Two years ago I was sitting in Windsor High School principal Marc Elin’s office. Football coach Vic Amick had been let go and I had some questions.
I’d covered schools for just about the same number of years that Elin had been principal at Windsor, so we knew each other in another context. He respectfully answered my questions but he had one of his own for me.
He asked me if I would have been in his office if we were talking about an English teacher’s contract not being renewed. He and I both knew the answer.
I reminded him of that exchange this week when we talked about another coaching change at Windsor — the one in which Cardinal Newman football coach Paul Cronin accepted the job last week, met with players, then announced Tuesday that he had changed his mind.
He wouldn’t be leaving Newman.
I recall Elin’s question of two years ago often as I cover certain stories. It often helps me put things in perspective. And it often makes me wonder if we don’t all get a little breathless over sporting things that certainly matter, but perhaps should not cause us to suffer a collective apoplectic fit.
A good deal of that breathlessness has erupted over the recent storyline surrounding Cronin — will he or won’t he, is he or isn’t he leaving, staying, changing his mind.
This saga was a string of daily dramas the likes of which I haven’t seen surrounding high school sports.
First, Cronin, the Cardinals’ super successful coach for the past 14 years, was linked by rumor to the head coaching vacancy at Windsor High. Then it was no longer a rumor; he was going. He met with players and officials at Windsor.
Then he changed his mind and was staying at Newman.
Behind the scenes, there was even more back and forth than that, with confirmations followed by changes of mind.
It was all only slightly less dramatic than The Decision and a good deal less resolute. When LeBron James said he was taking his talents to South Beach, he actually went.
The uncertainty about which sideline Cronin, 43, will stand on next season was thrown into overdrive last week not just by sporting gadflies and newsies, but by Cronin himself.
All of which I find a little exhausting. It left me wondering about our collective priorities.
Yes, Cronin is the best we’ve got.
St. Bernard’s Academy head coach Matt Tomlin said as much before his team faced Cardinal Newman in the North Coast Section Division 4 final last fall.
“Without a doubt, in my opinion Paul Cronin is the best high school football coach in the state of California,” he told The Press Democrat’s Phil Barber.
And that was before Cronin’s Cardinals gave St. Bernard’s a 44-21 beatdown.
In 14 seasons, Cronin has led the Cardinals to seven North Bay League championships or co-championships and five North Coast Section titles, including last season. Cardinal teams under Cronin have twice advanced to a CIF state championship game, losing both times, in 2006 and 2008.
Clearly, where Cronin coaches is important. And as it seems with all things related to Cardinal Newman, the drama surrounding where he will or won’t go is tinged with the stink of jealousy and mistrust — and any of the other slew of emotions that seem to follow Newman’s exceedingly successful athletic program.
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