|
SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE
-----
|
Pirate Notebook No. 265
Friday, February 24, 2006
By Denny O'Brien |
 |
LeClair rewrote standard at
ECU
©2006 Bonesville.net
It has taken a while for me to completely
comprehend Keith LeClair’s impact on East Carolina athletics. About four
years to be exact.
That is the length of time that I have
known the Pirates Hall-of-Fame baseball coach. And though our relationship
has consisted of exactly one verbal conversation, the far-reaching impact of
that dialogue has far surpassed any expectations that preceded the meeting.
My initial analysis was one that paralleled
many of those who also have come in contact with the Pirates coach. LeClair
obviously was an astute skipper, but he is an even better man.
The type of man who makes you take
inventory on your life and make any necessary adjustments to more closely
align it with his. One of the few shining examples remaining in a profession
that slowly has become underscored by eroding moral standards.
Good coach, good guy. We’ve all heard the
story.
The problem is, that’s only part of it — a
very small part that must be qualified by a more appropriate tribute to a
coach whose impact on East Carolina couldn’t possibly be fully measured when
he relinquished the reigns to the baseball program.
The rationale for this revised assessment
can be traced directly to the distractions that briefly divided East
Carolina’s constituency. But now that the purple smoke has cleared, it’s
fairly obvious what LeClair did for ECU.
He redefined success.
LeClair proved that success at East
Carolina didn’t have to be contained by a ceiling, or by the parameters in
which the Pirates were placed by outside forces. And despite the stiff
challenges everyone acknowledges, excuses never were used as a crutch for
his team’s failure to achieve.
That’s because ECU won under LeClair. It
won big. And it won despite the fact that its venue hardly matched up to the
local Babe Ruth facility on which many of the players he recruited once
trained.
An inadequate Harrington Field meant any
series against other baseball bullies would be staged on unfriendly turf. It
also meant that two No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament would displace the
Pirates in the Bayou, while another would temporarily relocate them in
Wilson and Kinston.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
LeClair took an East Carolina program that
already was respectable and made it a national contender. He did it in a
conference that, while solid, hardly received any regional attention, let
alone on a national scale.
He leaped over the geographic disadvantage
that many labeled too high to hurdle. The Pirates not only matched up to the
in-state contingent from the ACC, they surpassed them to the point that
LeClair became the face of college baseball in North Carolina.
So much so that the supply of tickets to
ECU home games often couldn’t meet the demand. Not to mention the fact that
the overflow herd of fans that grazed the Jungle created a hostile
environment for opposing teams that was rivaled by few.
LeClair also became the lasting thread that
gave East Carolina’s constituency a common bond at a time when an internal
power struggle nearly severed the ranks completely. Though many within the
tightly knit fan base were forced to choose sides in the fall during that
tense time period, the spring provided a cease fire during which it could
again unite.
East Carolina's baseball program overcame
these deficiencies because LeClair had a vision that belied the clichés that
most in his scenario almost certainly would have embraced.
This wasn’t about winning records or
postseason appearances. ECU’s mission from day one was a destination that
few previously considered.
Omaha.
East Carolina has made it to the doorsteps
of the College World Series twice because LeClair dared to dream. He dared
to envision ECU as a national power that called one of the nation’s finest
baseball palaces home.
Though ALS has removed LeClair from the
dugout, he still dreams big and lives with purpose. That has been the case
from the day he resigned from his coaching post, and it is a scenario that
remains unchanged.
Away from the field, LeClair retained his
coaching duties, though using a different tool for teaching the two subjects
on which he is most qualified to speak. His baseball expertise received
widespread attention through a weekly column he wrote for Bonesville.net,
while his passion for serving God has been documented regularly in the
devotionals he mass e-mails to friends.
Looking back, it now is clear what LeClair
meant to East Carolina. And it couldn’t be more appropriate that ECU now
hosts a prestigious annual tournament that pays tribute to his name in a
stadium that he built.
Though the purpose behind the Keith LeClair
Classic is to raise money and awareness for ALS, this weekend also should be
a time to acknowledge the impact its namesake made on ECU.
LeClair taught East Carolina that it can
succeed at a level that many have long insisted it can’t. He also taught its
constituents to have faith through even the most difficult of circumstances.
Both should be the standard at ECU.
Send
an e-mail message to Denny O'Brien.
Click here to dig into Denny
O'Brien's Bonesville archives.
02/23/2007 02:02:52 AM |
