SOUTH WHITLEY -ÊRumors are part of society. Fred Fields lives in that society. He has heard the rumors.

In a Thursday morning interview, he talked about those rumors and why he is no longer Whitko's varsity boys basketball coach.

Whitko Athletic Director John Mohr announced Fields' resignation Tuesday morning. In his release, Mohr wrote, "This (resignation) is a result of his (Fields') recent back surgery last January and the uncertainty of the time needed for a full recovery."

Fields echoed the same reasons.

"I resigned," he said. "I have no take. The take is there is probably a 60 percent chance next fall I will be fully recovered and a 40 percent chance I won't be.

"If I wanted to, I could have waited to decide how things went over the summer, but then they would have had to scramble around to find a qualified candidate if I couldn't return."

Fields' back problems forced him to miss two games and several practices. Still at other practices he did attend, he said he "just sat there and couldn't participate."

Asked how bad the pain was, Fields thought back to one of the two games he missed, the Wawasee game.

"The night we were playing Wawasee, I was basically on a double-dose of pain medication, because I couldn't stand to cough, move or sneeze," he said.

Fields was originally misdiagnosed. The first group of doctors he saw told him he had four discs involved. Three were compacted, and the fourth was a "protruding disc that caused severe pain on my left side."

He sought another diagnosis.

"After being misdiagnosed, I went to a surgeon who said I had one protruding disc that was bulging badly, and I had surgery," he said.

Unsure if he would be recovered from his surgery by the time practices started, he resigned.

Fields' success at Huntington North did not follow him to Whitko.

At Huntington North, his girls basketball teams went to the state finals three times and won two state titles, in 1990 and 1995.

Fields went 11-32 (.266) during his two years at Whitko.

Fields maintained wins and losses had nothing to do with his resignation.

"When I hired on, we were on a four-year plan," he said. "That's the part that bothers me the most. When it (winning) happens, it will happen quick. To date, I'm not disappointed in anything that has happened here.

"The adminstration understood this. One adminstrator at Whitko even asked me when I was being interviewed, 'How will you handle your first year here if you win only two or three games, because that is a real possibility.'

"I don't think it would have been right for me to try to hang on just to prove to the world I can get it going. It wouldn't be fair to the kids."

If it weren't for his ailing back, the administration would have welcomed him back as coach?

"Absolutely," Fields said. "Absolutely. I talked with (Mohr). He did not want this (resignation) to occur until everyone involved was sure this was what we wanted."

Fields also shot down the whispers going around that he is leaving Whitko to take another coaching job.

"It has nothing to do with the other rumors flying around," he said. "If you go to Huntington, it's guaranteed that I am taking three different jobs. There is no credence to any of that whatsoever.

"There is no hidden agenda here. You can dig all you want and turn things inside out all you want."

At the same time, if his health improves, Fields could return to coaching as early as the upcoming season. For now, Fields plans to continue as a business teacher at Whitko, although he acknowledged that could change, too.

"Nobody knows what the future holds," he said. "I like it here.

"The selfish part is, if I have a good summer, I will want to coach. Will I coach again? I hope so." [[In-content Ad]]