay on.
However, there comes a time when change must take place.
Willie Mays woke up one morning, went out and picked up the newspaper and saw he was hitting .230. Henry Aaron began popping up hanging curveballs that once looked like a lamb chop to a hungry wolf.
It sneaks up on you, yes, but it is always better to get out a year too early than to hang around a year too late.
Pastilong’s work at West Virginia was done.
There was a new sheriff in town and his name was Clements and, to be honest, he deserved to have his own deputies, men or women who believed in what he believed in and, maybe more important, believed in him.
West Virginia University is about to embark on a new strategic plan, one which will give the school a new direction academically, financially and, yes, athletically. To do this, it has to eliminate emotion from decisions, tough decisions that are best made by the people who must live with the results, be they good or bad.
Ed Pastilong has written his name into West Virginia athletic history, a far better administrator than he was a quarterback. He has done more than anyone could have asked him to do, or for that matter, expect him to do.
But now, it’s time to take that noon-time swim and maybe just enjoy an afternoon with the grandchildren instead of heading back to the office to learn Rich Rodriguez had shredded company documents or the Big East wanted you to play a Friday night home football game in competition with the local high schools.
Enjoying work is one thing, and Pastilong did it.
Now it’s time to enjoy life.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
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