Winds of change blow through AFA athletics

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 20, 2003 by MARK FITZHENRY

Col. Randy Spetman's announcement Wednesday that he will retire as Air Force Academy athletic director is the most dramatic signal that change has come to the athletic department like it has elsewhere at the academy in recent months.

Brig. Gen. Taco Gilbert was the academy's commandant (second in command) until April 10, when he was reassigned to the Pentagon after the academy became the target of sex-assault inquiries. Dozens of female cadets reported they were sexually assaulted during recent years.

Before his reassignment, Gilbert told investigators with the Air Force's general counsel's office that the athletic department had "become a world and culture of their own," according to documents released in September.

"We tend not to find out about a lot of the things that do happen down in the athletic department that would not be tolerated anywhere else," Gilbert told investigators. Gilbert did not return a call seeking further comment.

In March, Air Force Secretary James Roche announced the "Agenda for Change" in response to the sex-assault problem. The new agenda dealt with numerous topics, including lines of authority that reach to the athletic department.

Until April, Spetman reported to the superintendent, the first in command at the academy. Now, the athletic director will report to the commandant.

During the Board of Visitors meeting at the academy Oct. 10, Roche said it was "not by accident" that athletics were moved under the commandant's supervision.

"We are going to be taking a look at the whole department of athletics to benchmark against the other academies in terms of what their structure is, what the practices may be over there," Roche said.

Where that examination leads and what changes occur could have a profound impact on the athletic department. The most prominent part of the program is the Falcon football team, which attracts 30,000 or more fans to the academy five or six times each fall and is followed by Air Force alumni, personnel and fans around the world.

The discussion will focus on what is referred to at the academy as the "Terrazzo Gap," so named because some cadets and faculty think the gap between recruited athletes and other cadets is as wide as the Terrazzo courtyard on campus.

The General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, reported in September that 70.4 percent of cadets responding to a survey said varsity athletes receive preferential treatment. In the same survey, 64 percent of cadets and 69 percent of the faculty said intercollegiate athletics were overemphasized.

Nearly seven of 10 recruited athletes said they got special consideration during admission. One-third of athletes said they get special treatment at the academy.

The report was the third of three the GAO released in September on the Military Academy at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy. One report looked at oversight of the academies and admissions and the other examined the prep schools.

Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., requested the GAO investigation after a Gazette report in 2002 showed the Air Force Academy had admitted a record number of cadets below its academic minimums, most of them recruited athletes. Such cadets don't do as well at the academy or afterward, an Air Force report said.

The Terrazzo Gap is exemplified by such practices as allowing athletes to eat lunch at ease and with their teammates during the season versus eating with strict posture with their squadron.

"That only furthers the Terrazzo Gap," said Katie Dildy, who is the wing commander, the highest ranking cadet. "There's good and bad on both sides of it."

The good, coaches and athletes say, is athletes bond with teammates and eat as much food as they need. The ability to work as a team is great training, too. The negative is athletes aren't bonding with their squadron.

The academy has had a written policy that states an NCAA or club team's practice or game "will take precedence over punishment." There is also a written policy that states "under no circumstance" will a varsity athlete be required to do "march tours" before a game on the day of the game. A "march tour" means marching in full uniform outside because of a rules infraction.

Dildy has an unusual perspective. She was a varsity volleyball player until she left the team because of the extra responsibilities of being wing commander.

"(The gap) was portrayed on me all the time," Dildy said. "That's the honest perception out there."

But many cadets don't see athletes training and practicing with the team for five hours and then returning to the dorm drained from the workouts to do homework, she said.

"Some cadets who don't see that side get frustrated," Dildy said. "I was constantly striving to be a part of the squadron....Athletes are kind of disconnected from the squadron a majority of the time, especially during the season. There's a lot of teams here that do live by the same standard."

Dildy added that "certain teams" play a "slacker role," but she declined to say which teams.