Dayton School Board Rebukes Popular Coach with Hire

AthleticBusiness.com has partnered with LexisNexis to bring you this content.


Copyright 2018 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

Dayton Daily News (Ohio)

 

Dayton's school board on Tuesday hired Corey Freed as the new coach of Dunbar's football team, despite a large outpouring of support for Darran Powell, who has coached the team the past five years.

Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said she couldn't answer questions about Freed's coaching background, referring those questions to new Athletic Director Shawna Welch, who was not at the school board meeting. Lolli said Freed was hired last month as a teacher at Dunbar.

According to prep football websites, Freed coached the past few years at Waco and McGregor High Schools in Texas.

Multiple Dunbar athletes, parents and current coaches spoke out in favor of Powell. Ciential Vaughn, who will be a junior at Dunbar this fall, said the school board doesn't understand the depth of connection players had with Powell and his assistants, from football, to school, to staying out of trouble.

"Young coaches out there are like father figures for the kids who don't have a father, such as myself," Vaughn said. "That's like my family. There's not one day that I can't call and tell them I need something, that they're going to help. It's like y'all are breaking up my family. … I can honestly say I love every coach on that staff, and I'd do anything to get them back."

The Powell family has coached at Dunbar for decades. Alfred Powell, a longtime coach, said his nephew Darran went far beyond football, pulling kids out of crack houses and going to gang meetings to keep the gangs away from his players.

School board member Robert Walker asked the board to hold a separate vote on Freed's hiring, rather than lumping it with 230 other personnel moves. Walker and John McManus were the two school board members to vote against Freed's hiring. The four newly elected board members joined Sheila Taylor in voting for Freed.

Walker said he had problems with the search process. Last month, Freed was listed on the school board agenda to be hired as the coach, days before Darran Powell had even been interviewed. The hiring was delayed, but Tuesday's result ended up the same.

Lolli said Freed comes highly recommended as a teacher, which is her first priority. She also spoke highly of Powell.

"Coach Powell is an outstanding coach and an outstanding gentleman. I know him personally and enjoy working with him," Lolli said. "I'm hopeful that in the future he will be working with our young people. … I believe it was just a matter of interviewing, and the team that interviewed making a decision that they thought would be a good decision for Dunbar."

Powell was Dunbar's coach in 2016 when a team headed for the playoffs was ousted because it used an ineligible player. The team then briefly tried to lose a game on purpose to engineer a certain playoff outcome. The Powells have said former district AD Mark Baker directed coaches to try to lose. Baker denied that, while OHSAA officials implicated Baker.

Powell, a 2006 Dunbar grad, was nearly ousted as coach last summer before the school board reversed direction and rehired him. In 2017, Dunbar reached the second round of the playoffs before losing to eventual state champion Trotwood-Madison.

Read More of Today's AB Headlines

Subscribe to Our Daily E-Newsletter

 
June 20, 2018
 
 
 

 

Copyright © 2018 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms and Conditions Privacy Policy
Page 1 of 466
Next Page
AB Show 2024 in New Orleans
AB Show is a solution-focused event for athletics, fitness, recreation and military professionals.
Nov. 19-22, 2024
Learn More
AB Show 2024
Buyer's Guide
Information on more than 3,000 companies, sorted by category. Listings are updated daily.
Learn More
Buyer's Guide