Baseball coaches Rook, Grunenfelder angry over firings

Two highly successful North Idaho high school baseball coaches have been fired.

Nick Rook of Coeur d’Alene and Tom Grunenfelder of Lewiston were dismissed in recent weeks.

Rook’s dismissal became official Monday at a school board hearing. A CdA graduate, Rook took six of seven teams to state including a runner-up finish three years ago. CdA didn’t advance to state this spring.

“We’re going in a different direction,” new CdA athletic director Bryan Duncan said. “It’s time for a change. I can’t get into personnel matters.”

To Rook, being CdA’s head coach was his dream job.

“From a coaching perspective, I never wanted to be anywhere else,” Rook said. “Being dismissed, especially the way it went down, was a lack of professionalism from the leadership at Coeur d’Alene High School. It made it an extremely humiliating and embarrassing experience.”

Rook found out he was going to be fired the day the Vikings traveled to Lewiston for the regional championship game.

“The last 72 hours of our season was devastating on many levels, especially for the kids,” Rook said. “My end-of-the-year evaluation meeting ended in less than five minutes in a very unprofessional way with Warren (Olson, principal) walking out of the room. The leadership vacuum at Coeur d’Alene right now is awful.”

CdA was 150-44 under Rook. The Viks had three state Gatorade players of the year, five league most valuable players, four league titles and four district titles in Rook’s tenure while breaking eight of 10 offensive school records.

“I was surrounded with assistant coaches and players who wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” Rook said. “They created a pace of play and a level of expectation that all Vikings should be proud of. It was a special culture.”

Grunenfelder was let go after 22 years. He coached three teams to state championships and finished with 450 wins.

Lewiston athletic director Corey Williams told the Lewiston Tribune newspaper this week that the school was going in a different direction.

Grunenfelder told the newspaper he was caught off guard by the decision during a meeting last month.

“Twenty-two years as the head coach and four others as the (junior varsity) coach and 10 seconds to kick me out the door,” Grunenfelder told the newspaper. “I thought it was handled unprofessionally and humiliating, and after as many years as I put in, I deserved more than that.”

He said he was told there was a disconnect between him and the players, parents and community.

Grunenfelder, who teaches at Heights Elementary in Clarkston, told the newspaper he wanted to appeal the decision. But he was told he couldn’t because he isn’t an employee of the school district.

This spring, Lewiston finished 23-6 and lost 5-3 to Timberline in the state title game. He was named the Inland Empire League’s 5A coach of the year.

Grunenfelder coached the Lewis-Clark Twins, an American Legion team, from 2001-10, compiling a 405-158 record. He coached the Twins to second in the nation in his first season. He was fired after the 2010 season.

• Duncan also must fill head coaching vacancies in softball and track. Longtime softball coach Larry Bieber and track coach Linda Lanker both retired.

Duncan said those coaching positions, along with the baseball job, would be posted for applications next month.

“If they were fall sports we’d be in a hurry to fill them,” Duncan said. “We’re going to take our time and get the right person for each job.”