Columnist Dean Juipe: Rebels may have saved coach’s job

Dean Juipe

Monday, May 8, 2000 | 10:18 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

As the school year nears an end, none of UNLV's head coaches expects -- or deserves -- to be let go for any performance-related reason. To varying degrees, each has met or exceeded not only his or her goals but the reasonable standards of the university and community.

But just a month ago that blanket generalization would have had an asterisk attached. And that asterisk would have referred to Rod Soesbe.

At the time, his Rebel baseball team was 7-25 and seemingly en route to replacing the 1974 team -- which finished 19-34 -- as the worst in the program's 37-year history.

Today, however, the Rebels are 22-30 and have not only won five straight but 15 of their previous 20. With three regular-season games remaining next weekend at San Diego State and the Mountain West Conference tournament to follow, UNLV is still apt to finish with a losing record yet it's one that's tolerable under the circumstances.

Questioned Sunday before the Rebels defeated Air Force 21-12 to complete a five-game sweep at Wilson Stadium, Soesbe acknowledged feelings of insecurity when his team was at rock bottom.

"I thought about it a lot," he said of being on the hot seat. "Like any other business, you're paid to perform. If you're a salesman and you can't sell anything, you worry about it.

"I'm the biggest critic of myself, so I questioned how things were going. I can sit here and talk about money and budgets and all that, but I took those things upon myself when I took this job.

"I've put pressure on myself to win."

The Rebels' reversal was welcome on many fronts but especially by those who find Soesbe an engaging fellow and a dignified baseball man. Yet baseball is just high enough of a priority at UNLV that no matter how endearing the coach may be, he has to win his share of games and he certainly can't have a team finish 10-45 -- as the Rebels were once on course to do.

"Without offering any excuses, in retrospect we jumped right into the fire this season and maybe played too many tough people," he said of an early-season schedule that included nationally ranked teams UCLA, Cal State Fullerton and Clemson. "You lose a few games and you start to press. You play a couple good games and still lose and you press even more.

"But we practiced hard and we've gotten better. The character of the team has improved."

So has its pitching, hitting and fielding. In spite of losing outfielder Tony DeMarco from the heart of the lineup with an elbow injury April 7, the Rebels righted their season at a time when they could have capitulated.

Now they hope to have DeMarco back for the conference tourney and feel they match up adequately with every team in the league aside from front-runner New Mexico.

With an influx of both local talent and junior-college transfers, a winning season next year is something Soesbe will demand.

"We've got to get the job done next year," he said. "If not, I put the responsibility on myself."

At 53 years old and with a four-year record of 104-119 at UNLV, Soesbe remains in something of a ticklish situation. But the immediate threat to his job, his tenure and his livelihood has passed.