Taylor Deserves Support

First-year Lake City High girls basketball coach Darren Taylor hasn’t had his evaluation yet.

Heck, his team’s season isn’t over. Lake City lived to play at least two more games with a hard-fought 49-47 win at Lewiston Tuesday in an A-1 Region I loser-out opener.

Behind the scenes, though, he’s fighting for his job.

The regular season was barely over by a few minutes last week when Taylor learned his job was in jeopardy, school sources told The Spokesman-Review.

So LC’s other coaches are rallying around Taylor. More on that in a moment.

There are a couple of reasons that Taylor’s job is in peril - at least according to the information that is available:

Parents have complained that he has held a couple of too-demanding practices.

Taylor said an especially inappropriate word in the presence of his players.

The latter is unacceptable, for sure. But he was reprimanded by principal John Brumley. Taylor acknowledged his mistake and agreed to sign a letter of reprimand that was put in his personnel file.

That should have settled the matter. But it appears Taylor hasn’t had a fair shake.

Sources say Superintendent David Rawls earlier this week informed LC administrators that he will recommend that Taylor not be rehired.

Rawls said Wednesday that he hasn’t made a decision.

Furthermore, he said he can’t make a recommendation until he receives a recommendation from Brumley and Lake City athletic director Ron Adams.

Brumley and Adams said they plan to stand behind Taylor.

LC’s coaches gathered Tuesday to draft a letter of support for Taylor. The letter was hand-delivered to the district office Wednesday.

It states that:

The coaches support John Brumley’s supervision of coaches at LC; The coaches support Darren Taylor’s progress as the head girls basketball coach.

The coaches fear that if they don’t unite around Taylor, such a move to dismiss him without what they feel is just cause could set a precedent.

“The support from the coaches and teachers is unbelievable,” Taylor said. “It’s a family here.”

Coaches have the right to due process. And Rawls helped set up such a process.

It calls for, at the completion of each season, each head coach evaluating his/her assistants. That’s followed by the athletic director evaluating the head coach.

The evaluations are then forwarded to the superintendent for consideration for rehire. All coaches districtwide must be rehired each year.

Taylor’s track record as a head coach in softball and for several seasons in American Legion is beyond reproach. Given time, he would turn LC girls basketball into a winner.

One year isn’t sufficient to evaluate his abilities or to decide whether the program is headed in the right direction or not.

To cave in to parental pressure is unconscionable. To dismiss Taylor for a slip of the tongue is excessive.

Rawls said the school’s handling of Taylor’s inappropriate language doesn’t settle the issue.

“At first blush, that’s pretty grievous,” Rawls said. “It’s a serious issue and it’s not the kind of behavior I want our students to be exposed to.”

No argument here. But Taylor has admitted his mistake and should be given a second chance.

After all, we’re all human. Even parents, like coaches, make mistakes.