The lawsuit…
There were some great moments at Camelback for us. My wife got a job there as a French teacher, we bought a home right down the street that we still live in, and we raised our three children there. It is a great neighborhood. I remember right after we moved in, my son Jordan was playing in the Madison Little League and we went to a game over at Madison #1 Middle School. We were sitting in the stands behind two ladies, who happened to be talking about where they were going to send their children to high school. Their general opinion was that anywhere but Camelback would be best, as Camelback had become an “inner city” school, if you know what I mean. The school was definitely losing most of the Madison School District clientele to Brophy, Xavier, Arcadia, and even Shadow Mountain. It became our mission to win the Madison people over, at least in the basketball program, and have the neighborhood kids come to Camelback. We ran summer camps, did coaching clinics at the Madison schools, and I joined the Board of Directors of the Madison Basketball League, which was the youth league in the area before the clubs took over. I found out where their board was meeting and just walked in and offered up Camelback to help them in any way we could. Next thing you know, I was a board member. The effort started to pay dividends and by the time I left in 1997, most of the players in our program were neighborhood Madison kids.
In 1993, I was chosen to coach the North squad in the annual North-South All-Star game. This was something that meant a great deal to me, because as a player at East High, I felt I had been overlooked in 1968 when the All-Star teams assembled at NAU. In those days, there were just two teams. In ’93, there was a 5A North-South, and a 4A thru 1A set of teams. I had the 5A North. We assembled in Thatcher, at Eastern Arizona College, and spent a week in all-star festivities, practices, and game. Everyday, we practiced at a different high school gym in the area, and were given tours of the copper mines in Morenci. The people in the area proudly hosted the event and it was very meaningful. I took my son, Jordan, and really enjoyed the whole experience. The South team was coached by Joe Partain, the legendary Chandler coach, and I got to know him pretty well. Great guy. My assistant was Tim Wacker from Ironwood HS, who was an old friend from the camp days. It’s a shame they don’t still do the all-star game the same way. We won the game 80-54, and it didn’t hurt that we had Gerald Brown from Carl Hayden, the 5A player of the year from a 29-1 team. The 1 was the game at Camelback with the big brawl, however, a fact which I never let him forget. We had two Camelback players, Steve Reed, who was all-state, and Gary Biscoe, who was all-Metro Region. It was such a great experience, that I never wanted to do it again, because it could only go downhill from there. The all-star week got ditched soon after as the copper mine sponsors went bust in a bad economy and no one ever picked it up. Like I said- a shame.
One day, in the summer of 1995, I was conducting a summer camp for grades 1-8, using both gyms, when the district athletic director walked in. He pulled me aside and asked me what rent I was paying for the gym. I told him that I was not paying rent and that we kept the gym clean ourselves. He walked out and said that he was going to have to look into that. One thing led to another and I was handed a bill for an amount that we could not possibly pay. I went to our principal, but he was just an interim guy and said he could not really help. Whether you know it or not, principal’s are pretty autonomous and can basically do what they want with their schools. If they have to make unpopular decisions, they might hide behind the old “it’s district policy” excuse, but that is usually just baloney to get you off their back. Our district AD had been there for several years and he knew full well the arrangement that had been made with the basketball program by the previous principal. He didn’t like it and was using the weakness of an interim’s position to take over the situation.
As mentioned, there was no way we could afford the cost they imposed on us, so I had the unfortunate task of getting all the kids together and telling them that we were going to have to shut down the summer programs. A parent called me that day and said would it be OK to contact the Arizona Republic, and I said to hold off until I could go see the district AD and tell him that this might make the news. We didn’t charge the kids very much to run the program and the gyms were paid for by taxpayers- it might reflect badly on the district to run programs out of these schools. I wanted to tell him that this might not go down well.
We met and I told him that a reporter would be snooping around. He was arrogant and told me to go for it- he could handle any heat that would be generated. He was wrong. The Republic was there with a cameraman when I assembled a group of kids to tell them the program would have to be shut down. The reporter interviewed some kids and some parents. The story broke on the front page of the Valley and State section of the paper. The feedback to the district was immediate and overwhelmingly critical. Soon after, there was a meeting at Camelback set up by the district AD that was to be attended by the interim principal, the school AD, the district AD, and myself. I felt as though I should not go into such a meeting without representation, so I contacted my good friend Gary Fadell, who was an AIA referee that scheduled our refs for the summer league. He was also a practicing attorney. One bit of advice for you young coaches- never go into a meeting where your job might be an issue without being represented, either by your union rep or an attorney. People don’t think of educational institutions as being very political, but they are, in fact, highly political. Everybody you are dealing with has at least a bachelor’s degree, many have a master’s degree, and most of the higher ups have PhD’s. The common joke in the business is you have a BS (bullshit) degree, an MS (more of the same), and a PhD (piled higher and deeper).
When Gary and I walked into the meeting, the district AD asked me who Gary was. I told him that he was my attorney. The meeting came to an abrupt ending, as the district AD said he was not going to go on with Gary in the room. So, we got up to go, and the AD said, “can I speak to you for a moment?” meaning without Gary. I asked Gary if I should do it, and he said yes, but if he mentioned anything about my job that I should immediately get up and walk out. So I sat back down, and Gary walked out. It didn’t take a minute before my job was an issue, so I got up without saying a word and walked out. This was like TV stuff- school officials acting like mafia characters. That briefly ended the debate about the gyms. The public outcry caused the district to back down. But they never let an employee get away with something like that- they are going to come after you, and they did.
Next…lawsuit arrives…
There were some great moments at Camelback for us. My wife got a job there as a French teacher, we bought a home right down the street that we still live in, and we raised our three children there. It is a great neighborhood. I remember right after we moved in, my son Jordan was playing in the Madison Little League and we went to a game over at Madison #1 Middle School. We were sitting in the stands behind two ladies, who happened to be talking about where they were going to send their children to high school. Their general opinion was that anywhere but Camelback would be best, as Camelback had become an “inner city” school, if you know what I mean. The school was definitely losing most of the Madison School District clientele to Brophy, Xavier, Arcadia, and even Shadow Mountain. It became our mission to win the Madison people over, at least in the basketball program, and have the neighborhood kids come to Camelback. We ran summer camps, did coaching clinics at the Madison schools, and I joined the Board of Directors of the Madison Basketball League, which was the youth league in the area before the clubs took over. I found out where their board was meeting and just walked in and offered up Camelback to help them in any way we could. Next thing you know, I was a board member. The effort started to pay dividends and by the time I left in 1997, most of the players in our program were neighborhood Madison kids.
In 1993, I was chosen to coach the North squad in the annual North-South All-Star game. This was something that meant a great deal to me, because as a player at East High, I felt I had been overlooked in 1968 when the All-Star teams assembled at NAU. In those days, there were just two teams. In ’93, there was a 5A North-South, and a 4A thru 1A set of teams. I had the 5A North. We assembled in Thatcher, at Eastern Arizona College, and spent a week in all-star festivities, practices, and game. Everyday, we practiced at a different high school gym in the area, and were given tours of the copper mines in Morenci. The people in the area proudly hosted the event and it was very meaningful. I took my son, Jordan, and really enjoyed the whole experience. The South team was coached by Joe Partain, the legendary Chandler coach, and I got to know him pretty well. Great guy. My assistant was Tim Wacker from Ironwood HS, who was an old friend from the camp days. It’s a shame they don’t still do the all-star game the same way. We won the game 80-54, and it didn’t hurt that we had Gerald Brown from Carl Hayden, the 5A player of the year from a 29-1 team. The 1 was the game at Camelback with the big brawl, however, a fact which I never let him forget. We had two Camelback players, Steve Reed, who was all-state, and Gary Biscoe, who was all-Metro Region. It was such a great experience, that I never wanted to do it again, because it could only go downhill from there. The all-star week got ditched soon after as the copper mine sponsors went bust in a bad economy and no one ever picked it up. Like I said- a shame.
One day, in the summer of 1995, I was conducting a summer camp for grades 1-8, using both gyms, when the district athletic director walked in. He pulled me aside and asked me what rent I was paying for the gym. I told him that I was not paying rent and that we kept the gym clean ourselves. He walked out and said that he was going to have to look into that. One thing led to another and I was handed a bill for an amount that we could not possibly pay. I went to our principal, but he was just an interim guy and said he could not really help. Whether you know it or not, principal’s are pretty autonomous and can basically do what they want with their schools. If they have to make unpopular decisions, they might hide behind the old “it’s district policy” excuse, but that is usually just baloney to get you off their back. Our district AD had been there for several years and he knew full well the arrangement that had been made with the basketball program by the previous principal. He didn’t like it and was using the weakness of an interim’s position to take over the situation.
As mentioned, there was no way we could afford the cost they imposed on us, so I had the unfortunate task of getting all the kids together and telling them that we were going to have to shut down the summer programs. A parent called me that day and said would it be OK to contact the Arizona Republic, and I said to hold off until I could go see the district AD and tell him that this might make the news. We didn’t charge the kids very much to run the program and the gyms were paid for by taxpayers- it might reflect badly on the district to run programs out of these schools. I wanted to tell him that this might not go down well.
We met and I told him that a reporter would be snooping around. He was arrogant and told me to go for it- he could handle any heat that would be generated. He was wrong. The Republic was there with a cameraman when I assembled a group of kids to tell them the program would have to be shut down. The reporter interviewed some kids and some parents. The story broke on the front page of the Valley and State section of the paper. The feedback to the district was immediate and overwhelmingly critical. Soon after, there was a meeting at Camelback set up by the district AD that was to be attended by the interim principal, the school AD, the district AD, and myself. I felt as though I should not go into such a meeting without representation, so I contacted my good friend Gary Fadell, who was an AIA referee that scheduled our refs for the summer league. He was also a practicing attorney. One bit of advice for you young coaches- never go into a meeting where your job might be an issue without being represented, either by your union rep or an attorney. People don’t think of educational institutions as being very political, but they are, in fact, highly political. Everybody you are dealing with has at least a bachelor’s degree, many have a master’s degree, and most of the higher ups have PhD’s. The common joke in the business is you have a BS (bullshit) degree, an MS (more of the same), and a PhD (piled higher and deeper).
When Gary and I walked into the meeting, the district AD asked me who Gary was. I told him that he was my attorney. The meeting came to an abrupt ending, as the district AD said he was not going to go on with Gary in the room. So, we got up to go, and the AD said, “can I speak to you for a moment?” meaning without Gary. I asked Gary if I should do it, and he said yes, but if he mentioned anything about my job that I should immediately get up and walk out. So I sat back down, and Gary walked out. It didn’t take a minute before my job was an issue, so I got up without saying a word and walked out. This was like TV stuff- school officials acting like mafia characters. That briefly ended the debate about the gyms. The public outcry caused the district to back down. But they never let an employee get away with something like that- they are going to come after you, and they did.
Next…lawsuit arrives…
