Staying After Class

Pam Parks remembers it as the night Eastern Washington’s volleyball team began its turnaround. It hasn’t looked back since.

It was 1996 and the Eagles had just lost at Montana to drop below .500.

“We were in the locker room about an hour,” recalled Parks. “It was a lot of everyone letting a lot of things out … there were some tears. It was just one of those cathartic experiences that sometimes you have to have.”

The Eagles finished out the season 9-4 for a 16-12 record. They followed with 22-6 and 24-6 records. This year, Eastern is 18-3 and is on track to host the Big Sky Conference tournament.

That’s a 73-19 record since the Eagles opened up in their closed-door session.

But how long is too long for a coach’s postgame pontificating?

Last Saturday in Pullman, University of Washington coach Bill Neville kept his players for close to an hour after dropping a five-game match to Washington State. It was the Huskies’ fifth straight loss, dropping them to 6-11, 2-7 in the Pacific-10 Conference.

“There’s a tendency,” said Neville, “when you win, there are reasons. When you lose, there are excuses.

“I don’t think there’s any agenda as to how long you’re going to be (after a match). But there are right times to teach a lesson. You find it and hit the button. After a game is one of the opportunities.”

In the case of the Gonzaga Bulldogs, the button might be labeled “panic.”

The Zags have not won in more than a month. Last Friday after losing at Loyola Marymount - their seventh straight defeat - Eva Windlin-Jansen and her Gonzaga team powwowed for about an hour.

“You kinda have to get to the bottom of it and ask, `What’s going on?”’ Windlin-Jansen said. “But there also comes a point where there’s enough talk and you’ve got to show me what you’re talking about.”

The following night, Gonzaga lost at Pepperdine. Its record dropped to 4-16 after Tuesday’s 3-0 loss against Eastern.

But for every coach who keeps the players overtime, there are the ones who prefer the quickie conversation.

“I don’t personally feel that immediately following a match is the right time to evaluate. With the pre-meal, taping, warmups and match, they’ve already given you a 5 to 6-hour commitment,” said Idaho coach Carl Ferreira, whose team is coming off losses to Cal Poly, Washington State, No. 5 Long Beach and No. 3 Pacific.

“When I was (coaching) at Bakersfield, I did it a couple of times. It’s not worth it. Family and friends are waiting and there’s nothing more you can accomplish at that time that you can’t accomplish tomorrow.”

Washington State coach Cindy Fredrick is on the same page.

“I don’t have that much to say to them and they don’t have that long of an attention span,” she said. “ I think sometimes you need to walk away from it.”

But she quickly added, “ I would never ever prejudge a coach on how they do things. Things work differently for different coaches.”

Eagles rest

Eastern Washington (18-3, 9-1) winner of 15 of its last 16 matches, has the weekend off before traveling to Idaho State and Sacramento State. A sweep of those two would all but secure the chance to play host to the Big Sky Conference tournament for the Eagles. The tournament, held on Thanksgiving weekend in the past, has been moved to Nov. 18-20. The last time the Eagles hosted was 1989, a year they won it and played in the NCAA Tournament. Last year, EWU returned to the tournament with an at-large bid.