Boys’ basketball: Nielsen reinstated as Calabasas coach

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Well, it appears that sanity has prevailed in Calabasas.

A little more than a month after he was fired by the Las Virgenes Unified School District’s board of education for undisclosed reasons, Jim Nielsen, pictured, has been officially reinstated as the Calabasas boys’ basketball coach. LVUSD board members voted, 4-1, in favor of reinstating Nielsen during Tuesday’s meeting.

‘I’m extremely relieved this has been put to bed,’ Nielsen said. ‘Much of the allegations have been cleared up.... This could have been averted if there was better communication and people knew what was really going on.’

This matter caught the district like a deer in headlights -- with its pants down. I wonder if anybody will ever explain why the board initially sided with a few parents’ complaints (nobody returned my calls today) when the majority of players and parents supported Nielsen as coach. Just check out the March 11 board meeting video to see what I’m talking about (8:45-34:00 of the video deals with Nielsen).

I know board members said parental complaints regarding playing time didn’t have anything to do with their initial decision and that they didn’t have to disclose a reason for letting someone go during his two-year probationary period.

However, the only known knock against Nielsen came from three parents who were upset, claiming he treated their sons unfairly by not giving them enough playing time.

Looking beyond those allegations, how dumb is it to let go a well-liked and respected coach who is representing the face of the school just because, perhaps, you don’t want to give him tenure? Good luck ever trying to attract teachers/coaches who want to build a successful sports program.

With Nielsen’s reinstatement, we now know he did nothing inappropriate. The board simply acted prematurely by firing him without considering the praise he had received from school administrators, players and parents.

‘My case was unique because I had evaluations of the highest order,’ Nielsen said.

Even though it was was an inappropriate firing, at least the district’s board members made the right decision in the end -- so let’s give them credit for that. It’s just unfortunate a lot of emotions had to be toyed with and lawyers had to get involved before the whole mess could be cleared up.

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- Image by Matt Rosenthal