Krause: Swampscott field hockey situation shows coaches need some independence

The Swampscott field hockey job has been opened up. And while athletic director Frank Kowalski vehemently denies coach Holly Sheehan was let go, if you’re any kind of a mathematician, you can certainly, well, do the math.Kowalski, who just took over the program last fall, says that the job was reopened (along with that of soccer coach Art Simms), and that both are welcome to reapply.Sure they are. Baseball coach Frank DeFelice was free to reapply for his job when it was opened up. And Peabody football coach Ed Nizwantowski was free to reapply for both his jobs (football, baseball) when they were opened up.Neither was rehired. As I said, you do the math.If your job is opened up, and if your athletic department is advertising that it’s been opened up (as the Swampscott athletic department has done), then it’s a good bet you’re not considered a part of anyone’s future plans.The only question left to answer, of course, is “Why?” In Simms’ case, that’s a much harder question to answer because – to anyone’s knowledge – he didn’t get into any public disputes with parents. Sadly for Sheehan, she did.Sheehan – for reasons she only knows – would not nominate former Swampscott selectman Dan Santanello’s daughter for the Northeastern Conference all-star team, which precipitated a public confrontation between the two in the high school parking lot.If this is the case ? if Sheehan’s job was not reopened due to the confrontation with Santanello ? she’s in pretty heady company. DeFelice survived several attempts to run him out of town before his job was reopened and he was let go. Other coaches, such as St. Mary’s Bill Norcross and Classical’s Dave Dempsey, may not have been let go specifically due to parental discontent, but let’s just say that at different times in their tenures, there was vocal disapproval of the way they did things.Outside pressure has been a constant problem in Marblehead, where several coaches have been let go ? or have resigned rather than deal with it. Saugus has also lost several good coaches for the same reason.DeFelice has a unique perspective on the problem, because he was let go after 35 years, with a spotless official record.”It’s unfortunate,” he says, “that the wrong parents are allowed to have a say in something like this.”In the last five years, I feel the leadership in the town has not been good,” he said. “The tail is wagging the dog. The administrators in the school are listening to the wrong people. And the administrators in the town turned their backs.”DeFelice feels the process of opening up jobs is simply a way to legally let someone go.”That’s what happened in my case,” he said. “I knew, as soon as they opened up the jobs, that I was a target. They just had to find a way to legally do it.”DeFelice says that it’s important to have a strong athletic director that will listen to parents’ complaints, but – at the same time – be strong enough to consider all sides of an issue and make an informed decision.”I think,” he says, “that you have to have an athletic director like Harry Truman: The buck stops here. That way, the tail is not allowed to wag the dog.”One supposes that it’s a natural instinct for parents to want to protect their children from harm and heartache. But it’s often an instinct they’d do best to quell. Having been through this myself, I can tell you that parents are the least objective people on the planet about how their children fit on a sports team. Coaches must be allowed – at the very least – to evaluate their talent, judge it accordingly, and sink or swim with the decisions they make. If you’re going to suggest anything else, then why have a coach at all?Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item.