Following community members and parents raising concerns on athletic department policy failure within the Chippewa Hills School District in Remus, Mich., the district has seen two of its coaches resign.
As reported by the Big Rapids Pioneer, long-time concerns over the athletic department's lack of an athletic trainer and strength and conditioning assistant came to a head at a board meeting earlier this month. Within days, the district announced the resignation of two unnamed coaches.
“People and coaches are making personal decisions that are best for them and their families,” the Aug. 17 post read. “To no fault of their own, one coach resigned last night. This morning, another coach also put in their resignation from the football staff. Moving forward, we will combine the freshman and (junior varsity) teams. Coaching staff will be adjusted accordingly. We anticipate these changes in the program will allow for our athletes to have a full and complete season.”
“I personally am not attacking any one coach, because I feel they were given a set of tasks and expectations but didn't quite receive all the tools or the training that (was) needed for that,” said John Farrell, a Chippewa Hills parent, speaking on behalf of multiple parents concerned with the program and certain situations of policy failure.
Chippewa Hills does not currently have an athletics trainer on payroll nor a weight room assistant trainer to aid students in conditioning or injuries on the field or court, according to Pioneer reporter Olivia Fellows.
“I specifically have pulled my child from their summer weightlifting program due to a lack of having a trained or accredited person near for weight training,” Farrell said. “If there can be time spent looking at a new logo, why isn't there time spent looking at safety concerns for sports programs? Those are the driving factors. Better sports programs interest more students. I do know of parents that pulled their children out of Chippewa Hills, and they're playing sports elsewhere with tremendous success.”
In an Aug. 18 interview with the Pioneer, Deborah and Roy Thayer, parents of a Chippewa Hills student who was injured during football practice, said they believe their son was failed on an injury policy adherence level.
Sophomore Nathan Thayer sustained a knee injury that later required additional attention, with severity enough to require him to be carted off the field sidelines in tears, according to his parents. Deborah Thayer said there was no communication from the coaching staff with her or her husband following their son being injured, Fellows reported.
“We get preached policies, procedures and standards,” Deborah Thayer said. “We just want better education for our coaches and better support for our coaches. We were surprised after hearing about the resignations, especially after the parent meeting with the one coach that did resign in the parent meeting. We are afraid that Nathan is going to get some backlash from this, and we are already looking into possibly moving him to a different school if there's any backlash."
