Coaching Carousel Starts to Turn

A couple of D1 girls teams will have new coaches next year. One is publicly known - South's Jen Fay has stepped down and the interviewing has already gone through round one. The other one hasn't been made public, but won't surprise anyone who knows how much he has coveted a college coaching job....

Yes RamFan. I have heard there might be a potential announcement of a coach leaving the HS ranks in NH for a position at the D1 college level. Maybe, by the end of this week into next week we'll receive official confirmation.

Can't seem to find the link anymore but ESPN NH reported Hazelton leaving BG for UMass Lowell

I don't believe that situation has been 100 percent confirmed yet..... as last I knew.

E.I.R. wrote:Can't seem to find the link anymore but ESPN NH reported Hazelton leaving BG for UMass Lowell

I recall seeing that as well, but to clarify, I think it was for an assistant coaching position, not head coach.

I spoke with Coach Hazelton Monday. He said nothing is official yet, he will know more later in the week and when he does he would let me know. I won't write anything on my site until then.

posted job

Tulliver wrote:posted job

http://www.londonderry.org/hr/index.cfm

Does anyone know the details why the Londonderry coach is not back? This seems interesting to me, he was a pretty young guy that was only there a couple of years. Any Londonderry people know what the situation is?

Well, it seems after talking to some Londonderry people there's some interesting things that happened which lead to the Lancer varsity position being vacated/posted. I'm not really at liberty to say the inner workings of this situation, but suffice to say a program that has had some instability as of late took a hit in stability with Coach Gustafson not coming back.

I liked Coach Gustafson. I thought he did a good job as a coach with the cards that were dealt to him in the Lancer boy's basketball program. They didn't have a lot of wins during his tenure, but 2 seasons ago they were the team NOBODY wanted to play the second half of the year and playoffs. They came within a hair of upsetting the Gauthier North team in a prelim playoff game. Last year's Lancer team lost Andre Simmond to prep school soccer and their best returning player, Andrew Covney to a knee injury very early in the season against Spaulding. Not having what could've arguably have been the best backcourt in D1 last season in Simmonds and Covney definitely hurt Lancer High boy's basketball. I do know there were a number of returning seniors to next season's Lancer team who were involved with Gustafson their first 3 years. Gustafson will not get a chance to coach this group in their senior season.

Memo to Coach Gustafson: Take some time off from coaching before you get back into it. Take a break. You've given your sweat and tears to the coaching profession. If you do come back, even for next season, do it at a level where there is a decreased amount of politics. Do it for the love of the kids and the love of coaching basketball.

T&F, it looks like I have some investigating to do. It is a shame to see a good coach like this not coming back. Hopefully I will find out some information that I am at liberty to share.

Manchfan: If you are a Coach Gustafson supporter, like I am, you will be disappointed when you find out the details.

BTW - Coach Gustafson is a teacher in the Londonderry school system, so...

...... Young, energetic and commited teacher looking to coach the Londonderry boy's varsity basketball team. Sounds like some one applying for the Londonderry job? Actually, no that would be the person who's contract was not renewed.

Are we assuming that he was terminated? Maybe he just said, I had enough with stupid parents.

baseball4ever wrote:Are we assuming that he was terminated? Maybe he just said, I had enough with stupid parents.

Maybe he decided to hike the Alps. Its all speculation, and if Coach Gustafson is reading this I hope he understands its been a very, very, very long offseason already. You can pretty much guarantee none of this will be made public. All the LSD will announce is that they've hired a new coach...and that will be that.

Wish best of luck go Coach G in future endeavors, I'm sure it had nothing to do with his ability to COACH because clearly he did quite a bit with a squad missing some key guys from the previous year.

I believe his contract was not renewed.

I can definatively tell you that his contract for the coaching position was not renewed. That is the politically correct way of saying he was fired. This is due to a group of parents, led by one with access to the Superintendents office, complaing of verbal abuse and lack of proper control. They painted a picture with half truths and pure fabrications that forced the Superintendent to ultimately decide to "open" the position. This decision has nothing to do with Xs and Os or wins and loses. It is simply a result of political dynamic that anybody considering applying for this job needs to understand and will have to deal with if hired.

Thanks for adding information to this situation, Edge. I know it's tough for you given your relation to the Lancer program. Funny you should mention about any one applying for this job will have to know what he's getting into if hired. I was talking to a colleague of mine today who has a friend who was contemplating applying for the Lancer job. He found these Londonderry developments very interesting and was going to relay this information to his friend so he could make an informed decision before putting his hat in the ring for the job.

The older I get and the more situations I see like this, the more loathing I have for people who use power and positions of power to effect situations in an un constructive manner.

I was planning on letting this go, but after all this talk I have put in a couple of phone calls to some Londonderry fans to figure out what is going on.

Tuesday and Friday wrote:Thanks for adding information to this situation, Edge. I know it's tough for you given your relation to the Lancer program. Funny you should mention about any one applying for this job will have to know what he's getting into if hired. I was talking to a colleague of mine today who has a friend who was contemplating applying for the Lancer job. He found these Londonderry developments very interesting and was going to relay this information to his friend so he could make an informed decision before putting his hat in the ring for the job.

The older I get and the more situations I see like this, the more loathing I have for people who use power and positions of power to effect situations in an un constructive manner.

Maybe I am being naive but is it normal for the Superintendent of a school system to be involved in the hiring/firing of an athletic team coach? Is that not the job of an AD? I would assume that the Superintendent would have more pressing matters to deal with such as curriculum, budget, improving the districts ranking, developing professional teachers, etc..etc...

Well, in Manchester when an AD decides on the person to hire for a coaching job, then the candidate chosen has to be approved by the City athletic board, which are members of the school board. I have never seen a superintendent of a school system say yay or nay on a candidate and press the agenda through. Now, if a situation becomes egregious, a Superintendent might step in to make sure the I's are dotted and the T''s are crossed.

This might be apples and oranges, but when the starting point guard of Milford was suspended the day before the Milford - Pembroke Championship game 3 years ago.... I believe it went through the ladder of teacher, AD and principal. That ladder did not meet the approval of the family involved I believe and a quick meeting was convened the afternoon before the Championship game. The Superintendent of that district attended the meeting, reviewed the information and rendered the "Decision of Finality" to suspend the Milford point guard.

I guess different districts might have different ways of dealing with athletic situations. It would seem like a conflict of interest if a Superintendent or any one involved with the office, if they had sons or daughters involved in that district's sports programs. The temptation to use or abuse the power of the position or the office would be high given family members being involved...... Just saying.

I just got off the phone with some Londonderry parents. I can't believe that someone with that much power in the Londonderry SAU would push a coach out because his kid wasn't getting enough Varsity time as a sophomore. I also heard that the same person in the SAU at Londonderry forced his kid on the JV team as a freshman. It is sad when the people that are supposed to be thinking about the best interest of all the children, just focus their attention on their own. If I were a tax payer in Londonderry I would be extremely upset that my money is going to this person just so they can look out for the interest in their son, this is one of the few times I am extremely happy that my tax money goes to Manchester Schools, no matter what your position you always have no say!

Coach Gus: I don't know if you read this or not, but keep your head up. I was at the Central/Londonderry playoff game. You had a team with very little talent and had them believing they could win. The fact that it was close at halftime was purely coaching.

If anyone would like to know the whole situation please don't hesitate to message me, I did my best to keep names off the board because, unlike the person in the Londonderry SAU, I believe that we should act in the best interest of all the children, even if their father isn't!

You got the real story Manchfan.

Perhaps Dave Haley could do some investigating and come up with a story on the Londonderry coaching situation that would rival his story a couple of years ago on the nonsense with the Keene basketball coaching situation. To refresh your memories Dave wrote a very informative article on the ridiculous coaching carousel with the Keene boy's varsity basketball position. It seems there were some people who abused their power in Keene to terminate one coach after another at Blackbird High. Dave's article on the situation was picked up by Barstool Sports. The story had some real legs for a few weeks including here on the Forum.

How's your keyboard feeling Mr Haley?

Ready to get some information in Londonderry for a story to run with on the "Legs of a Lancer?"

Not only has he succeeded in removing coach Gustavon he is also attempting to put his choice of coach in place. How do I know this? He was telling other school district members that coach Gus was voluntarily leaving the position to spend time with his young family and that they should encourage his choice to apply for the position. This was prior to any decision being handed down. How's that for duplicity? Btw - Coach Gus has no children.

This happens over and over in highschool programs jist like how it happened at keene. A parents son isnt getting playing time and the parent who knows nothing about basketball still believes little johnny should be playing cuz hes a nice kid and winning isnt everything. This parent them looks for anything to get rid of this coach, so she goes running to the ad and says the coach has been yelling in practice and sometimes says the A word and that hurts johnnys feelings. In todays society thats a death sentenced for a coach and he gets fired. Coaches constanly have to look over their sshoulder because theres always that one kid who sucks but thinks hes the next michael jordon so any time you yell or get on a player hes running that info back to mommy whose then brings it to the AD. you cant be a tough coach anymore cuz everyone is soft and cant handle being yelled at in a motivational way

Too Clutch. . . I agree with you.

Unfortunately what I heard was that the AD and the principal of Londonderry High School actually supported Coach Gus, I am not sure the accuracy of this and maybe The Edge can confirm. If this is the case then you are seeing an upset parent that works at the SAU in Londonderry really pulling a power move to make sure his kid get all the advantages he can.

The other dimension to this that is really upsetting is the parent with a high position in the SAU used to coach high school basketball himself. He was the coach of Salem High School back in the 90's and played four years at UMass Lowell. Even with all of his experience coaching and playing, where I am sure he dealt with difficult parents as well, he still felt it appropriate to use his position of power to force the coach out.