Last night, the Board of Education for Holland Patent (N.Y.) Central voted to remove and replace head field hockey coach Renee Morrison.
The circumstances surrounding the replacement of the successful 18-year veteran coach, just a few days before the start of practice, are less than transparent.
Sure, last night’s school board meeting was held in the open, with a comment period and a vote not only on the field hockey position, but all last night’s meeting did was to ratify a decision not to renew Morrison a month ago.
Morrison, by all accounts, has been a highly successful coach and a loyal alumna. She was the head coach for a decade, winning five sectional championships and their coveted bids to the New York State Public High Schools Athletic Association.
But apparently, it wasn’t good enough for the Board. And if you listen to a statement penned by Morrison and read out to the Board last evening, there should be distinct doubts about the whole process:
It has been my goal to build a program that develops strong female athletes…while providing them the support they need to grow into young women. This program teaches more than the game of field hockey, it teaches how to interact with the world. There are always players that feel they did not get enough playing time, did not get the award they felt entitled to, and for the most part did not understand how being part of a true team really feels. Because you make sacrifices. That may mean your position. That may mean you don’t get as much playing time.
“It’s like it was already decided this is the way it’s going to be,” Andrew Way, the father of a current Holland Parent player, tells The Syracuse Post-Standard. “I feel like this would be the epitome of a kangaroo court. Those (board members) feel they know better than anybody else. There was no due process.”
I have seen numerous occasions over the years when school administrators and boards have removed coaches — often highly successful ones — under murky circumstances. Almost invariably, these are decisions made in secret. And many of them involve some sort of complaint by a minority of players about playing time, or starting, or even being on the team to begin with.
In truth, none of the situations I have come across where school boards suddently get rid of successful coaches have turned out well for the field hockey program. Indeed, there was a situation in the 2000s when a coach had brought a moribund team to her state championship final, only to have the school board interfere in the re-hire process because of backroom squabbling over playing time. It took nearly 20 years for that school to get back to the state final.
In another situation at about the same time, a team which had exactly one state championship to its credit, got rid of a coach which had been an alumna of a highly successful program, but the school board chose not to rehire her after a less-than-transparent process. That team has remained at mid-table ever since.
A schoolboard removing a successful coach without due process is an upset of the natural order — and a violation of the TopOfTheCircle.com Third Law of field hockey. This law holds that any straying from the assigned roles within field hockey — players, coaches, umpires, administrators — does not lead to success.
Adult administrators, regrettably, have countless times found themselves interfering in the affairs of children. And I’m not sure this is going to end well.