Sprinter Gay eyes U.S. title with coach incarcerated

	Tyson Gay could make a run at the 100-meter world record Friday at the U.S. championships in Indianapolis. Gabriel Bouys/Getty Images
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The track coach has a strange and limiting job. He writes the workouts and provides whatever motivation he can offer and when race day arrives, he finds a place among fans in the bleachers and hopes that the lessons have stuck. It is an unusual vocation under the best of circumstances: Part trainer, part planner, part shrink. And on race day, he has absolutely no control.

Then there is Lance Brauman's situation. Friday evening in Indianapolis, Brauman's pupil, Tyson Gay, will run the 100 meters at the USA Track and Field national championships. Gay, 24, is favored to win the race and under the right circumstances -- strong competition from the likes of Florida State senior Walter Dix and Leonard Scott, a legal-but-favoring wind -- could make a run at the world record of 9.77 seconds, which is shared by Asafa Powell of Jamaica and Justin Gatlin of the U.S. (although Gatlin, who is appealing a steroid suspension, could soon be stripped of his portion of the mark).

Brauman has coached Gay for five years, since Gay came from high school in Lexington, Kentucky to Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kansas and then they went on together to the University of Arkansas. But Brauman will not be sitting in the stands at Mike Carroll Stadium in Indianapolis.

Instead, Brauman will be at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas, where he has been incarcerated since Nov. 15. He will rise in the morning and go to work as a clerk in the minimum-security prison's school. During the course of the day, he will sign up for time on one of the prison's television sets, so that he can watch the 100 meters live on ESPN2.

This is Brauman's life. Last July, he was found guilty of one count of embezzlement of student assistance funds, one count of theft from a program receiving federal funds and three counts of mail fraud, all related to paying athletes -- including Gay -- money for work they did not perform while Brauman was the track coach at Barton Community College. (Subsequently, he was also named when Arkansas self-reported NCAA violations, also relating to Gay).

Seven other men were also charged in the Barton CC scandal; all of them struck plea bargains and received sentences ranging from four months to two years' probation. Brauman was the only defendant who went to trail and he received a sentence of 366 days. He is eligible for release on Sept. 27, although his lawyer is working to enable a slightly earlier date, perhaps at the end of August.

On the evening of Nov. 15, Brauman's athletes -- Gay, talented 200-meter runner Wallace Spearmon and Veronica Campbell of Jamica, among others -- gathered at his home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They sat around Lance and Kim Brauman's dining room table and Lance handed each of them a thick notebook that contained their workout schedule for the entire season, beginning with fall weight workouts and running all the way through the summer international track circuit.

Brauman spoke to his group, nothing less than an extended family. "He was pretty emotional, crying a little bit,'' says Gay. But true to his biting nature, Brauman also cracked a few dark jokes.

His wife sat in the living room with their daughter Jayci (JAY-cee). Three days earlier she had suffered a miscarriage with what would have been their second child. Now she listened as her husband detailed plans for what could develop into a terrific season for his athletes, and one that he would have to watch from prison.

"There have been a lot of emotional moments along the way,'' said Kim yesterday. "That was a pretty powerful night for everybody.''