I am glad to see the community support for the situation we are dealing with in Chattanooga right now. We have been reeling from this news all week and the flood of emails that the department and Coach Gautier have received have been terrific. But we can always use more.
I come at this from a very different perspective from a Nic Crider. Unlike Nic I was not highly recruited in high school. Coach Gautier took a chance on me and I took a chance on him. Like ALL of the athletes that embrace coach, I improved greatly as a runner, and more importantly as a person. I was no Nic Crider, but my name is on the same record board as his. It would be my wish that someday another runner in my shoes would take the same chance I took and remove my name from that board.
Below is my letter to David Blackburn, UTC Athletic Director. I implore all readers to send him an email. A quarter of a century of athletic and academic success under Bill Gautier is being thrown to the wayside by a department that does not understand the appreciation that so many people have had for the team, and for the sport.
Mr. Blackburn,
I write to you concerning the UTC Athletic Department’s recent decision to cut the Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field teams and to limit its Men’s Cross Country Program in its ability to perform. I am an alumnus of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, a current graduate student, a member of the UTC GOLD Council, and a previous Running Moc. I loved every minute of my five years spent competing for Mocs and representing my school, which became rooted in my own self-identity, much as it did for the men who ran by my side. I was and have always been extremely appreciative of the support I received from the school and the Athletic Department in allowing me to pursue my dreams in athletics and to get the best from myself both athletically and academically. However, I am extremely disappointed in the decision to discontinue the program. My decision to come to UTC was largely based around Coach Bill Gautier, and I have never regretted that decision for a moment. It was Bill’s passion for the sport, his commitment to his runners, and his tireless desire to help his student-athletes succeed in all facets of life that convinced me to be a part of his program. I will always be proud of my accomplishments in cross country and track, because I know that Coach Gautier drove me to be the very best I could be and to represent my school at the highest level possible. But I will always be more proud of my accomplishments outside of athletics as a result of the well-rounded education I received from Coach Gautier. Six years after my initial decision, I have two degrees, a wonderful start to a career, a wife, and a beautiful daughter thanks in large part to the guidance Coach provided. I have a group of men and women who I will consider friends for the rest of my life thanks to the track and cross country teams. I have a school I can look back on proudly to call my Alma Mater thanks to these programs. And I have someone who I consider a father figure, guiding force, mentor, and close friend, in coach.
I am only one in a long line of successful running Mocs who I am certain would mirror my sentiments. Coach Gautier has taken boys from their families and sculpted them to be men that society will hold up as the very example of success. Coach’s teams have produced doctors, attorneys, scientists, engineers, educators, accountants, coaches and businesspeople, among the myriad of other successful graduates he has shaped. His men have earned five of the last six Dayle May awards recognizing the highest academic performer in the Athletic Department each year. Seven of the fifteen Academic All-Americans UTC has ever produced were runners under the tutelage of Coach Gautier. Both the track and cross country teams have boasted the highest GPAs in the nation on several occasions during my tenure here.
The community has been made a better place because of the close ties of the cross country and track teams and Coach Gautier to the city itself. The teams have always had a hand in the identity of the city and have been celebrated in victory by alumni, friends, and fans in the community who consider themselves Mocs, and friends of the school. Close relationships with the Chattanooga Track Club have resulted in a boom of successful road races that the city can be proud of. The Ironman and Half Ironman Championships came to the city. Coach Gautier offers his services for free during the summer to operate a running camp welcome to anyone who wants to share his passion for self-betterment, be they middle school students or retirees.
It disheartens me to see such an unfortunate end to a program spearheaded by a man who has bled Blue and Gold for a quarter of a century. When Coach could have moved on to bigger athletic departments and different schools, he remained here because he believed what all of his runners have always believed; that excellence can be achieved at UTC, and that his positive influence can be the guiding force for so many young men who desperately need it.
While I am disappointed by the end result of this decision, I am further displeased by the means with which it has been handled. In 2003 when the program faced termination Dr. Michael Jones met with the Athletics Department to find a solution to the problem. By all accounts a Title IV investigation has been ongoing for quite some time and the track and cross country teams, including Coach Gautier and Coach Uys, were only informed on the eve of the final decision, with no advanced notice given so that further efforts could be taken. While this is a numbers issue and not a budgetary issue, many on the outside wonder if the money could have, in fact, been raised to fund another women’s team or explore further options had ample notice been provided to the team, to donors, to alumni, and to the community. While I understand and respect the difficult position you have found yourself in, I cannot help but feel that the program was pulled out from under our feet before we ever had the opportunity to be a part of the process to solve the problem we find ourselves in.
I cannot express adamantly enough the positive influence that the track and field and cross country programs have had on my life and on the lives of so many others. The very principles which were stressed to me during my time here are principles that I hold dear in my everyday life. For twenty-three years men have taken a chance to come to run at Chattanooga and have been rewarded with a wonderful experience shared with friends for life who have consistently become UTCs very best and brightest. UTC Men’s track and cross country has been the standard bearer and Coach Gautier and his men have been outliers for as long as he has been here. It pains me to know that future high school students will not have the opportunity that I had; to compete for a team which values the truly important things.
I would welcome any response and would love the opportunity to further discuss with you my sentiments and those shared to me by my fellow alumni regarding this matter. Please feel free to contact me at any time either by email or by phone. Thank you.
Respectfully,
Lucas Cotter
"Mocs Fly Together"