Boys’ basketball: Calabasas players quit in support of fired coach

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Two days after Calabasas coach Jim Nielsen was fired, his players have decided to stand behind him on the sidelines.

All of the varsity and junior varsity players quit the program Thursday afternoon, tossing off their jerseys in front of the school’s counseling office in a collective show of support for the man they still consider their coach. And, for the second day in a row, the team protested in front of the Las Virgenes Unified School District offices.

‘We are a family,’ said Lenard Gorokhov, a junior varsity guard, via a telephone interview. ‘If one goes, we all go!’

Check out these photos taken by Calabasas sophomore Matt Rosenthal:

Now, here’s what bugs me about this whole ordeal -- the school district and the school’s administrators aren’t telling the players why Nielsen was shown the door.

I’m very familiar with the ‘it’s-against-district-policy-to-discuss-personnel-matters’ line the media is fed when something like this happens, but I’m sick of seeing kids being left in the dark when a respected coach is dismissed (ask anyone on the Eagle Rock or St. Bonaventure football teams what I’m talking about). The Calabasas administrators and all the Las Virgenes bigwigs owe it to the players to tell them why their coach was fired. These players have worked too long and too hard representing the school to be shunned.

Besides, whatever Nielsen did, it wasn’t enough to get him dismissed from his day job as a teacher. The leading rumor, according to players, is a few parents complained to school administrators that Nielsen wasn’t giving their sons enough playing time. Whether or not that’s the reason behind his dismissal (I really hope it isn’t), it’s what the players believe. The three players I spoke with by phone Thursday night said they’re not going to give up their fight.

‘We just don’t know why this has happened,’ Gorokhov said. ‘If they don’t fix it, I don’t think we’re going to be playing next year.’

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- All photos by Calabasas sophomore Matt Rosenthal (Thanks!)