Should there be legit and just reasons for a head coach to be fired? [Archive]

mrslackalack

06-09-2007, 10:59 PM

Marty Schotenheimer goes a league best 14-3 last season for the Chargers and gets fired.

Tubby Smith who in 10 seasons at UK basketball won a National Title, 3 Elite 8's and had averaged 26 wins a season was forced out.

Joe Girardi who OVERACHIEVED a Marlins team that many thought would be the bottom of the MLB and won the NL Manager of the year award was fired after only ONE season!

Joe Torre who has won 4 World Series and 2 AL pennants, in 11 seasons is on the hot seat.

There are countless others, but after reading this story that I am posting that is top story news on the local stations and has caused massive outrage. We have to let the debate begin. Should there be legit and just reasons for a coach to be fired?

mrslackalack

06-09-2007, 11:00 PM

Source: http://fieldsnotes.wordpress.com/

“I think Bryan Station is a gold mine waiting to happen, and hopefully I’ll be able to mine that gold.”

Champ Ligon was smiling when he said those words on Aug. 9, 2002, after he was introduced by Bryan Station principal Bob Gilmore as the Defenders’ new boys’ basketball coach. Ligon, shown at right on that day, didn’t have reason to be optimistic. He was taking on a reclamation project that was Bryan Station basketball, a program that won only two games the previous year, and had a thin roster coming back. In the ultra-competitive 11th Region, Bryan Station looked like a punching bag for years to come.

But just three seasons later, Ligon had the Defenders rated among the state’s elite and playing in the region finals. Bryan Station has spent most of the last two years rated in the top 10, too. This past winter the Defenders were rated as high as No. 2, and certified that standing by playing No. 1 (and eventual state champ) Scott County exceptionally tough in three losses.

Over the past three years, Bryan Station won 68 games, more than any of its city public school rivals, even though IT DIDN’T HAVE A HOME GYM! for almost that entire time.

But apparently that wasn’t enough. Champ Ligon was fired this week. He said principal Gladys Peoples told him he had done a great job revitalizing the Defenders’ proud tradition, but she thought it’d be better if they got a new coach for the refurbished gym, somebody to take the program to an even higher level.

Wow. Talk about lofty basketball goals. Peoples must be dreaming about hoops in the stratosphere.

After news of Ligon’s dismissal spread across town yesterday, most of the reaction I heard was disbelief. A lot of us connected to high school sports in Lexington, Ligon included, had heard rumors the last couple years that his job might be in jeopardy. (That same rumor mill has churned out the name of former Defenders star Mike Allen as the next coach.) But it strained credibility that Ligon, a guy who turned a moribund program into a state power, could be shown the door. The fact that he was a terrific math and physics teacher, too, makes the decision to let him go that much more mystifying.

I don’t know everything that goes on behind the scenes, especially the personality conflicts between coaches and players, coaches and administrators, coaches and parents. I do know that the basketball team that Bryan Station put on the floor since Ligon arrived five years ago has represented the school in exemplary fashion, in class and competitiveness.

Ligon did what he said he’d do. He mined the school for basketball gold and made the Defenders rich again. Then he was told he no longer had a stake in the program.

Champ Ligon deserved better than that