Dismissed Coach Back in the Running

Dale Smith, the longtime track coach of Moorpark High School who lost his position last month, will likely return to coach one last season under an agreement with school district and high school officials.

The agreement makes Smith one of three head coaches who will lead the track and field program through the spring semester, said Assistant Supt. Frank DePasquale.

Smith, 62, will then retire from the program at the end of the season, a step he said he has long planned.

“I want to go out coaching the kids I’ve been coaching all along,” Smith said. “I think that’s only fair.”

Some details of the coaching trio’s working relationship have not yet been determined. DePasquale said district Supt. Thomas Duffy and the coaches will meet again to decide which coach will take primary responsibility for each specific track event.

“It’s not quite a done deal, but it’s pretty close,” Smith said.

Moorpark Unified School District board members will discuss the arrangement Monday night as part of their review of coaching selections in all sports.

For the past month, the board has been under steady pressure from the parents of Smith’s past and present runners who were furious that Smith had been replaced after 13 years of service. They asked that Smith be given the chance to coach at least one season on the school’s new track, a project Smith pushed for years.

Responding to parents’ complaints, school board members on Nov. 12 directed Duffy to find a compromise that would allow Smith to stay on. Both Duffy and DePasquale worked with Smith and school Principal John McIntosh to reach the accord.

Board member David Pollock said the agreement was a relief after so much public acrimony. “I’m certainly pleased to see it resolved,” he said. “We all started out with the kids’ best interests in mind, and that’s where we ended up.”

Under the agreement, Smith, a former junior high school principal and teacher in Camarillo, will carry the title head coach emeritus. Robert Dearborn and Thomas King, who initially had been picked to replace Smith next spring, will be co-head coaches.

Dearborn declined comment on the agreement’s specifics until after Monday’s board meeting, but said he was pleased.

“I think it will work out great,” he said.

Coaching spots at the district’s schools all run on a year-to-year basis, with coaches serving at the pleasure of the school’s principal. When the track coaching position came open, Dearborn, a district staff member who had been one of Smith’s assistants, interviewed for the position and won it.

Although McIntosh would not comment at the time on his decision to replace Smith, a recent appeals court decision forces school districts to hire staff members for coaching positions before offering the spots to those like Smith, who are not staff members. District policy also encourages the use of staff members instead of such walk-ons.

DePasquale said that since all parties have now reached an agreement, the court case is a moot point in Smith’s situation.