Wade’s Job Search Begins At California State-Hayward

Former Eastern Washington University men’s basketball coach John Wade has applied for the head coaching job at California State University-Hayward, that school’s athletic director confirmed Thursday.

Wade, 35, resigned Wednesday after compiling a 34-98 record in five seasons at Eastern. He is from San Francisco and was an assistant at University of the Pacific in nearby Stockton from 1988-90. Hayward is near the Bay Area and competes in Division II.

“His application is among about 100 others in the main office that will be reviewed after the 17th of April,” Hayward athletic director Doug Weiss said.

Weiss would not pinpoint when Wade’s application was received, but said, “I would have to say it was before this week, yes.”

Wade, known as an intensely private man, has not returned phone messages. Assistant coaches Rusty Smith, Ron Cox and Chris Crease did not know Wade’s whereabouts Thursday, although Crease spoke with the former coach by telephone in the morning.

“He’s just going through a tough time right now, and that’s to be understood,” Crease said. “I told him, ‘Just call me whenever you need me to do something for you.”’

It sounded as if Wade had been forced out. The fact that Wade had two years remaining on a three-year contract only adds to that perception. Was Wade pressured to resign?

“No,” said EWU athletic director John Johnson, who played football at Eastern in the early 1980s, when Wade was co-captain of the basketball team. “It was a difficult decision for him.”

Johnson set April 12 as the date an EWU search committee - yet to be formed - will review applications. Former EWU football coach Dick Zornes is assisting Johnson and assistant A.D. Ron Raver in the early stages of the search process. Zornes estimated the university received calls from 25 prospective applicants Thursday.

The timing of Wade’s resignation puts Eastern in a difficult position. With the April 11 letter-of-intent day approaching, most assistant coaches are busy with recruiting and have little time to interview. The longer Eastern goes without a head coach, the more difficult recruiting will become.

Wade’s departure also has clouded the immediate futures of Smith, Cox and Crease.

Smith, 40, has applied for the head coaching job at Montana State University-Billings, formerly Eastern Montana. He said Wednesday he may also apply at EWU.

Cox decided Thursday he will apply for the Eastern job, having received assurance that his lack of college coaching experience won’t automatically eliminate him from consideration. Cox played at Eastern from 1974-77 and is the school’s all-time leader in scoring and rebounding, having averaged 16.4 points and 12.0 rebounds in 106 career games.

“I just needed to confirm that it wasn’t a waste of my time,” Cox said.

Cox coached Eastern guard Carl Crider at Tekoa-Oakesdale High, where the pair won a State B championship in 1992. (Crider underwent knee surgery last week and will not be able to play for at least four months.)

The 26-year-old Crease, who spent one year on Wade’s staff after a season assisting at Nevada-Reno, said he is staying in contact with prospective recruits and would like to become part of the new staff.

“They have expressed that they would like for me to stay,” said Crease, who played from 1988-91 at Northeast Louisiana, where he earned a degree in 1993. “But they really can’t guarantee anything because it’s not their call.

“I don’t know if I’ll be here or not. I’m just going to try to help the program … and try to help the new coach with some recruits that I’ve been working on the whole year - and then he can see if he likes them for his program. That’s basically all I can do.

“It’s part of the game - if you don’t win games, you might be losing a job.”