Principals and Parents Wield Decisive Power Over Coaches

Take a memo.

To: Yorba Linda Unified School District officials.

From: An interested observer.

Regarding: Management technique.

So Mark Hill is out as Esperanza boys’ basketball coach after eight seasons. Too many out there feel he deserved better.

Other coaches at Esperanza, for example.

Other basketball coaches in Orange County.

Other parents at the school.

Other teachers at the school.

This list is too long to put it down to friendship or blind loyalty. Too many people are asking why. Too many Aztec coaches saying to themselves, who’s next?

The official explanation, as set down in the press release, was “Philosophical differences.” It can be assumed we’re not talking Nietzsche and Marx here.

What has gone down is four parents met with the school principal to complain about the coach, as parents so often do. Their beef ran from the somewhat silly (yelling at players) to the certainly understandable (alleged obscene language).

OK, so you have a group of parents who complained. The sun also rises in the east. Ah, but this time they had a sympathetic ear. Principal Bert Raiche, only a year and a half on the job, decided to act, and ax, quickly.

No meeting with Hill. No warning. No attempt to reach a compromise between parents and coach.

This is good employee management? One gripe and you’re out?

Raiche said some parents complained last summer and he brought it to Hill’s attention. Hill said there was no warning attached.

Raiche also said none of the parents wanted to meet with Hill. But isn’t it his job to insist? Hill was no felon. There was no reason to cast him out like one.

Hill should have been given the opportunity to defend himself or at least an opportunity to view the written complaints--interestingly requested of other parents by the four organizers and strangely withheld by Raiche.

Now if there were problems with language, that should have been addressed. But according to Hill, he never crossed that line. Even if he had, why wasn’t he give a chance to shape up? Not even a stern ‘Clean up your language or clean out your desk.’

As to the other complaints, what coach hasn’t angered a parent by yelling at, or not playing a child? A number of Aztec coaches are pondering that these days and wondering if it’s against school policy.

This is the second Aztec coach that has been dismissed after parental complaint. A year ago, softball Coach Chris DeSoto was terminated after a similar witch hunt, according to coaches at the school. That firing--also done without warning--made coaches so nervous that Raiche met with them. He was asked, point blank, about job security and told all present that they would not be fired. The coach who raised the question was Mark Hill.

The bottom line? You have a school with a great athletic tradition, one that is having an exceptional year across the board. Yet, coaches are angry, nervous and, above all, confused, wondering just who is running things?

Maybe a hint comes from a coach at another school, who a month ago was told by an Esperanza parent that the Aztec boys’ basketball job would be open soon, if he were interested in applying. The coach asked how the parent knew this and got a chilling reply: “Parents have power at Esperanza.”

If they have that much power, then someone in power is not doing his job right.