Board denies Thacker

Despite overwhelming public support for Mike Thacker, the Freeman Board of Directors on Wednesday stood by an earlier decision to dismiss him as boys basketball coach.

Board members, by a vote of 3-2, rejected the motion to revisit their decision that was made at their regular meeting two weeks earlier.

Nearly 200 people, the majority favoring Thacker being reinstated as coach, were in attendance at the meeting. Four out of five of the more than 40 who spoke during the 2 1/2–hour public commentary period did so in his behalf.

Speakers painted two different pictures of Thacker. Those who pushed for his ouster called him a person who created an unsafe and unhealthy environment for players with a bullying coaching style that included yelling, profanity and control by secrecy and intimidation.

The other Thacker was described by numerous former and current players as someone caring and whom they loved like a father, demanded the best from them and was a positive influence in their development as adults. Seventeen of his current players supported a plea to have their coach back.

Thacker said that he believed, “my contract was not renewed in an untimely, arbitrary and capricious manner and without good cause and factual basis.”

He said he agreed to a set of coaching standards that had been developed by a community committee and put in place in June.

“What I want to be is a teacher and I want to be the basketball coach at Freeman High School and I want to do that for many, many years to come,” he said.

The board disagreed. A 30-minute executive session that followed dealt with what board counsel Mike Ormsby said was potential for litigation regarding Thacker’s rights of appeal through the collective bargaining coaches contract.