SCHOOL BOARDS AND TRANSPARENCY WHEN FIRING COACHES
Something occurred this past week at the local HS level which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before…
A veteran HS coach was fired from his position as a head football and head basketball coach - - and then, a few days later, that same coach was reinstated and re-hired.
You heard me right. He was fired – and then re-hired – within a matter of days.
Let me give you the specifics,
Long-time Eastchester HS football coach Fred DiCarlo, who also serves as the boys head basketball coach, was dismissed from his positions right before the start of this year’s basketball season.
The reasons why?
Well, of course, that’s the $64,000 question, The Eastchester school board and superintendent won’t give a reason. They say, of course, that’s due to privacy reasons when it comes to school personnel matters. That’s usually the standard response from school boards.
But we do know this: once that the word got out that Coach DiCarlo had been fired, an online petition was launched and within a matter of days, more than 4,000 Eastchester supporters of Coach DiCarlo appeared.
4,000 signatures of support is pretty impressive. And sure enough, for whatever reason — and again, the reason was not made public — the school reversed itself and re-hired Coach DiCarlo.
There’s a parallel situation going on at John Jay HS in Cross River, NY. Long-time wrestling coach Bill Swertfager, who by all accounts is a most popular coach, was just told he is not going to be rehired. And again, no reason given to the public. In Swertfager’s case, a petition of more than 3,500 supporters has been circulating.
Look, I understand the basic legal reasoning behind a school board not wanting to go into great detail regarding a coach not being rehired. But that being said, for the sports parents and their athletes in a community, a little transparency would certainly go a long way in helping parents and their kids to understand why these kinds of decisions are made.
We had a very spirited discussion on this morning’s show. Take a listen here: The Sports Edge with Rick Wolff