HARBOR SPRINGS -- A shake-up tonight for the harbor springs community. 7&4 News has learned that the public schools Superintendent did not renew contracts for the district's entire football coaching staff.
This includes the varsity head coach all the way down to the middle school staff. Superintendent Mark Tompkins said it was a long time coming and said he hopes to give the football program a strong new identity.
Tompkins said, "The best athletic programs for kids are ones where everyone's communicating coordinating together where you have a systems approach from the bottom all the way up."
According to Tompkins the decision to get rid of the entire coaching staff from the bottom up was a combination of factors and that the system has been broken for years. He did make a point to say this decision had nothing to do with the student's performance on the football field.
7&4 Sports Director Giacomo Accardo said, "This team really have been trending upward they had a great season last year 4 and 5 and 2 of those losses were forfeits so it's actually kind of a surprise because they've been doing a lot better."
The superintendent said the program was lacking the coaching methods and open communication that's need to have a sustainable and successful program. He also said that a lack of sportsmanship from the parents was the final deciding factor.
Tompkins explained, "I think we were at a point where it was dysfunctional for the coaches and for the parents and it was starting to impact the kids that's when we knew we had a problem and had to fix it."
Tompkins’ mission for the new program is to be extraordinary and to do that he has chosen athletic director Dave Lafolla to help hire the new staff.
Lafolla said, "We’re looking for candidates that have the experience coaching that have a pedigree we can look beyond refute that we have the quality right person to lead our staff."
The new football staff will be hired by January or February at the very latest.
7&4 News will continue to follow this story and bring you an update once the new coaching staff is named.
