Hansen's Sunday Notebook: In uncertain times, Pima College coach Chad Harrison splits time between hospital and track

The Star's longtime columnist checks in this week with the latest in Southern Arizona sports, including how Chad Harrison is balancing working as a full-time intensive care nurse and coaching Pima College's track and field team. 

The timing of Chad Harrison’s promotion to be head track and field coach at Pima College couldn’t have been much worse. Or much better, if that makes sense.

Just as PCC shut down its spring sports in mid-March, Harrison accepted a promotion to become the school’s interim head coach.

“I saw no reason to pump the brakes,” he says now.

Somehow, while working full-time as a progressive critical care/intensive care nurse, mostly at Tucson Medical Center — spending most days in surgical procedures — Harrison successfully recruited and signed more than 40 athletes for Pima’s 2020-21 season.

A roster that had 35 athletes when Harrison was elevated from assistant coach to head coach, now has 86 athletes. He also hired assistant coach Al Shirley, a former Central Arizona College Hall of Fame coach.

“We’ve been aggressive, we’re fully invested, our goal is a region championship and I don’t think that’s ever been done here,” says Harrison, a PCC and UA grad who was a state champion relay runner at Benson High School. I will say that we’re headed in the right direction.”

Harrison works in the medical industry for eight hours a day. He begins what is routinely a six-hour day as PCC’s track coach late each afternoon.

“I’m not a big sleeper,” he says. “I can get by on five or six hours a night. It has enabled me to recruit each day, using Zoom, social media, every platform possible. We’ve got all of our kids training on their own. As you might guess, I’m very eager to see everyone in person and get going when our facility reopens.”

If the 10 Maricopa County schools decide to shut down sports for the 2020-21 season, including spring sports, it should not affect Harrison’s first season as PCC’s track coach.

“We do not schedule dual meets against the (ACCAC schools). We compete in invitationals at all levels, including at the UA. Building a schedule is doable. Our goal is to qualify our athletes for the regionals and nationals. Our highest goal is to get our kids exposure, get them a scholarship to a four-year school and to get a higher education. All of that remains on the table.”

Harrison should know. He has coached eight NJCAA national champions and 21 All-Americans in his decade as an assistant under former head coach Greg Wenneborg.

Harrison’s typical day isn’t for everyone. He is up at 5 a.m., and at the hospital by 6:30. After that? “I’m on the phone a lot,” he says.

“I’m committed to making this work. There was one day we got recruiting commits from 14 kids. It just seemed to gather momentum. We’ve really been successful in Phoenix and we’re working on changing the recruiting dynamic in Tucson. Rather than walk on at Arizona, we are being successful in showing our hometown athletes that they can enroll at Pima, get a scholarship and increase their times and distances, thereby attracting the attention of four-year schools.”

Harrison’s late father, Clifton, grew up in rural Alabama in the 1930s, joined the Air Force, lived in Europe and ultimately moved to Tucson and Benson where he opened a floor covering business.

“My dad worked so hard,” says Harrison. “He was such a great example. He made a success of himself and it wasn’t easy. If he can do that, I can put my full effort into two jobs.”

Shutting down non-conference football could open legal battles in Pac-12

Portland State signed an agreement to play at Arizona Stadium on Sept. 5 for an appearance fee of roughly $550,000.

That’s significant money for PSU, whose athletic revenue for the 2019-20 fiscal year was $15.8 million compared to Arizona’s $102.3 million. Or put it this way: Portland State’s football budget is so small that it took a bus to recent games at Cal Poly and Boise State to save the school $140,000 in expenses.

In the last five years, PSU coach Bruce Barnum has agreed to play “money games” at Arkansas, Oregon, BYU, Washington and Washington State to help pay bills. Barnum, who is paid $190,000 a year, only has eight assistant coaches (Arizona has 10) and a few years ago gave $26,000 of his salary to help pay them more.

The Pac-12’s decision to cancel non-conference games will have a devastating financial toll on those like PSU, NAU, New Mexico State, Montana State, Sacramento State and Idaho, all now further rocked by the coronavirus pandemic. A few might be able to reschedule games against Pac-12 teams over the next five or six years.

But it won’t be much of a surprise if any of those schools, including Portland State, seek legal action to get their $550,000 paydays from Pac-12 schools.

A prominent Tucson attorney told me that non-Power 5 programs will likely attempt to hold Pac-12 schools to their guaranteed contracts. The Power 5 schools can’t claim a “force majeure” clause — act-of-God-type cancellations — if they are still playing games.

The move to cancel football games by the Big Ten and Pac-12 is the latest in a “desperate hopefulness” of college football.

Let the litigation begin.

Stanford’s move to eliminate sports opens the gates

When Stanford last week became the first Power 5 conference school to eliminate sports — the Cardinal dropped 11 non-revenue sports, including wrestling and men’s volleyball — it immediately created the feared but not unanticipated question of “who’s next?”

Former Utah athletic director Chris Hill predicted this was coming on a Salt Lake radio program two months ago. “Why do we need all these sports?” he said.

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The question now seems to be: How far will this go?

Pac-12 wrestling doesn’t make much financial sense. With Stanford gone, the only schools sponsoring wrestling are ASU and Oregon State. They play in a “league” with Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield and Arkansas-Little Rock.

Nor does men’s volleyball in the Pac-12 have a strong foundation. With Stanford gone, it leaves UCLA and USC in a conference with Pepperdine, Grand Canyon, BYU and Concordia.

For whatever reasons, Arizona State still sponsors hockey, wrestling, women’s water polo, triathlon and women’s lacrosse. And remember, the Sun Devils have a $12.5 annual sports debt service, one of the highest in college sports.

The coronavirus doesn’t do the math or worry about Pac-12 non-revenue sports. If a financial titan like Stanford is cutting sports, it is Exhibit A that the cost of the collegiate sports model of yesterday has a very steep price that few schools will be able to pay.

Johnson proves that Wildcats can find hoops success outside the NBA

Arizona’s 2014 Pac-12 basketball player of the year Nick Johnson last week told the Star’s Bruce Pascoe that his decision to leave the NBA to play in Turkey, Germany and France should be required reading for all fringe NBA prospects at Arizona and elsewhere. Said Johnson: “I always say there are 2,000 people talented enough to be in the NBA but only 450 spots. You can be the 14th or 15th guy (on an NBA roster) or you can go overseas and be the best player on your team or have a big role, playing in front of fans where it’s more like a college atmosphere.” Well said, Nick.

Derrick Williams continues to find success overseas

Arizona’s 2011 All-American Derrick Williams is an example of Johnson’s philosophy. Williams, the No.2 overall NBA draft pick in 2011, signed to play for the EuroLeague’s Spanish franchise, Valencia, last week. After a disappointing NBA career in which he averaged just 8.9 points per game, Williams has since become a marquee player in Turkey. Of the last 10 NBA drafts, Williams is one of three “busts” selected No. 2 overall. The others: UConn’s Hasheem Thabeet, a 7-2 center who averaged just 2.2 points per game, and Ohio State’s Evan Turner, the No. 2 overall choice in 2010.

The other No. 2 picks in that 2005-2015 period have been productive, including LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley, Victor Oladipo, Jabari Parker and D’Angelo Russell. It says a bit about how flawed the evaluation process in the NBA draft. When Williams went No. 2 in 2011, Washington State’s Klay Thompson was No. 11, San Diego State’s Kawhi Leonard No. 15 and Marquette’s Jimmy Butler No. 29.

Tucsonan returns to manage baseball team amid COVID-19 pandemic 

Former Sabino High and UA baseball standout Mike Meyer was among the first Americans to return to professional baseball. Last weekend, Meyer — manager of the American Association’s Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Canaries, an independent league team — led his team into an opening-night game in Sioux Falls attended by 1,522 fans, with every other row of seats blocked off from fans. A fireworks celebration was held post-game and food was available from concessions stands. Meyer’s club has drawn 2,746 fans over three games.

Ex-Arizona hurdler remotely performs international competition

Former Arizona All-American hurdler Georganne Moline, a 2012 Olympian and former national champion, returned to international competition last week. Sort of. Moline won the Diamond League’s Zurich Inspirations Games 300 hurdles event, but she wasn’t in Switzerland at all. She ran her 300 hurdles race in Walnut, California, which was filmed virtually at the exact time as seven other runners around the world. Moline had missed 18 months with a foot injury. The Diamond League has plans for track and field events next month in Monaco and Sweden, but it’s uncertain if those events will take place.

My two cents: Virus must force athletic departments to look in the mirror

The Pac-12’s decision to eliminate non-conference events on the fall schedule affects far more than football.

Last year, for example, the UA’s national power women’s golf team played fall events in Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta and Honolulu. The UA cross country teams competed twice in Indiana in fall meets.

That’s not like transporting 150 football players, staff members, coaches and administrators to, say, a non-conference football game at Hawaii, as Arizona did a year ago. In retrospect, that sort of expense — probably close to $500,000 — no longer seems viable in college sports.

Does a cross country team really have to travel to two meets in Indiana in the fall?

This is the time college administrators must reexamine the collegiate model. If one year of no football decimates an athletic department, there is surely a better way.