By Meara Isenberg
Staff Writer
@mearaannee
By Sakshi Venkatraman
News Editor
@oompapa1

At 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26, Coppell High School football booster club president Paul Thompson walked up to the small podium at the front of the Vonita White Administration Building. He spoke quietly into the microphone, but what he would say next would echo in the ears of everyone in the room.

“What you are going to hear tonight is unfortunate,” Thompson said. “It divides our team, it divides our community.”

During the open forum portion of the Coppell ISD Board meeting, 11 Coppell citizens were allowed three minutes each at the podium to share their views on the football program.

From his experience as booster club president and through having a son on the team, Thompson spoke in support of the coaches.

“A lot of it we don’t like, the decisions, but it’s a part of life,” Thompson said. “I have found that the coaching staff, without exception, has been more than willing to help the kids, be good role models, and be open to discussion.”

Jeff Fink, father of a varsity player, also argued in favor of the coaching staff.

“My son Josh has been playing football here for four years, and during that time I’ve seen absolutely nothing out of order with the football coaches or staff,” Fink said.

Thompson and Fink would be the minority in the night’s debate. The next speaker up to the podium was 20-year Coppell resident and varsity dad John Butcher, who had a different opinion.

“The football program is unhealthy and unsafe because the leadership of our athletic department, our football program, has put their own interests in front of our kids,” Butcher said.

To illustrate his point, Butcher used three scenarios that he claimed occurred this year on the team.

“We had one student playing six different positions in the same game, on a roster of 60 kids, Butcher said. “That does not happen. We had an underclassman, starting on offense and on defense in the same game. We had a player selected over a kid who was elected as the team captain, by his team.”

Because grievances have been filed, Coppell ISD employees – including coaches – cannot comment on the issue.

Next, Melody Pascall rose to take his place at the podium.

Pascall had been in the education system for 30 years, however when she presented her concerns, she was told to file a grievance – something she had never been asked to do before.

“This is more evidence of the lack of leadership from the district,” Pascall said. “Because of the lack of leadership and irrational decisions being made, that are clearly not in the best interest of students.”

Pascall also questioned whether or not the best candidates are being hired as coaches, or if relationships are involved in the hiring process.

“We have employees that ultimately fall in the chain of command to direct relatives,” Pascall said. “Brothers reporting to siblings, sons reporting to fathers, that is clearly a conflict of interest. To assert that the coaches do not directly report to a relative is simply averting the system.”

Colleen Briggs, mom of a varsity player, made the claim that current leadership has been verbally detrimental towards the students.

“We have student athletes that feel that they have been ostracized by adults who are supposed to be in charge of how a team functions,” Briggs said. “There is a culmination of many times when players have been made to feel less than valued because they didn’t perform.”

She supported this with inpolite greetings that the coaches allegedly said to students.

“[Greetings] such as ‘hey, I tried to get you fired this week from your position, but you did good on film, maybe next week’,” Briggs said. “Some students have gone into an office to talk about how they could improve, or how they could possibly make the staff proud of their accomplishments, and some of the questions are ‘you here to turn in your pads?”

Briggs directly addressed the board with her next question.

“How can that be acceptable?” Briggs asked. “We want our kids to love this game, their teammates and their community, but we don’t want to make it unbearable for them.”

The next speaker Tanya VonZurmuehlen began by reading UIL behavior expectations of the coach and UIL coaches code of conduct of which the coaches have to sign and abide by.

Her point was made in relation to the favoritism by coaches that she observed.

“Put the team above personal glory,” VonZurmuehlen said. “I think we do have some people in our football program who are putting personal glory at the expense of the rest of our children. They are placing them in places of success at the expense of other kids.”

Next up, a clear and assertive voice addressed the audience, belonging to 21-year CISD resident Ron Hansen.

Hansen voiced his belief that the football program has corrupted the community and has left players feeling hopeless, resentful, and apathetic due to bias and favoritism.

“Although it’s only a snippet of time in the grand scheme of things in their lives, the negative memories they’ve experienced will remain with them forever,” Hansen said.

In 2012, Hansen was asked by the Coppell athletics director to serve on the bond committee. The committee had a record $75 million bond, but looking back Hansen regrets his contribution.

“Had I known then that our facilities would be used to enable a private agenda, for a small, pre selected group of boys, I wouldn’t have touched this with a 10 foot poll,” Hansen said.

He addressed the board with a call to action.

“Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong,” Hansen said.

Parent and football season pass holder for many years Jill Widner was next. When she reached the podium, she immediately jumped into her argument.

“You cannot empower and teach leadership and expect great things from students, when you have men who lack integrity with their own selfish agendas, with their own children’s benefits,” Widner said. “I expect the same accountability that you ask of my own child, and expect it from adults in paid leadership positions in Coppell High School.”

Last up was Coppell resident of 20 years Scott Mcfarlane, who did not plan on speaking until he saw signs held up in front of the administration building in protest of the coaches.

“We are supportive of that group, it’s about a lot more than football,” MacFarland said. “That’s what I personally appreciate about the football coaching leadership and athletic district leadership, the ideals I believe my son and daughters come home with every day.”

With contention over the state of Coppell High School’s football program carrying over, the topic was addressed again in the Nov. 16 Coppell ISD board meeting.

Monday night’s open forum began with a warning.

“We appreciate the public’s participation and involvement in the success of our students. However, we will not tolerate any disruption at this meeting,” Board President David Apple said. “If after one warning from a presiding officer, any person continues to disrupt the meeting by his words or actions, we will ask them to be dismissed.”

Apple established the guidelines and time limits for the four speakers presenting concerns at the meeting, asserting that the Board would not comment or discuss any of the statements made.

The first speaker to approach the stand was Ron Hanson, who expressed “concern” and “disappointment” at the current CISD three-level grievance process.

“In the past couple of weeks, someone at CISD made the decision to change the form to include only the level one grievances to the campus,” Hanson said. “My concern is that changing the grievance process in the the middle of an issue can send the wrong message to the public. I am also concerned that the grievance process is arduous and intimidating.”

Hanson also expressed concern at the process for dealing with time-sensitive grievances for urgent matters.

“I guess my biggest frustration is that I don’t feel that there is an easy way for my voice to be heard,” Hanson said. “I would encourage the Board to update the current grievance process in order to better accommodate the educational process of our children.”

Next to speak was John Butcher who voiced his concerns about the athletic department after filing a formal grievance. Butcher expressed his view that the coaches at CHS have violated the Texas Coach’s Code of Conduct by placing the “success of the team above the academic, social, emotional and moral well being of athletes”.

“There is one [football] team captain that hasn’t played a game,” Butcher said. “He was a very, very skilled player, had no issues outside of the football program, and it was a travesty that he was not on the field this year. The only reason for this is favoritism and nepotism within the team this year. It’s absolutely a shame.”

The third person to approach the podium was Coppell resident Ron Traw. He presented a metaphor, describing the school district as a “bus”.

“Is there anybody looking underneath the hood to see if this bus is operating correctly?” Traw said. “What you’ve seen in the past couple of Board meetings challenges that. I do not believe that our bus is functioning correctly. I feel like the parents are the ones uncovering the problems. That’s not the way it should be.”

Like Butcher and Hanson, Traw expressed a problem with the grievance process as well as favoritism within the football team.

“During the DeSoto game, the integrity of our football team was compromised,” Traw said. “People noticed what was going on at it’s a shame. I think the engine light was flashing long before and I think there were a lot of people that knew we had problems with our bus.”

The final speaker, Carter Smith, expressed his concern that the adversity towards the coaches might cause some of them to quit, which would hurt the football team. He commended the coaches in the way they have handled the adversity.

“I believe these men have the most integrity and highest character of any group of men I have been around in a long time,” Smith said. “[The coaches] have handled this adversity a lot better than I would have handled it.”