Are principals using principles?

Former Sierra track coach Teenan Anderson suspected his days were numbered but he was still surprised when his key card into the high school didn't work when he tried to attend his teams' awards banquet May 23.

By then, six days after Sierra's boys placed second under the Colorado High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach at the 4A state meet, they were no longer his team.

That prompted some concern from former coaches about whether too much emphasis was placed on hiring coaches internally.

The exact number of head coaches who were not rehired was unconfirmed by 5 p.m. Friday. Nor would the preference for in-building hires have to be the only reason a coach wasn't rehired.

Former longtime assistant track coach Brent Garretson said girls basketball coach Nate Hansen, Anderson, boys and girls cross country coach Bob Guthrie and boys golf coach Wendell Baker were not rehired because they were not district employees. Guthrie and Baker confirmed they were not rehired and Guthrie said neither was Hansen.

It's doesn't appear to be because of performance. Sierra's girls basketball team shared the 4A Metro Conference title in 2006-07 and won it outright in 2007-08. Sierra's boys tied for a regional team cross country title and had a league and regional girls champion in Samantha Thompson.

It is a common preference to hire coaches from within the school. Once that pool of applicants is examined, schools often look within the district and then go out-of-district. Finding enough qualified applicants is the challenge.

"We always look in district first and then we definitely look outside, out of state if we have to," said Jennifer Sprague, district communications director. "We do prefer internal applicants before we look at external."

Anderson and Garretson never heard back about their applications.

"They must have been satisfied with the people they found in the building," Anderson said.

Each coaching job is yearby-year and expires after each school year. But this was the first time since his initial hire about four years ago that Anderson had to apply, he said.

Sierra athletic director Kirk Sullivan retired at the end of the school year. He was replaced by Angie Prochnow, the volleyball coach in 2007. Principal Kathleen Barbee-Herzog, entering her second year at the school, oversaw the hiring process.

"The Sierra principal decided to start from a clean slate as they do each year," Sprague said. "The principals have autonomy to follow those procedures but they have their own professional way of going about it."

Garretson was upset by a perceived requirement for assistant coaches to be employed at Sierra.

"I can tell you the athletics people in the city are laughing about it," he said.

The online ad for assistants that appeared on the district's Web site before the closing date May 29 stated: "1. Applicant must be a current employee of Harrison School District Two at Sierra High School - substitutes are not considered employees of the district."

Sprague said that line is misunderstood.

"It isn't a requirement, it is a good qualification," she said.

It does appear to limit the pool of applicants, said Academy District 20 public information officer Nanette Anderson.

How well schools do hiring coaches in-house varies considerably. At Doherty, District 11 athletic director David Eichmann estimated up to 90 percent are employed in the building while at Wasson only three work there. Head coach Harold Brown is the only football coach who works at Wasson.

Anderson said there is no District 20 policy that states an order of preference but it is there in practice.

"If someone in the building did apply and was already a known person to the students they would be considered perhaps more highly than an unknown applicant," she said. "It is common practice but you don't usually have enough applicants who are qualified or interested from inside the building."

While he was initially upset, Anderson will wait to see what his options are for a final season of coaching. He had hoped to coach until his wife retired and was disappointed the efforts coaches made weren't appreciated more.

Anderson said: "Maybe it's just time."

-

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0260 or joseph.paisley@gazette.com