In December, Jerry Wilcox, a fine and well-respected basketball coach for more than three decades in the Syracuse area, was fired at Liverpool, a single bad incident in a game at West Genesee cited as the reason.
Move to January, and in Jamestown, girls basketball coach Ken Ricker pushes a player away from further trouble after she drew a technical foul. Days later, Ricker is forced to resign, this after leading Jamestown to a 141-31 record and three Section VI titles in his tenure.
Closer to home, Phil Reed’s tenure as the girls basketball coach in Oswego, which has included all kinds of winning seasons and two trips to the sectional Class AA finals, may be over. Reed was suspended late in January by the school, parents complaining that his practices had become too harsh and critical.
Just recently, at Union Springs another boys basketball coach, Kevin Daly, stepped down, just after an incident in a game at Moravia. It may have involved a confrontation with parents, although all the details are not yet known.
There you have it – four instances of basketball coaches in Upstate New York forced from their positions in the middle of the season. In 15 years spent covering high school sports, I’ve never seen such upheaval.
It also raises inevitable questions. Who holds the real power in high school sports? Can coaches really assert authority? When is it okay to be tough, and when is it not? Where do athletic directors fit into all this?
No one, of course, would condone abusive coaches. Where the line blurs, though, is what constitutes abuse. The simple matter of a coach yelling at a kid, for whatever reason, can be interpreted as tough love, or as constructive criticism, or as outright destruction, depending on where you stand.
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