This past week, I've faced the harshest reality possible as a reporter: We are at the mercy of the sources that we pride ourselves upon.
Without their "on the record" testimony, reporters have no way to tell the whole story. Therefore, I feel as though the developments of former AU Women's Basketball coach Shann Hart's resignation are blurred.
There's no doubt that Hart was a controversial figure during her four-year tenure here at AU. Her aggressive personality and coaching style caused her to be under constant fire in the yuppie Patriot League.
Reports also have surfaced that she was not as much of a "player's coach" as she claimed to be. While she had some players who loved playing for her, others may not have been as enamored as they seemed publicly.
However, as graduating superstar Chanel Spriggs said, "Coaches are paid to do two things: win and graduate players. Coach Hart did both of these and she's gone."
Hart did win, leading the Eagles to their second straight winning season this past year and taking them to within four points of the NCAA tournament. And 100 percent of her players who completed their eligibility graduated. She also raised the team grade point average in her time here.
The confusing thing is that if she built a successful program, graduated all her players and ran an effective system, was it only her aggressiveness that caused her problems?
Or was it merely Athletic Director Joni Comstock's history of hiring incredibly successful women's basketball coaches that led her to test her hand again by possibly making a superstar hire for the program?
These questions go unanswered because players, coaches and administrators will fail to discuss Hart's shortcomings.
As records go,16-13 is not 22-4 or 29-0, but it is still a winning record and an improvement over recent years (last year notwithstanding), and the fact that Hart was not retained is baffling to me.
AU was Hart's first Division I job, and in four short years, she quadrupled the team's win total (from 4 in her first year to 16) and put together an exciting, young team capable of contending for the Patriot League crown for several years.
Thus, it seems unrealistic that she would just pick up and leave so abruptly. Obviously, I cannot assert that she was pushed out the door, only that there is more to this story than meets the eye.
But, as a reporter, I question the validity of the story because attempts to reach Hart and other players were unsuccessful. Comments from the administration were politically correct (and rightfully so) and seemed to water down the situation.
Having covered the team for two years, I saw it grow from a team without a clear focus to a team with defined roles and a common goal entering this year's PL tournament.
When the final buzzer sounded at Colgate and the team left in tears, there seemed to be a clear dissention on the court. Whether or not this reporter's intuition was true or false remains to be seen, but there's no doubt that there are more quotes and stories that pertain to Hart's era at AU.
In my countless interviews with Hart, she was always an upstanding individual who was always willing to answer my questions. Her voracious hunger to win was exemplified by her anger after a loss, but the impression I always got was that she put her team first and badly wanted it to succeed.
So, when I hear rumors of her being unfair to certain players, I have no choice but to disagree with them because of the way she portrayed herself in front of media.
I will not pretend to have been present behind closed doors, so I don't know the inner workings of the team, but whether or not it was a cohesive unit or a divided group, Hart was able to turn this into a positive on the court.
Unfortunately, she will not get the chance to continue her coaching stint at AU. And just as unfortunate, the AU community may never get to hear the full, unedited version of her story and why she no longer has that opportunity.
