Berry head coach Jeff Haarlow was in his 11th season with the team. (File / RN-T.com)
Derek Taylor, who has been on Haarlow’s staff as an assistant, will coach the team for the remainder of the season.
The personable Haarlow has been a staple of the Berry men’s basketball program since the 1990s — first as a player, then as an assistant coach and, since 2002, as head coach.
Haarlow posted a 137-181 record at Berry, including a 4-15 mark this season.
The resignation from Haarlow’s basketball coaching duties is effective immediately, according to a press release issued Tuesday by the school.
Taylor will serve as the interim head coach through the end of the current 2012-13 season.
Haarlow will stay on staff at Berry with teaching and other administrative duties through the end of the academic year, according to the release.
The Vikings, who are 1-7 in the Southern Athletic Association, have five conference games and the SAA tournament remaining.
Harlow graduated from Berry in 1996, and was a two-sport star for the Vikings.
In addition to playing basketball, he also played golf and was a 1996 NAIA All-American.
In his first season as head coach at Berry, he led the team to 21 wins and was named the TranSouth Athletic Conference’s Co-Coach of the Year.
In this situation, generally the employee is given an ultimatum: resign and receive some concessions in terms of compensation or be fired and get nothing.
A shame that Jeff, who has given over 20 years of tremendous service to Berry as an athlete, assistant coach and head coach, and a person that is a great ambassador of the College, is treated this way. No less, at a school that recently came out and said that it isn't about winning and losing at their D3 institution.
Just an observation...the headline of the article was changed from "relieved of duties" to "makes coaching change" after about two hours of being online. Go ask someone in the know at Berry. I'm sure you will find that Jeff did not voluntarily walk away. He would never abandon his team mid-season.
Just go and ask someone who really knows and see what you find.
The institution that claims to be more focused on academics, and not athletics, fires a tremendous person in Jeff Haarlow for not winning enough games? Jeff is an outstanding human being and one of the most genuine people I have ever come into contact with. I hate this for him and I know that he took the process of building great young men very seriously - in addition to his trying to build good basketball players. But, in the end, I guess your record is more important than anything else...even at Berry.
So now what are the excuses about not taking part in the proposed Festival? I don't think the "Shorter and Berry are going in two different directions" argument holds much water anymore.
For all of the heat that Shorter University takes on these message boards for wanting to build a strong athletic program, maybe this should be a wake up call that Shorter isn't the only college in town that cares about winning games, as well as molding good young men and women.
And by the way, did anyone see on this site where Shorter's fall sports teams led the entire Gulf South Conference in Academic Honor Roll members? That list included football (as well as other fall sports volleyball, soccer and cross country) and Shorter placed 73 athletes on the list that features athletes with a 3.0 or better. Valdosta State was the next closest with 60.
Pretty good for a school that apparently doesn't care about academics.
I take it you have not actually met many of the people who work at Shorter, especially in the athletic department. Had you, you probably would not have made such comments. Those people are some of the least judgmental that you'll ever meet. Just ask around. You'll find that people know a lot of quality people within the athletic department at Shorter. Nevertheless, you are entitled to your opinion about the school itself and I respect your ability to have that opinion.
Also, can we all please stop with this same, tired dialogue every time someone mentions Shorter? This article is an athletics article, my comments above had to do with the philosophy of the respective athletic departments. Nothing more. Stop resorting to this type of dialogue when you have nothing constructive to add to the argument or to debate respectfully against it.
Arguments on either side of the issue you allude to, which took place over a year ago, are well documented. I think we can move on from that.
Read more: RN-T.com - Rome, Georgia news, sports, business, lifestyles, weather, breaking news and more from the Rome News-Tribune. " Sounds like someone is just looking for a way to put the two schools on an even playing field to degrade the other because one has already been degraded. By the way the two schools really are going in polar opposite directions.
As i said above, please go and ask someone at Berry who is close to the situation. I'm sure you'll find that Jeff did not voluntarily leave his team mid-season. That is not like him.
And gtw71011, I am not trying to degrade Berry. It is completely healthy for a college to want competitive athletic programs! It is, in fact, part of the college experience. I just have a problem with a school taking such a harsh stance against athletics publicly, saying that its emphasis is not on winning and losing but purely on academics to get out of a proposal to play a cross town rival, and then firing a coach mid-season. This is Division 3, not Division 1.
If they wish to do this, that is their choice. I am not degrading. I just hate this for a great person and coach such as Jeff.