Parents Call for Reinstatement of Ocean View’s Baseball Coach

Parents of Ocean View High School baseball players made a plea Tuesday night to the Huntington Beach Union School District Board of Trustees to reinstate Coach Bill Gibbons.

Gibbons was dismissed as baseball coach on Friday by John Myers, Ocean View principal, and was replaced by Steve Barrett, who has coached the Seahawks’ freshman-sophomore team for the last two seasons. Gibbons will remain at the school as a history teacher.

Parents in attendance at the board’s monthly meeting asked for an investigation into the action.

“We are already looking into this,” said David Warfield, president of the board of trustees. “Because this involves a teacher’s rights, I can’t go into specifics. But the next move is up to him (Gibbons).”

Gibbons, who did not attend the meeting, has already requested a closed-door hearing before the board.

More than 30 parents attended the meeting in support of Gibbons, who has won three Sunset League championships since 1985.

“I have known Bill for the past three years and have found him to be highly disciplined and of the highest moral character,” said booster club president Gary Christopherson, who read from a prepared text. “To allege that Bill Gibbons lacks discipline is absolutely ludicrous.”

Myers, who was not at the meeting, refused Friday to disclose the grounds for dismissal.

However, Gibbons said that the action stemmed from incidents that occurred over the spring break, when the Seahawks participated in a tournament at San Luis Obispo. Three players, who drove to the tournament on their own rather than with the team, were suspended for 45 days for violating team rules. After the tournament, Gibbons said he received a reprimand from school officials for being irresponsible and for a lack of discipline.

“My son was involved in the incident,” Richard Naulty, father of pitcher Dan Naulty, said to the board. “I had given him permission to drive (on his own) to the tournament. I thought as a senior, he could handle the responsibility. Obviously he couldn’t. But there is no way Bill Gibbons could have prevented it from happening.”