Airing of Nathan HaleRay gripes not wise

As the song goes, there’s trouble in River City.

In this case the “city” on the banks of the river is East Haddam and the trouble has everything to do with the athletic program. There is, according to board of education chairman Bryan Perry — a chairman some allege is far too active and meddles in school operations — widespread unhappiness with the athletic program at Nathan HaleRay High School.

“I’ve had many, many parents come to me and complain,” he said in a lengthy phone interview JIM BRANSFIELD Friday. “Our teams aren’t competitive. I’m told by parents that other schools regard us as a laughingstock and that they schedule their senior nights with us because it’s a guaranteed win. It’s been going on year after year.”

Perry then recited wonlost records of the school’s teams over recent years and said the board has formed an “ad hoc” committee to try to deal with the problem. “What is the root problem? Where are we falling down? Are we doing something wrong? Why is one coach successful and others aren’t?,” he said.

He went on to say that he wanted Hale-Ray to be able to “compete and do well” and “we want to market our schools.” He went on to say that he believed that people may not move into East Haddam because of losing teams.

In short, it’s not enough wins and too many losses.

He said that this committee will hold a series of public meetings — the next board meeting is Tuesday and the next “ad hoc” committee meeting is Wednesday night at 7 in the high school cafeteria — to seek input.

“This is not a witch hunt,” Perry said. “Is it lack of players, not enough talent, is it coaching?”

The coaching staff is not happy.

Suzy Miner, the wildly successful girls volleyball and softball coach, in an email to dozens of community members, a copy of which was sent to The Press, said that the ad hoc committee (made up of three board members), at its Dec. 19 meeting, announced that Superintendent Brian Reas would be non-renewing all coaches at the end of their respective seasons (middle and high school) and it said the purpose of this action, according to Miner’s email, is to find “better coaches” so that our programs are “more competitive.”

Reas confirmed that decision — made unilaterally — and said that there would be open postings, that is, anyone could apply regardless of whether they were current coaches, other school system employees or persons from outside the school. He also confirmed that this would be a continuing practice and said he thought most schools hired coaches on a year-to-year basis.

“I don’t know of any who don’t do that,” he said.

Middletown High doesn’t do that.

“All our stipend positions are tied to the length of the teachers’ contract with the

board of education,” said MHS Director of Athletics and Activities Elisha De Jesus. “So every three years we post all of our stipend positions internally. Depending on who applies, we post these positions to the public after seven days.”

Reality is most MHS stipend holders who wish to remain are routinely rehired, unless there is cause for removal or resignation.

Miner, in her email, called on “parents, alumni, and community members” to attend the regular board meeting on Tuesday at the high school and during the audience of citizens “to speak to the outrageousness of this decision and the impact it will have on our school, our programs, our town, and most importantly, our students. We need to have people voicing not only their concerns about these changes but also supporting our coaches while simultaneously questioning the motives of the BOE. The question needs to be asked: right now it’s athletics, what will be next?”

Sources said that there is a desire on the part of certain board members to remove specific coaches and they described the idea that this committee can somehow “make athletics better” as nonsense. One proposal that has surfaced according to several sources, including Perry, is that coaches would be hired 90 days prior to the beginning of their season.

“That’s just crazy,” said one source. “That gives coaches no time to prepare and provides no continuity. What coach would want to work under those conditions, especially when there is only a one-year contract on top of that?”

Sources said that the moving force behind all of this is Perry, and more than one source suggested the superintendent was one “who knows little about high school sports.” Reas said, also in a telephone interview with The Press, that the proposal to non-renew would help the school to get “the best coaches in place” and that the board wants to make a real effort to improve athletics and this was one way to do that. I asked if I could apply for a position and he said yes.

Perry described himself as an “active” board member, but insisted the entire process was an attempt to “improve” Hale-Ray athletics and the board was seeking input and ideas. He dismissed much of the concern about the board’s motives as “rumors” and having no basis in fact. “There are those who are saying I am going after Marty Ryczek [athletic director and Hale-Ray alumnus] and that’s not true,” said Perry.

“Some years ago our math scores [statewide standardized tests] were low,” he said. “So we charged the superintendent, administrators and teachers to come up with an improvement plan. Our math scores have improved, so we want to try to do this with athletics.” Some thoughts. Holding public forums allowing citizens to speak on athletics, which invariably would mean talking about coaches, is fraught with danger and is something I’ve never heard of any board doing. What’s to stop someone with an issue from speaking out against a specific coach? It seems to me there are some potentially serious legal issues here if a board would allow a professional educator’s reputation to be publicly impugned.

“I was not happy with the results [of the boys soccer season],” said Perry, who is a parent with children on teams at the high school.

Is that a legitimate thing for a board chair to say in public, and is any team’s won-lost record a legitimate item for public, board-sponsored discussion? Does the East Haddam board want to go down that road? Really? That’s awful idea No. 1. The one-year, anyone can apply renewal, is simply nuts. No coach with any sense would apply under those circumstances. Many districts have one-year contracts for stipend positions, but these are routinely renewed unless, of course, there is cause. To open up every position every year to be filled, at what appears to be at whim, by anyone is unheard of. That’s awful idea No. 2. Perry also seemed to suggest that coaches at Hale-Ray be less stringent in enforcing rules than coaches at other schools. “In places like Glastonbury where they have so many kids, when a kid is sat for a game, they can find another player,” said Perry. “We maybe can’t do that as sitting one player may really hurt the others.”

I ran this this by an AD who replied, “Oh, wow.”

If Perry is actually suggesting that, then chalk that up as awful idea No. 3.

He also wondered aloud if Hale-Ray had a rubric [Translation: rules, regulations, procedures] for team tryouts. “I don’t know if we do,” he said. “I know Avon does because there’s a coach in town that told me they do.”

Uhhh, if he doesn’t know, why hasn’t he asked?

Question: why would a board member, let alone the chair, be discussing this in public? And the whole idea of rubrics is handled differently from place to place. Let’s look at Middletown again.

“Each coach has their own rubric for their tryouts. There are consequences for missing practices which are in each coaches’ rules/expectations they give out to parents before the season starts. All parents/guardians and student athletes sign off on these expectations so that everybody understands and is on the same page,” said De Jesus. “Each coach submits their own rules/expectations specific to their sport and I approve them before the season starts.”

In short, each coach develops expectations and consequences and these are signed off by the AD. Like it’s supposed to happen.

Why this would be a public discussion by a board chair is baffling. I mean, isn’t that why boards hire administrators? I can’t imagine a Middletown board chair meddling — in public, mind you — in an obvious internal, professional process. Makes one suspect motivation, doesn’t it?

All this silliness aside, in the end, it seems to me that the folks in East Haddam are ignoring one overriding fact: Hale-Ray is a very small school in a league — the Shoreline Conference — of much larger schools. There are 188 high schools in the state and HaleRay, with 337 students in grades 9-12, is 167th, making it one of the smallest Class S schools in the state. Hale-Ray is the second-smallest school in the SLC, which is a Class M and S league..

To put that in simple terms, the freshman class at Middletown High has 387 students, 50 more than the entire enrollment at Hale-Ray.

More to the point, here is the opposition Hale-Ray kids are forced to play: (Note: all numbers are taken from the official CIAC enrollment statistics). Haddam-Killingworth (644 students), Valley Regional (607), North Branford (576), Cromwell (564), The Morgan School (559), Coginchaug Regional (552), East Hampton and Old Lyme (both with 489), Old Saybrook (457) and Portland (382).

The only school smaller than HaleRay is tiny Westbrook with 274 students.

The state divides schools into classes for a reason: the more kids, the greater the talent pool. Fact is, HaleRay is in over its head. The unfairness here, it seems obvious, is forcing HaleRay kids to play superior competition.

Perry, in citing the poor won-lost records of teams in recent years, was actually proving that point. When teams are unsuccessful over extended periods with different coaches, it’s probably not the coaching that’s the problem.

“Maybe we need to provide more professional development for our coaches,” said Perry.

Given that all coaches must go through workshops and be certified, that needs no comment.

To repeat: being in the Shoreline, Hale-Ray’s kids are forced to play schools that are 60, 70, 80 and 90 percent larger. That. Makes. No. Sense.

That’s like H-K playing in the Fairfield County Athletic Conference against Darien, Trumbull, St. Joseph, New Canaan, Stamford, Ridgefield and the rest. Trust me, H-K isn’t jumping at that chance.

It’s also like forcing Coginchaug to play in the Central Connecticut Conference against Middletown, Maloney, Platt, Wethersfield, the Bristol schools, Windsor and the rest. Somehow I can’t see football coach Eric Becker or boys basketball coach Todd Salva salivating at the chance to take on those teams.

There is no question that many teams at Hale-Ray struggle. The boys soccer team was 3-11-2 and the girls soccer team was 1-8-1. Yet life was only marginally better at the other tiny SLC team as Westbrook’s boys soccer team was 5-12 and the girls were 6-9-1.

No question Westbrook had a team of a lifetime last year in boys basketball, going all the way to the final game in the Class S tourney and the Westies’ girls were 15-7. But reality has set in this year as the boys are 0-5 and the girls are 2-5. Hale-Ray’s boys and girls hoop teams are winless.

“The Shoreline is a very tough league,” said one source with many years of both coaching and administrative experience. “I’m not sure some of those people get that.”

Want some more? In baseball, HaleRay was competitive last year at 9-12. Westbrook was 5-15. Tough league.

Hale-Ray does very well in volleyball (14-7 last year) and in softball (20-6 in 2017). Indeed, softball is an iconic state program — a program built by Lou Milardo and continued by Miner — but these are outliers. And in softball, developing one good pitcher can take a team a long way and if a program can do that year after year —well, ask Milardo.

Yet the other tiny school, Westbrook doesn’t even field a volleyball team, nor does it field either a boys or girls cross-country team. Hale-Ray does field cross-country teams and the boys were 12th in Class S and the girls were fifth.

Some might argue that the successes Hale-Ray has had in volleyball, softball, cross-country and baseball, given the competition, are remarkable.

Hale-Ray should look to even the playing field for its kids and get out of the Shoreline. Bigger schools almost always have more talented kids than smaller schools. It’s a rule. Finding another league might be easier said than done, but when the odds are stacked against you in terms of enrollment as they are in this case, it’s time.

Lastly, in small towns especially, the lines of authority often get blurred. A board should set policy, then let administrators — superintendent, principals, athletic directors — run the schools and let teachers teach and coaches teach/coach. It seems to me that these lines in East Haddam have disappeared. Perry said parents often complain to him. I would suggest the professional response is to direct the complaining parents to the person(s) with whom they have issues, namely the professionals the board hired.

At every level, even assuming the East Haddam board of education is acting with the best of intentions, this looks from here like an example of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers on a board of education trampling on the professionals they hired. They seem to be intent on throwing darts in the dark, hoping to hit something that’s likely not there.

The danger with this approach is that no one knows where those darts will land, innocent people will get hurt and a school’s reputation will suffer.

Seems to me that’s begun.

HERE AND THERE

That was a tremendous win by Xavier over previously unbeaten and No. 2 ranked Hillhouse Saturday afternoon ... after seeing Xavier take it on the chin twice in the Art Kohs tourney, I didn’t think this was going to be a very good year for the Falcons.

So happily, the kids proved me wrong by knocking off Notre Dame and Hillhouse back-to-back ... Xavier won the Hillhouse game it at the free throw line, 24-11 ... the Falcons are home with Cheshire tonight ... be nice to see a big crowd.

Mercy struggled a bit with Hamden early, then blew out the Green Dragons in the second half to go to 7-0 ... Mercy is home tonight with Guilford .. . Middletown’s boys were snowed out of their only game last week, so the game with Platt is being made up Monday night in Meriden ... MHS (2-2) is home with Maloney Tuesday ... MHS girls are home tonight with Platt and have an interesting home game Thursday with a good E.O. Smith team ... Rob Smernoff’s team is 4-4 after its win over Bolton Saturday.

East Hampton’s boys continue to roll along with a 69-33 win over Old Lyme ... the Bellringers are 7-0.

Here’s a very nice story ... the cooperative hockey team that includes Middletown, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill and Plainville will play the Newington co-op (Newington, Berlin, Manchester and Cromwell) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Newington Arena in a special Military Appreciation game.

Both teams will wear specially designed military jerseys and will join in a pre-game ceremony honoring all veterans in attendance ... there will be a color guard, a special performance of the National Anthem, a printed program, a patriotic-themed raffle and other touches ... there will be a moment of silence for all deceased veterans.

Proceeds from the game will go toward Wounded Warriors and Finally Home, an organization that works to build mortgage-free homes for veterans hurt in action.

The Middlesex USA Softball Umpires Association is seeking persons interested in becoming certified softball umpires ... the association assigns high school, middle school, fast-pitch and recreational softball games in the Middlesex County area ... contact Hank Koritkoski, USA softball of Connecticut Commissioner, at 860803-3012 for information.

The state American Legion announced that the finals of this year’s state tournament will be held at Muzzy Field in Bristol and Ceppa Field in Meriden (larger section) ... Middletown did not file an application to host the games this summer.

WCNXRadio.com, the local Internet station, will carry the following basketball games this week ... Monday, Guilford vs. Mercy; Tuesday, South Windsor boys vs. East Hartford; Wednesday, Branford vs. Mercy; Thursday, Cromwell vs. Coginchaug girls; Friday, Sacred Heart Academy at Mercy.

A warm thought in the midst of this awful cold: Spring training starts next month.