Wawasee Boys Hoops Coach Restored To Position
May 10, 2019 at 3:11 a.m.
Wawasee Boys Hoops Coach Restored To Position
By Mark Howe-
The position was vacated April 20, but it was never made clear whether Everingham was fired or had stepped down. The coach also served as the administrator for the career tech program at the high school.
Edington explained that a lack of communication with contracts and expectations caused a difficult situation, and recently the parties talked things through and came to an agreement that allows Everingham to work a different position at the high school as well as coach.
“The bottom line for change from not having someone come back to coach to having them come back is, I found out the coach wasn’t notified of the issues the prior year, that they were on a one-year contract and such,” Edington said. “We had expected certain things; improvement and whatever, and at the end of the day he hadn’t been appropriately notified of that. And I’ll take responsibility for that; I’m the superintendent and I should make sure things get handled.
“A year ago after the season, there was a situation where he was placed on a one-year contract and wasn’t made aware of that. That was something internally we hadn’t done well, and he didn’t have that growth plan and the type of thing to come up (to improve standards).
“Like anything in school, you want somebody to improve. You tell them you want them to improve and you give them a chance and then rate them on that. That situation had not happened.
“The other issue that was out there that didn’t cause a change in direction is we have a person (Everingham) who is an administrator and the head basketball coach. That’s asking a lot of a person as an administrator. You don’t count the hours, you don’t count the days or the work. A basketball coach is much in that same mode, and asking somebody to do two jobs at the same time and have a life outside of school was something we should have taken a look at.
“Our previous basketball coach, Mr. (Steve) Wiktorowski, was athletic director and basketball coach, and that was tough to do all the duties of athletic director and still get ready for and coach basketball and plan and do those kinds of activities. We ended up with our last two basketball coaches with administrative contracts, and pulled two different directions. That would be tough for anyone.
“So when we did sit down and talk with Coach Everingham and talk through this situation, we offered he could be our career tech director, an administrative position, or he could be basketball coach with a teaching position.”
Wawasee is 18-52 under Everingham over the last three seasons, having won six games each year. The Warriors did end a 42-game, six-season Northern Lakes Conference losing streak during Everingham’s second season, but are 2-19 in the NLC in that stretch. Wawasee has not been more than one game above .500 since the 2010-11 season.
Everingham said while there have been “some hiccups recently,” he looks forward to putting the episode behind him and to continue to build the Warrior boys basketball program.
“I felt strongly about me being the coach, and we’re doing really good things within the program,” the coach said. “We put a really high priority on the values we teach, especially outside of basketball, and we have a really solid feeder system.
“In all honesty, this last season was one of the most enjoyable seasons I’ve had in my coaching career, and communicating with the powers that be about any problems, I was a little surprised by that. There was really nothing negative when it was announced; there was nothing wrong. I told them how much I’ve enjoyed being the basketball coach, what we’ve accomplished and what we’d like to do moving forward.
“As we worked through and solved the problem, as adults, I really like the outcome we came to. We got together in a very positive way and came to this conclusion.”
Everingham also talked about the encouragement from members of the community he had in late April.
“For me to say ‘thank you’ is really an understatement. It’s really humbling to have the outpouring of support for me and my family, and we certainly appreciate that from the community. We’ve really been blessed, probably in more ways than we deserve, and we’re very happy to be a part of this community. We don’t want to go anywhere.”
Wawasee Athletic Director Cory Schutz declined an opportunity to comment for this story.
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The position was vacated April 20, but it was never made clear whether Everingham was fired or had stepped down. The coach also served as the administrator for the career tech program at the high school.
Edington explained that a lack of communication with contracts and expectations caused a difficult situation, and recently the parties talked things through and came to an agreement that allows Everingham to work a different position at the high school as well as coach.
“The bottom line for change from not having someone come back to coach to having them come back is, I found out the coach wasn’t notified of the issues the prior year, that they were on a one-year contract and such,” Edington said. “We had expected certain things; improvement and whatever, and at the end of the day he hadn’t been appropriately notified of that. And I’ll take responsibility for that; I’m the superintendent and I should make sure things get handled.
“A year ago after the season, there was a situation where he was placed on a one-year contract and wasn’t made aware of that. That was something internally we hadn’t done well, and he didn’t have that growth plan and the type of thing to come up (to improve standards).
“Like anything in school, you want somebody to improve. You tell them you want them to improve and you give them a chance and then rate them on that. That situation had not happened.
“The other issue that was out there that didn’t cause a change in direction is we have a person (Everingham) who is an administrator and the head basketball coach. That’s asking a lot of a person as an administrator. You don’t count the hours, you don’t count the days or the work. A basketball coach is much in that same mode, and asking somebody to do two jobs at the same time and have a life outside of school was something we should have taken a look at.
“Our previous basketball coach, Mr. (Steve) Wiktorowski, was athletic director and basketball coach, and that was tough to do all the duties of athletic director and still get ready for and coach basketball and plan and do those kinds of activities. We ended up with our last two basketball coaches with administrative contracts, and pulled two different directions. That would be tough for anyone.
“So when we did sit down and talk with Coach Everingham and talk through this situation, we offered he could be our career tech director, an administrative position, or he could be basketball coach with a teaching position.”
Wawasee is 18-52 under Everingham over the last three seasons, having won six games each year. The Warriors did end a 42-game, six-season Northern Lakes Conference losing streak during Everingham’s second season, but are 2-19 in the NLC in that stretch. Wawasee has not been more than one game above .500 since the 2010-11 season.
Everingham said while there have been “some hiccups recently,” he looks forward to putting the episode behind him and to continue to build the Warrior boys basketball program.
“I felt strongly about me being the coach, and we’re doing really good things within the program,” the coach said. “We put a really high priority on the values we teach, especially outside of basketball, and we have a really solid feeder system.
“In all honesty, this last season was one of the most enjoyable seasons I’ve had in my coaching career, and communicating with the powers that be about any problems, I was a little surprised by that. There was really nothing negative when it was announced; there was nothing wrong. I told them how much I’ve enjoyed being the basketball coach, what we’ve accomplished and what we’d like to do moving forward.
“As we worked through and solved the problem, as adults, I really like the outcome we came to. We got together in a very positive way and came to this conclusion.”
Everingham also talked about the encouragement from members of the community he had in late April.
“For me to say ‘thank you’ is really an understatement. It’s really humbling to have the outpouring of support for me and my family, and we certainly appreciate that from the community. We’ve really been blessed, probably in more ways than we deserve, and we’re very happy to be a part of this community. We don’t want to go anywhere.”
Wawasee Athletic Director Cory Schutz declined an opportunity to comment for this story.
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