Westporters are justifiably proud of the Staples High School sports program.
Teams win championships, and represent their community well. Strong coaching staffs teach skills and sportsmanship, and impact their student-athletes positively by teaching life lessons on and off the fields and courts.
But in recent months, several Staples High School athletic coaches have been told their contracts will not be renewed, after complaints from a very small number of parents. At least one resigned, also after parental pressure.
A much larger group of parents is concerned about the current Staples athletics environment. This weekend, they circulated a letter.
In just 2 days it was signed by over 225 parents, other community leaders, and former student-athletes.
Their goal is to fix a flawed system. They want to make currently opaque policies about the supervision and renewal decisions of coaches more transparent; ensure that a small group of parents do not have undue power over coaching decisions, and see that administrators and the Board of Education give coaches the tools to succeed, not terminate them without providing important feedback or support.
The letter signers offer solutions to fix the problem. They say:
Last week’s “06880” piece (“Parents, Coaches, and the State of Staples Sports”) is not unique to Westport.
But Superintendent of Schools Tom Scarice and our Board of Education have a unique opportunity to fix this problem here, in a way that sets a standard for towns across the state and beyond.
As people with a stake in getting this right — including former Staples student-athletes, and parents of Staples student-athletes past, present and future — we urge Mr. Scarice and the board to fix it, for the sake of our town, our dedicated coaches, and most importantly, our kids.
Dan Woog laid out the problem well: a broken system where high school coaches can be pressured to make coaching decisions, and even forced out of a job, by a small group of unhappy parents. A broken system where a long-tenured and highly successful coach beloved by most of his or her players can lose his or her job based on a single amorphous allegation of “lapse in judgment,” despite never having been trained or given constructive feedback on the issue at hand, and despite there being no clear policy in place that the coach was supposed to have followed.
The only common through-line we can see is that the coaches unfortunate enough to have been caught up in this are coaches who have been relentlessly targeted by a small group of unhappy parents.
We do not write this letter to shut parents up. Every one of us — every parent of any athlete in history, we’d bet — has been unhappy with their kids’ coaches at one time or another. Sometimes it is justified; sometimes not.
We respect the rights of individuals concerned about any child’s welfare to raise their concerns appropriately. But here’s the key: This town needs to put clear policies in place to ensure parental concerns are handled in a way that is consistent, transparent, timely, and fair, not just to the unhappy parents and kids, but to the rest of the kids on the team and to the coaches.
No one should accept a position, especially a coaching position, in Westport schools unless it is clear to them what is expected of them to excel, and what policies and best practices they are expected to follow, including how to deal with concerned (and potentially intrusive) parents.
Those policies are not in place in Westport today, and that has left all our coaches exposed to being suspended or “non-renewed” as a result of parental complaints for alleged conduct violations not covered in any policy. Coaches are being blindsided, having received no constructive or critical feedback on performance during the season or the previous seasons. Other employees are resigning or capitulating to parental pressure to keep their jobs.
No coach should want to work under these conditions.
Mr. Scarice and the Board of Education need to step up and reset. They should suspend all current actions against coaches until proper policies and procedures are adopted, so our coaches know what they’re aiming for — and can have confidence that they are being treated fairly when inevitable parent complaints arise.
We believe they should enact policies that:
- Clearly state written expectations for coaches and employees, with specific examples, which every student, parent, coach and teacher should be able to read and clearly understand;
- Provide a mechanism, and hold the administration accountable, for updating these expectations and policies as situations arise that are not clearly addressed, so all our coaches can benefit from lessons learned in particular sports;
- Prioritize the safety and well-being of the students during the year/season;
- Consider the risks and harm done to students where there is a suspension or investigation;
- Set expectations for how the administration evaluates and provides constructive feedback to employees — it should be in writing, and it should be timely;
- Enforce a consistent and transparent process for responding to (and, if necessary, escalating) student-athlete and parental criticisms or complaints about coaches; this policy should clearly address how to deal with parental complaints about coaching decisions such as starting lineups, playing time, and captaincies; and
- Fully spell out the potential consequences for violating the policies.
These policy improvements, needed now, are long overdue.
Sports are a wonderful way to teach our kids critical life lessons, including how to handle disappointment.
Right now, the way we treat long-tenured and dedicated coaches is teaching our kids exactly the wrong lessons: that if a parent can reframe disappointment in coaching decisions as a coach having been “vindictive” (an argument any parent can always try to make), that’s the ticket to getting rid of a coach.
We should instead be teaching our kids how to deal with disappointment, while also modeling a system of constructive feedback and clear expectations that improves our sports programs, while treating everyone — including our coaches — fairly.
Mr. Scarice and the Board of Education owe it to our town, our student-athletes, and every employee to get this right, and set our town up as the best place in the state for coaches to work and student-athletes to compete.
The letter was signed by over 225 parents of current and former student-athletes; former student-athletes, and other community members.
Natalia and Claudio Alarcon-Frias
Rafael and Maria Alfaro
Suzanne and Josh Allen
Eva Amurri
Rahul and Meredith Anand
Eva and Kevin Audit
Nancy Austin and Al Gratix
Stephen Axthelm
Candace Banks
Diana and Pete Barnes
Jen and Ken Barnes
Chris Barnett
Caroline and Craig Barney
Christina Bassler
Peter Bassler
Michael Beebe
Sophie Blondeau
Sam Bowlby
Brandi and David Briggs
Adam Brodsky
Melissa and Grant Byczek
Mafe Cala and Ricardo Ceballos
Ali and Michael Cammeyer
Carolyn and Lee Caney
Aly and Bobby Christoph
Robin and Pierre Chung
Jeff Clachko
Luciano and Leila Cocito
Andrew Colabella
Darrin Cozzolino
Louisa and Peppe D’Amore
Barbara Jean Davis
Jonathan and Erica Davis
Lisa Dearbourne
Karen and Paul DeDomenico
Stephanie and Mac DeVito
Anna and Danny DeVito
Sam and Julie Diederich
Frank DiScala
Jennifer and Tim Dolnier
Joanna, Jack and Drew Douglas
Greg Downes
Cherie Duque
Julia and Anel Dzafic
Cindy and David Eigan
Robin Eisenberger
Jason Epstein
Julia and Collin Felleman
Bettina and David Fiore
Patrick Fontana
Daniela and Mike Forde
Mary Garone
Steve and Nicole Gerber
Joan and Ted Gillman
Stephanie and Steve Girling
Marty and Cathy Gitlin
Deb and Matt Goldfarb
Lynn Gonsor
Ram and Srividya Gorre
Shayna and Andy Green
Zack Gross
Trudie Gubitz
Margaret Armstrong, and Barry and Bruno Guiduli
Kim Gullens
Jacque and Chuck Haberstroh
Robin and Allon Hellman
Karen Hess
Lisa and Jay Hill
Jonathan, Amy and Jackson Hochhauser
Jeff and Amelia Holl
Sam and Lara Jacob
Wendy and Richard Jones
Meredith and David Kamo
Rinat and Victoria Khisyamov
Jean and Mark Kirkham
Matt and Kendall Kremer
Sandra and Greg Krenzer
Marcio and Patricia Krug
Jeffrey Lampert
Dean Landis
Allan and Caroline Landis
Andy and Nicole Laskin
Sal Liccione
Brett and Jennifer Lieberman
Jason Little
Donald Lowman
Alyson Luck
Patty Lynch
Maryanne and Dean Martire
Jennifer and Jimmy McGeehan
Danielle and John McGrath
Kevin McGrath
Patrick and Morgan Mermagen
Alex and Jeremy Metz
Bill Mitchell
Sandro and Eduarda Moreno
Sile Marrinan and Colin Morris
Rich Morse
Merri and Adrian Mueller
Katherine and Austin Murray
Janine and Tony Nashawaty
Steve O’Dell
Liz and Doug Pardon
Meena Pellerin
Rolando and Angelica Perez Elorza
Rick and Kim Perlen
John Petrsoric
Maria Petti
Swapna Podlich
Mackenzie and Thomas Pretty
Lori, Chris and Zach Pulichino
Gustavo and Daniela Reyna
Ana and CJ Rinaldi
Rima Fawaz and Leonel Rodriguez
Brant Root
Caio and Danielle Rossoni
Mark Rubino
Parma Ayodhimani and Bala Sathyanarayanan
Jordan Schur
Karen and Robert Scott
Neal and Michelle Seideman
Beth and Dan Selig
Stefanie and Stephen Shackelford
Ken Shapiro
Courtney and Matt Shiel
Nicole and Isaac Sine
Chandy Smith
Kathryn and Jim St. Andre
Meredith and Jon Stoler
Will and Susan Suarez
Cindi and Nick Sunjka
Joanna and Tom Triscari
Vanessa Valadares
Jeff and Sam Vannart
Ted and Stephanie Vergakis
Kecia and Greg Von der Ahe
Kathy and Colin Walker
Scott and Lisa Waller
Jeff Warshaw
Niccola and Gavin Whitaker
Jim and Lizzie Wolf
Andy and Jessica Wolff
Janet and Howard Zev
Rong and Kevin Zhu
[Full disclosure: I served as the Staples varsity soccer coach from 2003 to 2021. I was an assistant coach for over 20 years before that. — Dan Woog, executive editor, “06880”]
