Fire Bill Hillier

This hasn’t been the best year for the Duke baseball team. There’s no quick fix, but there is an obvious first step: Baseball head coach Bill Hillier should be fired at the end of this season.

Before this year’s campaign began, Athletic Director Joe Alleva told Hillier his job was on the line if the program did not improve. Instead, the team’s record plummeted to 12-27. His overall record of 119-202 and the concerns that have arisen recently about team climate and Hillier’s ability to manage and motivate his players beg the question: Why wasn’t he fired sooner?

Since the most outrageous charges—including on-record reports of steroid abuse—are several years past, and since Duke baseball’s season will end in a little more than a month, it doesn’t make much sense to fire him now. Removing him immediately would do little actual good; furthermore, players have alleged that many of the team’s problems are endemic to the whole coaching staff, which includes Hillier’s son and other assistants he hired. If Hillier were fired now, it is unclear who would be equipped to lead the team.

Even before charges of steroid use and misconduct were levied, the University had reason to question Hillier’s position. Given Duke’s resources, and its ability to succeed in nearly every other sport, our baseball program should be respectable, at the very least. The ACC is one of the strongest conferences in the nation in baseball, and the fact that we have hardly been competitive during Hillier’s tenure should have been cause for alarm.

Although many of these charges are coming to light now, Hillier should have been fired after the 2003 season. That spring the team had a paltry two ACC wins, and the previous fall multiple allegations of improper conduct surfaced: one player was arrested for possession of steroids, another (who also admitted to using steroids) attempted suicide, the program’s transfer rate reached its peak and a year earlier a parent had written an anonymous letter to the University expressing her concern about the coaching staff and its treatment of the players. At this point, the Athletic Department had reason enough to be suspicious about the program, and yet aside from an increase in drug testing, nothing changed. Somehow, Hillier was signed for another season.

Just as Hillier should be held accountable for the damage he has done to the baseball program, the Athletic Department in general, and Alleva in particular, should be held accountable for their failure to intervene. Even though the interviews department officials conducted with players did not yield any firm conclusions about the team, the concern should have prompted quicker action. By last summer, the University had another letter in hand from a former player, raising the same charges yet again. But when President Richard Brodhead asked Alleva about the allegations, Alleva did not even mention steroids—although the steroid use charge had already been brought to Brodhead’s attention in writing.

Duke deserves better, and the baseball players who compete in Duke’s name deserve better. It will take years to repair the damage that’s been done to the program; by firing Hillier at the season’s end, at least the first step will be taken.