Lady Seahawk hoop schedule irks school board

The Franklin County Lady Seahawks girls basketball team will play just eight games this season, the bare minimum allowed by the Florida High School Athletic Association.

The varsity and junior varsity girls coaches each will receive the identical supplemental contract amounts as the boys coaches, who are playing three times as many games.

Neither of these facts sat very well with the school board at its regular meeting Nov. 12.

In a departure from the usual routine adoption of supplemental coaching contracts, board member George Thompson asked that the girls basketball coaches be addressed separately.

Boys basketball head coach Fred Drake, and assistant coach Carlos Hill, were both then quickly approved unanimously. The Seahawks schedule, which began Tuesday with a 56-51 victory over Sneads in a pre-season game in Blountstown, features a full slate of regular season contests, including a Christmas tournament in Columbus, GA, and the MLK Showcase game at Florida State College in Jacksonville on Jan. 18.

Before voting to approve, however, Angeline Stanley as girls varsity coach and Eric Bidwell as assistant, Thompson focused questioning on athletic director Mike Todd as to why the schedule was only eight games.

As it stands now, the girls don’t start their season until Dec. 1, two weeks after the boys begin. They then play only the required district games and wrap up at home Jan. 23, about two weeks before the boys’ regular season ends.

“There’s a problem with that,” said Thompson, noting that the head coach would be paid the entire $4,000 supplemental. “That’s sad.”

Todd said the problem with the short season began when last year’s coach, Justin Long, left just before the start of the 2009-10 school year, without having scheduled any games beyond the ones put in place at April’s district coaches meeting.

Because the fall 2008 student population was between 186 and 521 students, Franklin County is one of 92 high schools in Class 2A basketball. They compete among 25 schools in Region 1, and are in District 3, which also includes Liberty County, Port St. Joe, West Gadsden and Wewahitchka.

“Coach Long didn’t do anything before he left,” Todd said.

The athletic director said he asked new teacher Eric Bidwell during the second week of school to assume the girls basketball coaching job, and Bidwell agreed, but later decided he could not serve as head coach, but would be junior varsity coach.

Three weeks ago, Angeline Stanley, who teaches at the learning center, told Todd she would be willing to serve as girls basketball coach. But by then the season was at hand and no further games were able to be scheduled.

Thompson said his anger was “not about the coach,” but was due to the schedules not being completed when they should have been. “Somebody has to take control in April and start scheduling games,” he said.

Todd attributed the problem to coaches neglecting their responsibilities. “It’s the same problem I had in Apalachicola,” he said, referring to the final year of the Apalachicola High School Sharks football team, when Todd was athletic director. The football season was cancelled right before the opening game due to an insufficient number of players.

Thompson asked whether the supplemental contract could be pro-rated, noting that “a lot of programs won’t pay a supplemental unless they have so many games scheduled.”

Cathy Wood, who represents the teachers union, reacted quickly, contending that changes to a supplemental contract could only be done with union input.

“We have to bring it before negotiations,” she said, stressing that while pro-rating the supplemental may make sense, it could not be done outside of the formal collective bargaining process.

“It’s a contractual agreement. This teacher had no way of knowing” the contract amount could be changed when she accepted the position, said Woods. “Miss Stanley is doing the best she can with what she’s been handed. It’s one of those learning experiences we all have to suck up.”

Sam Carnley, the district’s finance director, told the board that while pro-rating could be done in the case of a football coach, the contract with the union did not have a provision governing other coaching slots.

Board chairman Jimmy Gander questioned Todd as to why the schedule hadn’t been done earlier, and said he should have made sure it got done. “That’s why you’re the athletic director,” he said.

Board member Teresa Ann Martin said the problem stemmed from a lack of communication. “The coaches and the athletic director need to be communicating,” she said. “There should not be a breakdown in the scheduling if everyone is working in unity, as one.”

Thompson also took issue with other supplementals, in light of his observation that “these are some of the best supplemental in the state of Florida.”

He said he did not think there ought to be assistant boys and girls basketball coaches for the younger grades. “I don’t feel you need assistant basketball coaches in middle school,” he said.

Thompson said that when he coached varsity volleyball at Carrabelle High School, he and the assistant coach split a single supplemental.

He also was critical, although not by name, of class sponsors who do not take an active role in working closely with the students. “For two straight years we built floats at my house,” he said. “I haven’t seen a class sponsor there yet.”

Principal George Oehlert said he did not believe that attendance at floatmaking was spelled out in the supplemental contract. “I would think that you’d want to be there, but at this point it hasn’t been dictated by position description,” he said.

In the end, the school board unanimously agreed to pay the entire supplemental amounts, to Stanley at $4,000, and Bidwell at $2,500.

They also agreed that more scrutiny should be done on scheduling, and vowed to hold coaches accountable for completing next year’s schedules in a timely manner.

“It’s not her (Stanley’s) fault,” said board member David Hinton. “But we’re going to hold her responsible for getting the schedule for next year.”