Neil Roberts resigned Saturday morning as coach of the Southern Utah University basketball team.
He made up his mind to do so Friday to end the turmoil that began Tuesday in Moscow, Idaho, where he was arrested on a petty-theft charge for allegedly shoplifting a $30 tie. His team was in Moscow to play Idaho that night.Roberts said he was, by the letter of the law, guilty of shoplifting but that it was not an intentional act but one done out of absent-mindedness.
Still, he felt the attention the university was getting because of the incident was threatening to damage its image. That was the overriding factor in his decision to resign, he told the Deseret News Saturday.
"I feel really bad for what the university has had to go through. I feel bad for Jack Bishop (athletic director). Most of all, I feel for President (Gerald) Sherratt, what he's had to go through. I didn't want him to have to go through any more.
"It was my problem. Why should they have to go through hell?" Roberts said.Roberts met with the school president, Sherratt, Saturday morning, and handed Sherratt his letter of resignation.
"As a university, we regret his decision to resign, but we respect it," Sherratt told the Deseret News. "He's really done a great job. We're really kind of heartsick about the whole thing . . . We owe him a great debt."
Sherratt said he didn't try to persuade Roberts to withdraw his resignation, that to do so would have been inappropriate. He believes that Roberts was convinced that the best way to put the incident behind him and to end the negative publicity the school was getting was to do what he did.
"Our office has had a lot of support for him," Sherratt said. People have called saying how they had inadvertently done the same type of thing Roberts did - walking out of a store without paying for something or driven away from a gas pump without paying for the gas, Sherratt indicated.
In the prepared statement issued by the university, Sherratt said:
"We know that this past week has been a period of great anguish for coach Roberts and his family.
"His assistants in the basketball program as well as the individual players have expressed their complete confidence in him and urged him to remain at the helm of the basketball program . . . We wish coach Roberts well in the future. He continues to enjoy our regard and esteem."
While Roberts said this has been "the most tragic time" of his life, it's also been "the most rewarding time" because of all those who have rallied around him.
"If anything at all comes out of this, I hope people will take a look and see that this can happen to anybody at anytime. No one's immune," he said.
He, of course, will miss the relationship with the players. He's grateful that he was the coach when the team "proved it could compete on the Division I level." This year's team is 15-6 and has a chance to make a postseason tournament.
Roberts was in his fifth year as coach at SUU. He coached at Dixie College for eight years before moving on to SUU. His 1985 Dixie team won the national junior college championship. He also coached in high school for nine years, compiling a 172-38 won-loss record and winning state championships at Skyline High the final two seasons.
As to what he's going to do now that he's no longer the basketball coach, Roberts said, "I really don't know. I have no idea. And that's really spooky."
Assistant coach Bill Evans will act as head coach for the remainder of the season.
"He's (Roberts) done a great job here. The program has really grown under his leadership," Evans said, adding that the program now needs to continue along the path of success that Roberts led it to.