liar!!!!! wrote:
Clearly the rules aren't being followed.
Well the NCAA rules were followed. That's one of the things that was troubbling about this - the double standards the NCAA and UVA has for athletes versus coaches. The NCAA rule book and past UVA student-athlete hand books both state that an athlete serving a WADA ban would immediately be suspended from the team. A coach - who is supposed to be an educator - should be held to a higher standard. They aren't.
The NCAA consistently requires one thing of student athletes and less of coaches. A kid signs a letter of intent to a school and he's stuck there even if his coach transfers to another school.
The other most troubling aspects of this are as follows.
1) The fact that this guy while banned has continued to coach very publicly and his ban hasn't been extended. What's the point of having doping bans if it means nothing for coaches?
When I contacted WADA, they didn't really care simply because the NCAA isn't a signatory to their code. That very much bothered me. Why does that matter? Maric himself is clearly still involved in the sport and basically just ignoring his ban.
2) I went out of my way to ask UVA for their side of the story. If there was some innocent mistake that resulted in the positive, please let me hear it as at face value this story is so ludicrous it's embarrassing. They basically told me, "Yeah it was unintentional and nonperformance enhancing" but then refused to provide me proof for it.
It reminded me of a little kid bragging about something and then when you say, "Ok let me see it," the kid says, "No".
Maric seems to be a good coach. We all make mistakes. But when we make big ones like this, there need to be consequences. Fess up to it, be honest about it, don't just act like nothing happened and tell others the evidence can't be shared as it's part of his personnel file.
3) The whole thing basically just makes me feel that most people don't view doping as that big of a deal.
There really is no crime worse in our sport than intentional doping. UVA is a school that really prides prides itself on its honor code. Well doping in sport is the equivalent of going into an exam and cheating on it. There need to be serious consequences for that - particularly at a university.