Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994 TAG: 9411040076
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In those seasons, however, Canfield wasn't only losing too many games. He was losing his job. In May, W&L announced in an 11-line news release that Canfield ``will be stepping down'' as men's basketball coach at the Lexington university after the 1994-95 season. And so began the longest summer of Canfield's 31-year career as the Generals' general.
At the time, W&L officials said they weren't going to comment further on Canfield's impending departure. Canfield didn't return phone calls to this columnist, he said Thursday at the Old Dominion Athletic Conference's media day, ``because I was hurting. I didn't want to say the wrong thing, so it was best I not say anything.''
Now, the last season of Canfield's W&L years is about to begin, and what he mostly wants to discuss is basketball. He likes his team's enthusiasm and smarts, and he hopes the Generals will produce a few more victories than expected by his fellow ODAC coaches, who picked W&L to finish ninth in the 10-team league race.
As for the rest of his future, Canfield isn't sure what that will bring, either.
``I do want to point out I did not retire,'' he said. ``I did not resign, either. I was forced to step down.''
Maybe it happened because Canfield's team was losing - ``I take full responsibility for not winning more games,'' he said - and the campus wasn't supporting the program. Maybe it happened because, after 25 years, he was accustomed to running his program pretty much without a hands-on administration.
It didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't that Canfield and W&L's athletic director, Mike Walsh, weren't on the same page. It was more like they weren't in the same book. It wasn't surprising Walsh was backed by the W&L administration. So, Canfield, a tenured professor, will take a year's sabbatical and look for a job. Will he return to W&L to teach during the 1996-97 school year?
It doesn't sound likely.
``I want to coach,'' he said. ``I still want to teach basketball. I'm still enthused. I'm in great shape physically. I still think I can contribute something to the game, a game that's given me so much.''
Canfield said if he has any regrets, they are few.
``One is that I think I lost some of my focus the last few years because I was too concerned about people trying to get me,'' he said. ``I think that had some impact on my teaching. I know it had to show. The players knew it.
``I could be a dinosaur in the profession. Coaches don't stay in the same job for 31 years anymore. That's another regret, that I wasn't able to pick the time to go out on my own. But I'm going to be positive about it. I'm going to do it with class and dignity. Our last game, I'll go off with my head high.''
Canfield and his team, with its top five scorers back, are ``rediscovering what it takes to win.'' He is drilling the Generals harder than he has in recent years. ``We've worked through the `You've got to be kidding me' stage to `He's really serious about this,''' Canfield said.
Known as a masterful teacher, Canfield is letting the students play their game when they're not switching defenses. ``I won't use the words, `run more,''' said Canfield, 61. ``We will make some transitions, though.''
He will be doing that professionally, too. He's thought about his ``last first day of practice. I'm just hoping we get into February and I'm saying to myself, `Man, I don't want this to end.'''
One day, however, it will, for a coach who hasn't missed a practice in 31 years. Canfield said he received few calls and letters of encouragement from his peers in what can be a very fickle, as well as competitive, business. He admits to being worried about his profession's future. He doesn't seem to be worried about his own.
``I happen to think I'm a good teacher of the game,'' Canfield said. ``I might end up at Podunk High School, but I'll be coaching basketball. I don't hunt. I don't fish. I don't play golf.
``It was called to my attention I wasn't winning [48-78 in the past five years]. I would hope I've done more in my position than win games. I would hope I touched some young lives in the right way.
``I'm grateful to the school for a lot of things. I just believe this could have been handled in a different way. When you've spent 30 years with the same organization and they tell you they don't want you, it's hard. The bitterness is gone, but the scars will always be there.
``All of this has been a very enlightening experience.''
In this case, that's true at W&L for more than Canfield. The coach was only talking about the past few years. He could have been discussing the past 30.
by CNB