Columnist Dean Juipe: Coach’s fate may hinge on his team

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2001 | 11:45 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.

Among UNLV's many attributes is a superb staff of head coaches.

Yet with all due respect to the majority, perhaps as few as four of them are judged as much by their win-loss record as they are by their peripheral achievements such as graduating athletes and running a clean program.

As a result, the pressure to win games falls mainly on the shoulders of the coaches assigned to men's basketball, women's basketball, football and baseball. None of the head coaches of those particular programs can survive too many losing seasons or even an extended run of mediocrity.

Rod Soesbe is well aware of that demanding criteria.

"In this position you feel the pressure all the time," the UNLV baseball coach said Tuesday. "Plus, it's a contract year for me."

Soesbe, like his fellow head coaches at the university, is extremely likable, fairly tenacious and resolutely diligent in carrying out his duties. Having been with the Rebels for 17 years, the last five as head coach, he bleeds the school's colors.

Yet his overall record is 106-122 and he has had but one winning season in four.

Baseball being just a high enough priority at UNLV to put a coach like Soesbe at risk, he may need his current team to continue the winning form it displayed over the weekend when it opened the season 2-1 against Washington State.

"I told myself I've got a good bunch of kids to work with this year and we're going to go out there and have some fun," he said. "I got into this profession 31 years ago because I enjoy it, so I'll see what I can do to help us have a good season."

He admits "I didn't enjoy it last year" when his Rebels went 24-33 after a horrible start.

"We struggled and we didn't have the togetherness we needed to battle through the injuries and stuff like we could have," he said. "I liked the kids all right, but it just took us awhile to get it done."

Adding to the pressure on Soesbe is the fact the Community College of Southern Nevada had such a great debut season last year, and that its new team may be even better. Those comparing the programs could easily conclude the Rebels are losing ground to their junior-college comrades.

"I hope they continue to do well and I talk to Tim (Chambers) and M.J. (Mariani) all the time," Soesbe said, referring to CCSN's coaches. And while UNLV has yet to pick up a player who was groomed at CCSN, Soesbe still anticipates that pipeline will open.

"We didn't have any room this year, but someday the relationship between the programs will be a real plus for us," he said. "I don't think it'll ever hurt us."

What hurts, figuratively at least, is the fact CCSN's baseball program is raising money and looking upwardly mobile at a time when Soesbe's team is on a tight budget. As his predecessor emphatically claimed and is still true today, UNLV's baseball budget is insufficient given the resources of its conference rivals.

But Soesbe accepts the burden and remains cheerful under the weight of the circumstances. He's a baseball man who wears a number of caps, including fund-raiser and, as was apparent by the players who were casually stopping by his office this particular day, counselor.

Everyone who knows him is hoping this season isn't his last.