[ back ]
Coaches get sacked by politics
(by Dave Lange - January 25, 2012)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Coaches get sacked by politics
In high school football circles, Canton McKinley and Kenston are in different orbits. McKinley is one of the most storied football programs in America, a two-time national champion and winner of several Ohio High School Athletic Association big-school championships. Kenston was the 1995 state runner-up in a smaller division.
So it comes as no surprise that, when the football coaches at the two schools were sacked recently, reaction in their respective communities was like night and day.
The contract of McKinley head coach Ron Johnson was not renewed early this month by a 3-2 vote of the Canton Board of Education. His Bulldogs reached the Division I state playoffs in all four years of his tenure and defeated archrival Massillon three times.
Kenston's Pete Thompson basically was told to resign or else last month after one year as head coach and 15 years as an assistant. His Bombers finished the 2011 season with a 6-4 record, missed the Division II playoffs and lost another game to neighborhood rival Chagrin Falls.
In the wake of Mr. Johnson's firing, which was front-page news in the Canton newspaper, the community exploded with protest. There have been organized demonstrations, threats of election recalls against school board members and even public exposure of their personal financial histories. They take football seriously in Canton.
In the wake of Mr. Thompson's forced resignation, which was front-page news in our Chagrin Valley Times, the Kenston community has snoozed. The coach told our sports editor last fall, "I've got 15 more years to teach and hopefully coach, and I don't see myself going anywhere other then Kenston." Despite his loyalty, not a single player, associate or athletic booster has taken a public stand in his defense.
That's where I come in. As the parent of two sons who earned a total of 19 varsity letters in three high-school sports and as a former coach of two sports, one of them at the high-school level for seven years, I believe that parents, not performance, are to blame. That is especially true for football, although my personal observations come from less prominent sports.
In Canton, certain parents who complained that the football coach was a poor communicator held sway with a majority on the school board. Such diversions have more to do with parental control than with coaching football.
At Kenston, the official justification was obtusely that "the school district wanted to go in a different direction," even though the coach's direction was well known through many years of experience. Some parents want better sensitivity, not better coaching.
As I said, I've seen high school sports from both sides of the coach-parent equation. Sometimes parents are right. Sometimes they're wrong. Some parents complain louder than others. Some of them influence school administrators.
Sports provide an opportunity for young people to learn an array of lessons about life -- about teamwork and hard work, self-respect and mutual respect, fairness and unfairness, winning and losing. Sports are supposed to be about equal opportunity, not equality, not entitlements and not politics. Often, it's not about how to play the game but about whose kids get to play.
[ back ]
