East Bay high school plans to dismiss all of its sports teams’ coaches

NEWARK — Newark Memorial’s coaching community is in flux after coaches for all of the high school’s sports teams were told that they would be let go by the end of the school year.

Newark Unified School District didn’t respond to Bay Area News Group’s requests for comment.

But in a statement to NBC Bay Area, superintendent Tracey Vackar said: “Newark Unified School District is strengthening its coaching hiring practices to ensure the safety and well being of students. Releasing coaches at the end of each season allows the district to complete required vetting, background clearances, and mandatory trainings so students are supported by properly qualified adults.”

Newark Memorial athletic director Rachel Kahoalii, who is also the softball coach at the school, called 45 head coaches and assistants into a meeting in December and told them that they were being released from their positions at the end of their respective seasons.

The coaches are being relieved on a rolling basis as their seasons end. That means fall coaches have already essentially been fired, while winter and spring coaches are expected to turn in their credentials when their seasons conclude.

All the coaches will be allowed to reapply for their jobs as a new superintendent takes over the district in the next academic year.

Whether this purging-and-rehiring process will occur every year, or just after this school year, is unclear.

An email to the Bay Area News Group from Newark Memorial vice principal Bernard Flores referred further questions to “Human Resources.”

The reaction from incumbent coaches at the school has been one of confusion and frustration.

For girls swimming and diving and water polo coach Gordon Crosby, who has taught and coached at Newark Memorial for over three decades, the process feels disrespectful to the coaches who have given years of service to the school.

“It’s hard to imagine a job that you’ve been doing for over 30 years, and I assume that was perfectly fine – there’s never been somebody that said I’ve been doing a bad job,” Crosby said. “I’ve had champion swimmers, water polo players. I’ve had championships throughout my career. And to say now that I have to reapply for that position, that just seems odd at best.”

Multiple coaches who spoke to this news organization said the climate the new policy has created will make it much harder to retain quality coaches moving forward.

“If it turns out that we have to do this every year – it’s going to be hard for me to let go of this, because we’ve built relationships with the students and with the athletes. (But) I just can’t see myself going through this process.” girls volleyball coach Derek Walsh said. “The instability alone is going to make me wonder, ‘Hey, how do I prepare for the next year? Do I know if I’m even going to have a job next year?’ There’s a lot of value in a little bit of continuity.”

There’s still a lot Newark Memorial’s coaches don’t know. Walsh and Crosby said they have reapplied for their fall coaching jobs but have not yet heard any information about interviews.

Crosby said he has solicited former players and their parents for letters of recommendation to be rehired into his current job.

Their situation highlights one aspect of the new process – the sheer volume of interviews the school will have to conduct – that will take up a lot of time in the coming months and could for years to come.

“I’m not sure where they have the time on their hands to do all these things,” Crosby said. “They’re pretty busy people to begin with. I’d hate to say it’s another hoop to jump through, but it seems like, ‘Why go through this?’ If there’s a problem with a coach, deal with that problem with the coach. But why say everybody has to go through something when it’s only dealing with one person? It boggles my mind to think that that is the case.”

It is a time of transition at the district level as well. Newark Unified School District Superintendent Tracey Vackar announced this school year that she intends to step down at the end of the year.

Both Crosby and Walsh praised Newark Memorial’s existing athletics culture and expressed concerns that the hassle of reapplying could force out quality coaches who have been instrumental in the school’s athletic achievements.

“My biggest fear is that this is a good coaching staff,” Walsh said. “If you look at the size of Newark, Newark’s got a little over 1,400 students. Generally, they punch above their weight. And it starts with the athletic department and how it’s run, and the coaches. … Some of this stuff is really going to hurt the coaching staff and maybe fracture us a little bit.”