CPA Releases Mathews

[CPA4Ever]

CPA's biggest problems are MBA, Ensworth, FRA, BGA, etc.

I agree to a degree if you mean that they are trying to attract the same demographic group of athletes, but cannot give them scholorships. They have lost many fine athletes after elementary and middle school to those schools - more than they have gained.

On the other hand they are unique among those schools in terms of their emphasis on religion in their mission statement. Some parents want that versus what those other schools offer.

[Rainwater]

kbrks has an special personal insight to CPA and is not exactly nonpartisan in his comments. He makes excellent points, but ax grinding can produce blind spots as well.

We cannot assume CPA is wrong or wronged anyone without knowing all of the facts. My only firm belief is that few HS coaches could have done better after the reclassification to 3A, and that if this is a wins vs. losses change, those who chose to stay in Division I share some of the blame.

I know CPA chose to stay Division I to avoid sheltering their students and program from all socio-economic groups, and to have amission to the world beyond the private school. They have done a good job with that mission. However, that decision carries with it a very high mountain to climb if they expect to go deep in the 3A playoffs. I hope they understand that.

 

CPA, while I respect your posts.....I respectfully disagree to say they "chose" to stay Division I to avoid sheltering their students from socio-economic groups and having a mission to the world beyond the private school. The fact is that they stayed Division I thinking they could compete with the big boys and better competition in football and basketball like Goodpasture and Lipscomb. This is further fueled by the mission of CPA hiring Drew Maddux as basketball coach and their recent basketball success and all of the sudden Jalen Lindsey is at CPA, along with Craig Bradshaw, and a slew of incoming freshmen talent that all of the sudden appeared at CPA. Thinking that stud athletes are coming in for the Christian environment above all is nieve. I do feel that CPA is a great opportunity for the right coach, as they are going to step it up a notch in football and there will probably be some big $$$$ involved.

[kbrks]

I would respectfully suggest that it is utterly preposterous to suggest that the school has EVER communicated that a "coach's continued employment will not be based on wins and losses." Balance and Perspective. How much weight the school assigns to wins and losses reflects their values and is worth discussion. But to claim that wins and losses will not influence a COACH's standing is, naive at best. It seems that you simply do not trust that the leadership of the school properly advised Mathews of his shortcomings and gave him a proper opportunity to correct them. I have no basis to say that they did or did not, nor, I suspect, do you. If you DO have such evidence and you stand to be affected by such future decisionmaking, you ought to be addressing it privately with your employer. If not, you are maligning the integrity of the leadership with no basis in fact.

You are using words like never and ever and I can 100% assure you that it has been stated and part of the CPA athletic philosophy that a coach will not be judged on wins and losses. I know that is the type of environment Coach Mathews was hired in under. Don’t shoot the messenger. And of course I have reasons based on facts to be concerned. I do not take this lightly and I choose my words carefully. Just because you are making assumptions (that may sound logical to you), don’t automatically assume I am doing the same only because it does not line up with what you think. In that sense you would be guilty of what you are accusing me of. What is naïve is trusting leadership simply because it sounds good. Real trust is an earned quality, not a positional quality. My main point is be consistent with who you say you are and let people know the expectations up front.

 

I also know Coach Mathews to be a man of character and a servant to the CPA community. I wish he and his family the best as they go through this difficult time.

[CPA4Ever]

CPA, while I respect your posts.....I respectfully disagree to say they "chose" to stay Division I to avoid sheltering their students from socio-economic groups and having a mission to the world beyond the private school. The fact is that they stayed Division I thinking they could compete with the big boys and better competition in football and basketball like Goodpasture and Lipscomb. This is further fueled by the mission of CPA hiring Drew Maddux as basketball coach and their recent basketball success and all of the sudden Jalen Lindsey is at CPA, along with Craig Bradshaw, and a slew of incoming freshmen talent that all of the sudden appeared at CPA. Thinking that stud athletes are coming in for the Christian environment above all is nieve. I do feel that CPA is a great opportunity for the right coach, as they are going to step it up a notch in football and there will probably be some big $$$$ involved.

I know first hand I am right as to the reasons to stay D1, and that was before Maddux. They were already playing Goodpasture in football (as well as Riverdale and other big schools) and Lipscomb in basketball. They also made a decision to not let athletics skew their decision making in giving scholorships, which going DII will always do.

The Maddux hire was a mutual desire. Drew wanted the atmosphere at CPA, but he is a fierce competitor and good coach. They were glad to get that as well. if it was all about wins and money, the AD would not have coached the women's BB team the last few years before this year.

[Roy Dillard]

I agree to a degree if you mean that they are trying to attract the same demographic group of athletes, but cannot give them scholorships. They have lost many fine athletes after elementary and middle school to those schools - more than they have gained.

On the other hand they are unique among those schools in terms of their emphasis on religion in their mission statement. Some parents want that versus what those other schools offer.

 

What do you mean scholarships? Your joking. Im not stupid. You can only get a scholarhip in college from the NCAA. If the TSSAA finds out about CPA giving scholarships, they will be penalized. I garuntee you that Childress man will not like this mess. I am not going to tell him, but I garuntee you that CPA will be in big trouble if he finds out about them giving scholarships. Let me ask you a question. Is this why this Mathews boy got fired because he quit giving scholarships? This is going to turn into a bunch of mess. You think im joking but im not.

Edited December 13, 2010 by Roy Dillard

[CPA4Ever]

What do you mean scholarships? Your joking. If the TSSAA finds out about CPA giving scholarships, they will be penalized. I garuntee you that Childress man will not like this mess. I am not going to tell him, but I garuntee you that CPA will be in big trouble if he finds out about them giving scholarships. Let me ask you a question. Is this why this Mathews boy got fired because he quit giving scholarships? This is going to turn into a bunch of mess. You think im joking but im not.

Roy, you need to read more carefully before you post. CPA can give scholorships, but not to athletes. What I said was that CPA made a decision to stay DI because if they had gone DII, they would feel the temptation to give scholorships only to athletes rather than to good singers,students, etc.. In DII it is a real temptation to allow a student's athletic ability sway your decision to help them with a scholorship. CPA didn't want that to happen.

[kbrks]

kbrks has an special personal insight to CPA and is not exactly nonpartisan in his comments. He makes excellent points, but ax grinding can produce blind spots as well.

It should not be that anyone who disagrees is simply ax grinding, jealous, sour grapes, has blind spots, etc. It can be simply for honest discussion and the pursuit of truth, particularly if only one side of the issue is being presented.

[rollredroll]

I agree to a degree if you mean that they are trying to attract the same demographic group of athletes, but cannot give them scholorships. They have lost many fine athletes after elementary and middle school to those schools - more than they have gained.

On the other hand they are unique among those schools in terms of their emphasis on religion in their mission statement. Some parents want that versus what those other schools offer.

 

The average student on aid at a couple of those schools is still paying out of pocket roughly what full freight is at CPA (public information, including tax returns, is available online to support this). Any implication that the financial aid offered by those schools is impacting CPA is a gross exaggeration. Families attending CPA the upcoming year are paying at least $10.8K-$12.4K out of pocket per student to attend school; these aren't exactly poor families. I know many of these families (I live two miles from the school), including a family that is a prominent family in Nashville in the copier business. Many of these families aren't qualifying for much aid even at DII schools.

 

The aforementioned DII schools don't exactly have atheism in their school crest either. Their focus may not be religion, but the students in large part come from very pious families. What they aren't getting at school is more than made up for at Episcopal churches on Belle Meade Boulevard, Presbyterian chruches on Franklin Road, et al. - even a Presbyterian church on Old Hickory.

 

One last point: two of the schools have origins that predate the century before last century. CPA the school is, what, 20 years old? History and tradition are barriers that will always be issues.

 

Final point as it relates to DI versus DII and athletics: DII exists because some schools choose to give financial aid. Schools don't give financial aid to be in DII. Semantics perhaps, but if athletics is driving a school's decision whether or not to give any/additional financial aid, then that school is putting the cart before the horse.

Edited December 13, 2010 by rollredroll

[Roy Dillard]

Roy, you need to read more carefully before you post. CPA can give scholorships, but not to athletes. What I said was that CPA made a decision to stay DI because if they had gone DII, they would feel the temptation to give scholorships only to athletes rather than to good singers,students, etc.. In DII it is a real temptation to allow a student's athletic ability sway your decision to help them with a scholorship. CPA didn't want that to happen.

 

Your joking. Im not falling for this mess. Grider has never given one our boys a scholarship or we would be in trouble with the TSSAA. You think im stupid but im not. You can only get a scholarship when you get in college. You think im joking but im not.

[patriot4x]

You are using words like never and ever and I can 100% assure you that it has been stated and part of the CPA athletic philosophy that a coach will not be judged on wins and losses. I know that is the type of environment Coach Mathews was hired in under. Don’t shoot the messenger. And of course I have reasons based on facts to be concerned. I do not take this lightly and I choose my words carefully. Just because you are making assumptions (that may sound logical to you), don’t automatically assume I am doing the same only because it does not line up with what you think. In that sense you would be guilty of what you are accusing me of. What is naïve is trusting leadership simply because it sounds good. Real trust is an earned quality, not a positional quality. My main point is be consistent with who you say you are and let people know the expectations up front.

 

I also know Coach Mathews to be a man of character and a servant to the CPA community. I wish he and his family the best as they go through this difficult time.

Coach, YOU started this part of the thread on the premise that the school had NOT been honest with Mathews about the premise for his evaluation as a coach. "just be honest" you said. My main point is that it is patently absurd to continue to assert that ANY coach takes on a job believing that wins and losses don't matter. And those of us who also know Mathews and had children who played for him can safely say that if you asked Jay whether there was any question in HIS mind as to whether the competitiveness of his program would have any bearing on his retention he would laugh at you. So let's move on, shall we? At least we can agree that we wish he and his family well.

[CPA4Ever]

The average student on aid at a couple of those schools is still paying out of pocket roughly what full freight is at CPA (public information, including tax returns, is available online to support this). Any implication that the financial aid offered by those schools is impacting CPA is a gross exaggeration. Families attending CPA the upcoming year are paying at least $10.8K-$12.4K out of pocket per student to attend school; these aren't exactly poor families. I know many of these families (I live two miles from the school), including a family that is a prominent family in Nashville in the copier business. Many of these families aren't qualifying for much aid even at DII schools.

 

The aforementioned DII schools don't exactly have atheism in their school crest either. Their focus may not be religion, but the students in large part come from very pious families. What they aren't getting at school is more than made up for at Episcopal churches on Belle Meade Boulevard, Presbyterian chruches on Franklin Road, et al. - even a Presbyterian church on Old Hickory.

 

One last point: two of the schools have origins that predate the century before last century. CPA the school is, what, 20 years old? History and tradition are barriers that will always be issues.

 

Final point as it relates to DI versus DII and athletics: DII exists because some schools choose to give financial aid. Schools don't give financial aid to be in DII. Semantics perhaps, but if athletics is driving a school's decision whether or not to give any/additional financial aid, then that school is putting the cart before the horse.

Don't disagree with your points, and I strongly respect the DII schools mentioned. They are great schools. My only point was that most parents (apart from a desire to have their children go to a school who makes religion a priority) who have the chance for their kid to go to MBA on scholorship at the same price as CPA on non-scholorship will pick MBA, Ensworth, etc.. You have to agree that is is very rare for CPA to have transfers from those schools rather than the other way around. Please understand I am not accusing those schools of any improprieties, just stating that CPA has a special demographic group it attracts versus the others mentioned.

[mbsdude]

Iam not a cpa fan., but anyone who thinks mathews wasn't an outstanding coach don't understand the game. This will be a huge loss for CPA and i personally think it will take a step back in its program.