ABA champions looking for new talent at GM

The team I've served as general manager for the past 16 months just won an American Basketball Association title in its first season. As I fit my finger for a ring, it would be easy to say I'm giving up day-to-day management of the Vermont Frost Heaves because there's no place to go but down.

In fact, I'm stepping aside for another reason: I need to go back to writing about other things in Sports Illustrated and on SI.com.

Are you the person to take my place?

You might be, provided you get the vision. We stand for a lot more than excellence on the floor -- though by winning that championship we've put down a marker to aspire to. We're obsessive about connecting with the community. We believe in bringing life to Main Street Vermont by filling old downtown gyms with affordable, family entertainment in the wintertime. We take a biodiesel bus to road games and feature local foods at our concessions stand. And, emulating the New England town meeting by empowering our fans to vote on team matters over the Internet, we've built an on-line community, the Bump In the Road Club, that's 2,200 strong and growing.

Beyond that, we're looking for someone with creativity and energy who cares passionately about detail; can manage and motivate staff, interns and volunteers; is comfortable with the Web and how to get the most out of it; and wakes up every morning plotting ways to get sponsors to plunk down cash and fans to spring for tickets. More than anything, though, we're looking for someone who has the Yankee ingenuity to take a budget already written to anorexia and squeeze out of it even more.

Oh, yes: And do all of the above on a minor-league salary.

What we're NOT looking for is some self-styled player-personnel guru who's dying to shuck his fantasy-league shackles to try the real thing. Last summer I handed our coach, Will Voigt, a pool of cash and charged him with finding players he could win with. Coach V assembled the stingiest defense in the league, led the Heaves to a 34-6 record, and was named ABA Coach of the Year. It's our -- and your -- good fortune that he's coming back.

Public headhunting like this is solidly in the tradition of Vermont businesses. Perhaps you recall the Ben & Jerry's campaign to find someone to fill its executive suite a few years back, the initiative the ice-cream guys called, "Yo! Be Our CEO!" Well, Jerry himself is one of our investors. So is former University of Vermont coach and current ESPN commentator Tom Brennan, who spent most of his UVM career without a full complement of scholarships and likes to say, "This is Vermont. We do more with less." Words to hang over your desk.

Maybe you're already in a minor-league front office or college athletic department, and know what it takes to run a sound operation in a small market. Perhaps you're a mid- or even late-life MBA who wants to infuse each day forward with a radically different purpose. Maybe you're a whiz kid whose brains and drive, Theo Epstein-like, would propel us to where we need to be. For all we know, you could even be living right here in Vermont, making organic pottery or tapping maples, and we just haven't met yet.

I'll remain as team president and, between SI assignments, serve as your orientation officer and ongoing resource. We'd like you to start ASAP If you're seriously interested, e-mail a resume to gm@vermontfrostheaves.com. Include in that e-mail at least two references, as well as a paragraph or two that explains how you'd take on the challenge. We're less interested in where you stand on Nowitzki vs. Nash than in where you stand on Veeck vs. Cuban, and cash vs. accrual, and thunderstick vs. cowbell.

Let's hear from you. (We'll get back to those of you who are finalists.) We've got an ABA title to defend. And more than that, we've got a business to build.