Coach Flap A Big Bowl Of Wrong
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
You know, it's really kind of crazy.
There's this basketball coach controversy and a couple hundred people show up for a school board meeting.
The school board talks about educational issues or building programs and a handful of people show up, if that many.[[In-content Ad]]Interestingly, Supt. Dr. Robert Haworth took time to chide the Times-Union for placing the previous week's school board story on page 6A, while putting the coach story on the front page this week.
Never mind that virtually every school board story for the past 20 years has been on the front page and it was a simple case of too many local stories on that particular day.
Making the superintendent's comment even more absurd is the fact that the Times-Union devotes at least one or two pages inside the paper each Tuesday to trumpet the achievements of local students. We also run promo stories and color photos for upcoming band and theater events on the front of our Leisure Section. There's scouting and sports, the Mini-Page and Classroom Connection. And we publish a picture of every senior in our circulation area at graduation time.
I defy Dr. Haworth to find a more education-friendly newspaper in a market this size.
Frankly, I think the guy's got more significant things to think about than where I put stories in the newspaper. Things like making sure his coach evaluations are complete.
Haworth told the athletic director not to evaluate Ogle this year. Seems to me if there would have been an evaluation by the athletic director and a recommendation by the superintendent, we might have been able to avoid this whole mess.
But with regard to whether the coach stays or goes, I am not taking sides. I don't really know Coach Ogle and I have no way of evaluating his coaching skills.
But I do know there has been this nagging controversy and a number of disgruntled fans and parents.
These people have been bending the ears of school board members and the superintendent, asking for a new basketball coach for a couple of years. There since have been threats of litigation and accusations leveled.
It's not pretty.
Of course, the school board members can't identify the detractors. So when all these people stand up and support the coach, the school board members are stuck in the middle.
The supporters haven't heard all the complaints the school board has.
I don't envy them. It's completely thankless. Whatever they do, they make somebody mad. But that's life in the thrill-a-minute world of big time school administration, I guess.
But what truly bothers me is when somebody says unkind things about the coach around town and then shows up in a public forum extolling his virtues.
One "supporter" told our sports editor a while back that the Tiger basketball program "sucks from top to bottom."
Another characterized the coach as becoming "stubborn" and talked of recruiting former coach Al Rhodes to come back to Warsaw.
One school board member noted that he/she was enduring the same kind of "both-sides-of-the-fence" posturing.
Now see, that's just wrong.
If you want to take a stand, take it. But don't play both sides against the middle. You shouldn't say mean stuff about the guy and harangue the school board for not getting rid of him and then speak in his support.
One person in this mess who did take a stand was my sports editor, Dale Hubler.
Now Dale might not be the most refined kind of guy. He can be a little gruff, but he is forthright. He doesn't say one thing and do another.
In March 2006 he wrote a column that has been maligned and misquoted ever since.
Supporters of the coach have said repeatedly that Hubler "asked for the coach's job" or "asked that the coach be fired."
Well, he didn't.
He wrote a column expressing what he perceived as problems with the Tiger basketball program. He used a lot of statistics from past and present. He, being a Warsaw Community High School graduate and longtime Tiger basketball fan, thought Tiger basketball was in a slump.
He wasn't alone and he still isn't. There are lots of people who perceive there are problems in the program or there wouldn't have been a special school board meeting, and I wouldn't be writing this column.
Now, remember, that column was two years ago. Hubler hasn't written anything about the coach since, except to cover his games. And the two have had a professional working relationship.
Comes now Tiger baseball coach Mike Hepler, who I have never had the chance to meet.
Hubler covered the Tiger's win over Wawasee at Wawasee. After the game, the huddle broke and Hubler approached the coach for a comment.
"No comment," was all he got. Hubler asked if there was a problem.
"No comment," was all he got - again.
Hubler e-mailed said coach and asked if we had missed a score he sent in or something to create animosity.
The response was that no, there was nothing wrong, other than Hubler doesn't support Coach Ogle, adding that he won't talk to Hubler if he covers future games.
Does this coach really think he's hurting Hubler?
Who's he really hurting? Coach comments are when they get to talk up their team. It's when they can say good things about their players and get their players names in the paper - win or lose.
That's precisely why all Warsaw coaches are admonished by the athletic director to cooperate with local media. And that's why media relationships are included their evaluations.
Come on, people, grow up.
And finally, I've known Millard (Perky) Plumlee for around 10 years, going back to when we played basketball at the Y and at Grace College on noon hours. I have had the unfortunate opportunity to be dunked on by him. I was coming off this screen and, well, never mind.
When I heard Ogle said he was "threatened" by Plumlee, I was pretty surprised. Plumlee is mild-mannered and even tempered. He's also an attorney, so I suppose he would know better than to go around threatening people.
I've seen Plumlee in some pretty physical "in the paint" basketball situations where he was being fouled aggressively. (There are no refs in Y ball.)
I could see he was frustrated, but he never lost his cool. I just do not see him as a "threatening" person.
That said, I can believe Plumlee told Ogle something like this: "If my kids won't fit in your system, I may want to move them somewhere where they can get more playing time." But I don't really consider that a threat.
Oddly, while these kids apparently weren't a good fit for Warsaw, they are a good fit for Coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke University. We learned Friday that Miles Plumlee was released from his letter of intent to Stanford because coach Trent Johnson took a job at Louisiana State. Now Miles has committed to Duke, where his brother Mason, a high-school junior, made a verbal commitment in February.
As it stands, Haworth has recommended that Ogle stay another year to be evaluated by the new athletic director, Joe Santa. There's a Monday executive session to talk about it and a vote will follow, at some point.
Bottom line: I don't see too many winners in all this mess. I just hope all those involved - grown-ups that they are - can pull in their horns a little bit and come up with an equitable solution.
You know, it's really kind of crazy.
There's this basketball coach controversy and a couple hundred people show up for a school board meeting.
The school board talks about educational issues or building programs and a handful of people show up, if that many.[[In-content Ad]]Interestingly, Supt. Dr. Robert Haworth took time to chide the Times-Union for placing the previous week's school board story on page 6A, while putting the coach story on the front page this week.
Never mind that virtually every school board story for the past 20 years has been on the front page and it was a simple case of too many local stories on that particular day.
Making the superintendent's comment even more absurd is the fact that the Times-Union devotes at least one or two pages inside the paper each Tuesday to trumpet the achievements of local students. We also run promo stories and color photos for upcoming band and theater events on the front of our Leisure Section. There's scouting and sports, the Mini-Page and Classroom Connection. And we publish a picture of every senior in our circulation area at graduation time.
I defy Dr. Haworth to find a more education-friendly newspaper in a market this size.
Frankly, I think the guy's got more significant things to think about than where I put stories in the newspaper. Things like making sure his coach evaluations are complete.
Haworth told the athletic director not to evaluate Ogle this year. Seems to me if there would have been an evaluation by the athletic director and a recommendation by the superintendent, we might have been able to avoid this whole mess.
But with regard to whether the coach stays or goes, I am not taking sides. I don't really know Coach Ogle and I have no way of evaluating his coaching skills.
But I do know there has been this nagging controversy and a number of disgruntled fans and parents.
These people have been bending the ears of school board members and the superintendent, asking for a new basketball coach for a couple of years. There since have been threats of litigation and accusations leveled.
It's not pretty.
Of course, the school board members can't identify the detractors. So when all these people stand up and support the coach, the school board members are stuck in the middle.
The supporters haven't heard all the complaints the school board has.
I don't envy them. It's completely thankless. Whatever they do, they make somebody mad. But that's life in the thrill-a-minute world of big time school administration, I guess.
But what truly bothers me is when somebody says unkind things about the coach around town and then shows up in a public forum extolling his virtues.
One "supporter" told our sports editor a while back that the Tiger basketball program "sucks from top to bottom."
Another characterized the coach as becoming "stubborn" and talked of recruiting former coach Al Rhodes to come back to Warsaw.
One school board member noted that he/she was enduring the same kind of "both-sides-of-the-fence" posturing.
Now see, that's just wrong.
If you want to take a stand, take it. But don't play both sides against the middle. You shouldn't say mean stuff about the guy and harangue the school board for not getting rid of him and then speak in his support.
One person in this mess who did take a stand was my sports editor, Dale Hubler.
Now Dale might not be the most refined kind of guy. He can be a little gruff, but he is forthright. He doesn't say one thing and do another.
In March 2006 he wrote a column that has been maligned and misquoted ever since.
Supporters of the coach have said repeatedly that Hubler "asked for the coach's job" or "asked that the coach be fired."
Well, he didn't.
He wrote a column expressing what he perceived as problems with the Tiger basketball program. He used a lot of statistics from past and present. He, being a Warsaw Community High School graduate and longtime Tiger basketball fan, thought Tiger basketball was in a slump.
He wasn't alone and he still isn't. There are lots of people who perceive there are problems in the program or there wouldn't have been a special school board meeting, and I wouldn't be writing this column.
Now, remember, that column was two years ago. Hubler hasn't written anything about the coach since, except to cover his games. And the two have had a professional working relationship.
Comes now Tiger baseball coach Mike Hepler, who I have never had the chance to meet.
Hubler covered the Tiger's win over Wawasee at Wawasee. After the game, the huddle broke and Hubler approached the coach for a comment.
"No comment," was all he got. Hubler asked if there was a problem.
"No comment," was all he got - again.
Hubler e-mailed said coach and asked if we had missed a score he sent in or something to create animosity.
The response was that no, there was nothing wrong, other than Hubler doesn't support Coach Ogle, adding that he won't talk to Hubler if he covers future games.
Does this coach really think he's hurting Hubler?
Who's he really hurting? Coach comments are when they get to talk up their team. It's when they can say good things about their players and get their players names in the paper - win or lose.
That's precisely why all Warsaw coaches are admonished by the athletic director to cooperate with local media. And that's why media relationships are included their evaluations.
Come on, people, grow up.
And finally, I've known Millard (Perky) Plumlee for around 10 years, going back to when we played basketball at the Y and at Grace College on noon hours. I have had the unfortunate opportunity to be dunked on by him. I was coming off this screen and, well, never mind.
When I heard Ogle said he was "threatened" by Plumlee, I was pretty surprised. Plumlee is mild-mannered and even tempered. He's also an attorney, so I suppose he would know better than to go around threatening people.
I've seen Plumlee in some pretty physical "in the paint" basketball situations where he was being fouled aggressively. (There are no refs in Y ball.)
I could see he was frustrated, but he never lost his cool. I just do not see him as a "threatening" person.
That said, I can believe Plumlee told Ogle something like this: "If my kids won't fit in your system, I may want to move them somewhere where they can get more playing time." But I don't really consider that a threat.
Oddly, while these kids apparently weren't a good fit for Warsaw, they are a good fit for Coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke University. We learned Friday that Miles Plumlee was released from his letter of intent to Stanford because coach Trent Johnson took a job at Louisiana State. Now Miles has committed to Duke, where his brother Mason, a high-school junior, made a verbal commitment in February.
As it stands, Haworth has recommended that Ogle stay another year to be evaluated by the new athletic director, Joe Santa. There's a Monday executive session to talk about it and a vote will follow, at some point.
Bottom line: I don't see too many winners in all this mess. I just hope all those involved - grown-ups that they are - can pull in their horns a little bit and come up with an equitable solution.
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