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Volume 38 Issue 7
December 12, 2000

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Rice one of the few who keeps his job after bad season

Chris Bowman
MESA LEGEND
Submitted December 12, 2000

It is not a good time to be a head coach in the Valley of the Sun.

First, Buck Schowalter got hit by the firing bug when all he did was win 46 games above .500 the last two seasons, including a playoff birth in his team’s second year of existence.

Next came Vince Tobin, who got axed when his Arizona Cardinals team quit on him in Dallas on Oct. 22. Tobin led the Cardinals to their only playoff appearance while residing in Tempe, and managed to win the game on the road against their arch nemesis.

Considering the Cardinals franchise went more than 50 years without a playoff victory, maybe Tobin’s dismissal was premature.

Then, new ASU Athletic Director Gene Smith felt the need to put his stamp on the football program. He fired Bruce Snyder with three years remaining on his contract.

Snyder may not have competed for a national championship every season, but the coach was a great recruiter and whoever takes over the job for next season will find the cupboard well- stocked.

Maybe some of these dethronings were necessary, or maybe some came too early. Only time will tell, but on the campus of MCC, losing games doesn’t have to result in losing your job.

The Thunderbird football team coached by David Rice has lost 12 straight Western States Football League games, with a 4-16 record the past two season.

Rice has not officially been hired back for next season because coaches at MCC only receive one-year contracts, but Athletic Director Allen Benedict supports Rice.

"I thought the team played with maximum effort," said Benedict, who coached Rice and the MCC football team in 1973. "They didn’t have any discipline problems, and they finished the season against a great Glendale team very strong."

Although Rice’s last two seasons were admittedly a disaster, he was able to compile a 44-35 record in his first seven years at MCC, including three regional championships.

Rice, a former linebacker for MCC’s 1973 national championship team, takes all the blame for his team’s disappointments and vows to get his team back on track.

In a time where coaching has translated to finding a way to win, it’s refreshing to know that Benedict can see through the losses that Rice has racked up, and hire him back because he appreciates the job he is doing.

Chris Bowman is the sports editor for the Mesa Legend and a journalism major at MCC.

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