Breaking news: Phoenix St. Mary’s hires Eddy Zubey as its football coach to replace Stuart Goldstein.
Actually, a press release sent out by St. Mary’s announcing the hire Monday is four days too late. That part is a little easier to let slide given last week’s tragedy in which a Knights’ student-athlete was killed in a car accident.
Meanwhile, the release notes Goldstein “rescinded his acceptance due to personal and health reasons.”
One out of two isn’t bad.
“Health reasons?” That’s public relations garbage.
The “personal reasons” has some merit to it, though nobody at St. Mary’s has been interested in discussing what transpired, and probably never will. Much as the players, students and staff deserve to know what caused such a high-profile position to crumble so quickly, there’s little to gain for school administratiors by explaining exactly what went wrong with Goldstein.
So it’s former Mesa Westwood Eddy Zubey’s turn to try and turn around the sagging Knights, and though the path to get here doesn’t make St. Mary’s endearing, it’s a good hire. Zubey got Westwood on the right track in only two seasons, is young and energetic, and got an offer too good to refuse.
In the last 10 days athletic director Ric Moreno had to deal with a tragic death and an unexpected departure of its football coach (The St. Mary’s and Phoenix Diocese power structure makes it hard to believe Moreno was responsible for that February hire in the first place).
Plus, the possibility of restructuring and budget cuts could put the affable Moreno out of a job this summer.
That’s a rough week.
