Todd Saldana had the plum UCLA men's job taken away from him. Former U.S. national team coach Steve Sampson wanted it. Instead, former Columbus Crew boss Tom Fitzgerald was given the job of leading the Bruins after a tumultuous offseason.
Clamor and confusion have subsided in Westwood, an affluent area of Southern California whose prominent landmarks include UCLA.
Like the temblors that occasionally rumble through the area, a turbulent offseason has radically reshaped the landscape of the Bruins men's soccer program.
Six months ago, Todd Saldana was dismissed as head coach when university officials determined his degree was from diploma mill Columbia State University in Louisiana.
A two-month search for a replacement yielded Tom Fitzgerald, the former Columbus Crew coach who was fired last year after six seasons in charge.
''I missed the university atmosphere, all the other teams and the athletes and the students,'' said Fitzgerald, who coached at Division II Tampa University prior to taking the MLS job.
Bypassed in the selection process was former U.S. national team coach Steve Sampson, a UCLA alum who reacted bitterly when Fitzgerald got the job. Also interviewed was ex-Bruin Paul Krumpe, who had replaced Saldana at Loyola Marymount.
Associate athletic director Betsy Stephenson made the decision to fire Saldana and hire Fitzgerald.
''She told me, Steve, obviously you're the most qualified person, but I just feel this will be a better fit for our program,''' said Sampson, who formerly coached at Santa Clara University, lives in Southern California and is technical director for CYSA-South. ''I'm very disappointed. I believe it would have been a perfect fit for me and the university.''
In her selection process, Stephenson consulted players for their opinions of Fitzgerald and Sampson. She would not comment on this aspect of the interview process, but sources say at least two former Bruins didn't give Sampson glowing reviews.
She also wouldn't comment on why Saldana's degree was not verified when he was hired by UCLA to coach the women's team in 1998. He took over the men's team the following year when Sigi Schmid left to coach the Los Angeles Galaxy and Jill Ellis was hired as women's coach.
By completing correspondence courses, Saldana earned a B.A. degree in psychology from Columbia State University in June 1997. He had previously attended classes at El Camino College, a junior college in Torrance, Calif.
Saldana completed more than a dozen courses by mail and estimates he spent about $8,000 on the courses while coaching at Cal Poly Pomona.
''This has been painted by [UCLA] that I bought a degree, and it was anything but that,'' he said.
''I sent Columbia State my transcripts of what I'd done in junior college, I talked to counselors on the telephone, I paid for textbooks, I did research in the library and wrote reports. I still have about 10 thick textbooks I had to read. They did a real good job on me.
''I offered to show all of this to the people at UCLA to see if we could work out some sort of a compromise where I could continue coaching while completing my degree somewhere, but they refused to even consider it.''
Saldana ran afoul of a UCLA administrative benchmark requiring all head coaches to have earned an undergraduate degree from an accredited four-year institution.
His disputed degree came to light in the wake of an investigative report on diploma mills by Glen Meek of KVBC-TV in Las Vegas.
Saldana says he was unaware Louisiana law enforcement authorities had shut down Columbia State University in 1998, the year after it had issued a degree to him.
Apparently Stephenson hadn't made the connection, either. But when the news came to light, the eventual outcome was clear.
''I thought she'd be supportive of me, because she had brought me here,'' said Saldana, who compiled a record of 60-21-5 in four seasons. ''But the first time I went into her office to talk to her about it, she had a lawyer sitting there.''
Within a week of being confronted by the reporter, Saldana was dismissed by UCLA, which agreed to pay off the remaining portion of his contract that expired in July.
He has taken a coaching position with South Bay Soccer Club, a new club team in Southern California.
As an associate athletic director, Stephenson oversees the men's and women's soccer programs. She was hired in 1997 and thus had ample opportunities to review Saldana's credentials: He was hired for the women's job in January, 1998 and was interviewed again prior to replacing Schmid.
''At this time, I'm not at liberty to talk to you about it,'' said Stephenson, who was more forthcoming when asked why she picked Fitzgerald. ''His coaching knowledge, and his ability to communicate with players and motivate players was something that all of our staff felt was at a very high level and would really work with our program.''
He also holds a degree from the University of South Florida.
Fitzgerald takes over a Bruin team deprived of U.S. under-23 standouts Nelson Akwari and Alex Yi, both of whom left UCLA last winter after their sophomore seasons to pursue professional careers.
Akwari tested the waters in Europe before signing with MLS last month, and Yi has found a spot with Belgian club Antwerp.
UCLA has sent more than 30 players into pro soccer and quite a few of them, dating back to Brad Friedel and Cobi Jones and Chris Henderson, left school early.
''When you get the best players, that's something you have to consider,'' said Fitzgerald. ''But I'd rather take the chance of trying to convince guys to stay here if it's in their best interests.''
Saldana, who signed a contract with Los Angeles of the NASL in 1980 rather than attend UCLA, is still supportive of the team.
''It's a great program and I brought in a lot of the guys who are still there,'' he said. ''I want to see them do well.''
by Soccer America Senior Editor Ridge Mahoney