Parents want answers on coach firing

Outraged parents of Saugus High School football players said they still don’t have answers as to why coach Anthony Nalen was let go, following a closed meeting with the school’s superintendent yesterday that ended with frustrated players storming out.

Superintendent David DeRuosi told parents and players at the meeting that interim coach Michael Mabee will helm the team for the rest of the season. DeRuosi did not go into any other details, according to parents who attended. “We were told nothing,” said parent Maria Bambury, whose son is a freshman on the team. “We were told coach Mabee, who has stepped up for these kids, will be their head coach until further notice, and that was pretty much all he said. These kids have been through so much, and they still don’t have an answer.”

Liz Marchese said her son Jack Devereaux, a junior, quit the team last week because of the situation.

“He wants to play for coach Nalen,” Marchese said. “We want our coach back. I think that this has been absolutely unfair and that in any other school district this would have never have gotten as far as it has. .”

Parents questioned the school’s decision to announce Mabee as coach, while Nalen and his lawyer, Michael Castano, are seeking an injunction that would reinstate him. Nalen’s fate now rests in the hands of Judge Elizabeth Fahey, who hasn’t made a final decision on the matter.

The scene outside the school was tense as players appeared to slam the doors of the school’s auditorium upon leaving, showing visible signs of frustration at the superintendent’s announcement.

Nalen lost his job as Saugus football coach last week for “failing to supervise” an Aug. 17 incident in which a player was said to have practiced in his underwear because he was not wearing appropriate team shorts. Nalen was cleared of any wrongdoing by a police investigation, but the school placed him on administrative leave two weeks later, after a complaint was filed. Last week, while teaching a computer science class at Belmonte Middle School, he was handed a note that said he would be terminated as football coach.

Castano was unaware of the school’s meeting with parents yesterday but said that the judge “who sat and listened to our hearing should have been given the courtesy to make a decision” before the school moved forward.

“It’s not what I would have done if I was them,” Castano told the Herald. “If the judge grants the injunction, my client is reinstated. In general, they shouldn’t be moving forward until the judge’s decision.”

DeRuosi could not be reached for comment yesterday.