Tim Chambers’ arrest is a cry for help to UNLV family

Life is ironic this way: I was walking toward the Lied Athletic Complex at UNLV on Tuesday, along the path adjacent to the school's baseball stadium, and again saw Tim Chambers' dream becoming reality.

The sounds of construction continue to create a new facility Chambers is convinced will raise the program to a national level, a 10,000-square foot building that will include a new clubhouse and lounge and locker room and academic area and weight room and batting cage and patio overlooking the field. Those are the sort of bells and whistles top recruits expect to be included in any sales pitch.

On this same day, Chambers was arrested in connection with driving under the influence, booked into Clark County Detention Center and immediately put on administrative leave by the university.

He is today the inescapable truth of two faces: a man still very much intent on building UNLV into a baseball power and one crying out for help.

Whether he is allowed to continue the former's journey will be decided by others, given it's unknown how his case will play out legally. Chambers is scheduled in court today in regards to the charges against him, which include one count of DUI, having no proof of insurance and two counts of failure to maintain lanes.

You will never find in this space the hint of offering an excuse for anyone making the choice — not mistake — to drive under the influence. If it is proven Chambers was at all intoxicated or affected in any way by a substance or medication he knew was unsafe in which to operate a vehicle that could have potentially led to him harming or even killing others, the consequences are his to face and responsibility his to accept.

If his players at UNLV operate under a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to such matters, then whatever determination is made about his future as coach is his to shoulder.

But baseball is secondary to the issue many of those closest to Chambers insist is pressing and in need of attention, that his arrest on such charges was as inevitable as that sparkling new facility one day being the jewel of UNLV's program.

That through chronic pain from back surgery and going on an indefinite medical leave of absence from his team in July after missing most of last season, he has found it extremely difficult to deal with being away from the program on a full-time basis.

That he has dealt with it in a way harmful to himself.

Las Vegas can be, in many ways, that small town many have written about, one where it's like living in a large family of uncongenial relations, where sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's perfectly awful and sometimes our friends need help.

Tim Chambers has a lot of friends here, those in a community that universally pushed for years for him to be UNLV's baseball coach. They helped to hand him the reins of a program many believed had unlimited potential if run by a man with a profound knowledge of the game and the sort of recruiting connections that would deliver the Rebels enough talent to contend nationally.

He was that man when hired before the 2011 season, and now it's time for that same community that sung his praises so loudly for so long to offer him its unconditional support.

The hardest thing isn't needing help. It's being brave enough to ask for it. Chambers is the ultimate of characters. He can be engaging and humorous and thoughtful one minute and an obstinate curmudgeon the next. In other words, he's a columnist's dream.

It would be too long a list to chronicle those former players and coaches and friends Chambers has helped over the years, whether it be at Bishop Gorman High or College of Southern Nevada or UNLV. He has literally saved the lives of some, helping them overcome their own demons and directing them to a healthier, more positive path in which to follow. They love him unconditionally.

Tim Chambers is also in pain today. He is suffering. But he needs to know that being strong doesn't mean you can and should handle every difficult situation on your own. It means you must own the sense to let others direct you to your own path of healing.

No one knows how this will play out. Chambers undoubtedly will have expert legal representation, and the charges against him could result in nothing more than a fine, if that. Maybe the case is dropped. Maybe nothing comes of it. Maybe it proves more serious and something does.

UNLV is an entirely different matter, because when you are 50 years old and in charge of leading a group of student-athletes and you are arrested on suspicion of DUI before 10 a.m. one Tuesday in October — reportedly en route to that same baseball facility where those players await your guidance — your superiors have a responsibility to address the situation and determine your fate based first and foremost on what is best for those young men.

The well-being of those players must come first.

It has to be that way.

That's the baseball part, and Chambers must accept whatever decision UNLV makes on his status. It is a university and athletic director in Tina Kunzer-Murphy that now has the right to make any demands and put any level of restrictions on him they believe are warranted. If he drove while intoxicated, Chambers made a choice, not a mistake, and it's on him to look those players in the eye and admit it and seek help.

But this is a story about far more than plea bargains and pitch counts. If it's true that the hardest we ever struggle is the strongest we will ever be, Chambers needs that same community now more than ever to be there and struggle with him, to help make him strong again.

It was in May when Chambers stood among faculty and players and boosters and friends at a groundbreaking for the $2.75 million Anthony and Lyndy Marnell III Baseball Clubhouse, that soon-to-be jewel of UNLV's program.

Chambers fought back tears.

His dream had become reality.

Today, those closest to him insist he is fighting something far tougher now than mere emotion. This isn't just one bad morning in October, no matter how things are presented publicly in court or to the media. This is a cry for help, and those who have supported Tim Chambers for years need to hear it.

I hope, like so many, more than anything else, he will be OK.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on "Seat and Ed" on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney