Brande to Appeal for His Job : Coach Plans to Ask District School Board to Overturn Firing

Charlie Brande, fired as Corona del Mar High School girls’ volleyball coach, said Wednesday he will appeal to the district school board Oct. 14 to be reinstated.

Brande, at news conference arranged by parents of current and former Corona del Mar players at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, reiterated that he did nothing to warrant his removal.

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Brande told more than 100 people. “I hope I can make the board understand that.”

John Nicoll, Newport-Mesa Unified School District superintendent, fired Brande Sept. 19 after receiving letters from parents of three lower-division players, accusing Brande of physically abusing their daughters.

Sherry Loofbourrow, president of the Newport-Mesa school board, said late Wednesday there was little chance the coach would get his job back. Asked if she could remember an instance when the board overruled the superintendent on a personnel matter, Loofbourrow said:

“Not that I can remember since I’ve been on the board.”

Loofbourrow has been on the board five years.

“We hired him (Nicoll) because we trust his judgment,” she said. “If we didn’t, he wouldn’t be there.”

Three letters to the superintendent’s office accused Brande of physically abusing players on freshman-sophomore and junior varsity teams. One accused him of grabbing a 15-year-old sophomore girl by the back of the neck and shoving her.

Brande denied abusing anyone.

“In my 11 years of coaching, I’ve always grabbed kids behind the neck,” he said in a telephone interview Wednesday morning. “I do it because I know there is no physical way of harming a child.”

The Corona del Mar varsity team spoke at the news conference. The team has signed a petition it presented to the Newport-Mesa School District Board of Education Tuesday night. The players said the board referred them to Nicoll’s office, but that they have been unable to set up an appointment with him.

When the players were asked if Brande had ever physically abused an athlete, many of the 13 girls reacted at once, some in tears.

One player shouted: “You tell me anyone that can coach a team without touching his players. Charlie does touch us, but he would never mean to hurt us. He just wants us to become mentally tough and the best players we can.”

David G. Ure, a lawyer who is representing the 15-year-old girl allegedly grabbed by the neck, said after the news conference that neither the girl nor her parents intended to have Brande fired.

“The purpose was simply to report the incident, and to express their alarm,” he said.

Ure praised Brande for his “positive effect on many people in that room.”

But he added, “Everyone loves a coach who wins. That can be abused. If someone does than he should be held accountable for his actions.”

Ure said the 15-year-old girl had to miss school Wednesday because schoolmates supportive of Brande had been taunting her.

Brande, 38, led Corona del Mar to a state championship in 1984. He then left the school to pursue business interests and returned as coach this year.