WPA powerhouse HS team just fired their coach
- Thread starter sunshinedynomite
- Start date
Eric Kasperowicz, championship football coach, fired at Pine-Richland
Eric Kasperowicz built Pine-Richland High School’s football team into one of the top programs in the state. He won four WPIAL titles and two state...
www.post-gazette.com
From the article:
“The reasons for Kasperowicz’s removal are unclear. Kasperowicz was supposed to have a meeting with school administrators Wednesday night at 8. The school had told Kasperowicz that it had been conducting an investigation into alleged hazing incidents in recent years. The Post-Gazette learned that Pine-Richland school principals had been meeting with current and former players, asking them about the culture of the program and incidents in the locker room.”
Maybe a parent was upset their kid wasn't getting much playing time. As a result, they made a complaint about the "culture". The bar is pretty low for fireable offenses committed by a coach.
An influential booster's kid that isn't on the first string?
Sorry, I'm so cynical these days.
I'm sure the details will be made clear in civil court IF THE COACH DID NOTHING WRONG.
Pine-Richland fires football coach Eric Kasperowicz 5 months after winning state title | Trib HSSN
In the span of eight years, Pine-Richland football coach Eric Kasperowicz built the Rams into one of the WPIAL’s best programs with four WPIAL championships and two state titles.
tribhssn.triblive.com
Actually, it sounds more like a personal vendetta by a few school board members. This will likely not end well for them. The entire community is livid.
PR QB says team was blindsided. "Never saw hazing". Says school board had it out for him. Saw another article or site that said he became more powerful and looked up to than the school board and they resented it. Doesnt sound like its a playing time-helicopter parent issue.
Pine-Richland Fires Head Coach Eric Kasperowicz and Entire Coaching Staff
Shocking news as one of the most successful coaches in the state of Pennsylvania has been let go. The Pine-Richland School District has fired long-time football coach Eric Kasperowicz and his entire coaching staff. In his eight seasons with the Rams, Kasperowicz compiled a record of 85-18, along...
pittsburghsportsnow.com
Gentlemen, start your lawyers! Count down to the first suit is filed in this one.
PR QB says team was blindsided. "Never saw hazing". Says school board had it out for him. Saw another article or site that said he became more powerful and looked up to than the school board and they resented it. Doesnt sound like its a playing time-helicopter parent issue.
Pine-Richland Fires Head Coach Eric Kasperowicz and Entire Coaching Staff
Shocking news as one of the most successful coaches in the state of Pennsylvania has been let go. The Pine-Richland School District has fired long-time football coach Eric Kasperowicz and his entire coaching staff. In his eight seasons with the Rams, Kasperowicz compiled a record of 85-18, along...
Sounds like what Snedden said about CorButt wrt Joe and Spanier.
This is the top story right now in Pittsburgh - starting to sound like a personal vendetta by someone on the school's board. The Pine Richland community is pissed.
Kasperowicz is a teacher at North Hills, I'm wondering if he'll get scooped up elsewhere. He might also get some looks as an assistant in the college ranks, I have a work friend from the PR area that said he was rumored to have interviewed at a handful of colleges over the past few years.
Kasperowicz is a teacher at North Hills, I'm wondering if he'll get scooped up elsewhere. He might also get some looks as an assistant in the college ranks, I have a work friend from the PR area that said he was rumored to have interviewed at a handful of colleges over the past few years.
The coach told a player he was 'dogging it'. The player's parents thought that this was some kind of slight since their family is a "cat" family and not a canine family.
Few things:
1) "Contract not renewed" instead of "fired" is also what I've heard. Not sure but that sounds less litigate-able (word, spelling?).
2) "More looked up to" than the school board? For real? Who runs for their local school board seeking community approval as compared to a football coach?
3) Can't believe the PR board/admin haven't entertained the idea of lawsuits and themselves haven't lawyered up in anticipation thereof.
4) Entire community isn't livid. I'm a member of the community and when I saw this last night I would say I was mildly amused and curious, as opposed to livid. In the big picture I dont' give a rat's tushy who the high school football coach is, but that's just me.
So the poster should have said, "The entire community is livid (except okinburg1)."
LOL... it's a joke.
Sounds like what has been happening in our culture for years now. The powers that be are catering to a small vocal minority that bitches about something rather than the silent majority.
Personal vendetta by a school board? That never happens. Well not since yesterday when the Bellefonte school board yanked the Red Raider mascot despite a litany of support, including from native american groups, to keep the mascot.
I get that in a community as big as PR, a lot of people won't care who the football coach is at the high school. But the people involved in the athletic department, past and present, are being very vocal. But I do agree with your point that the admin had to have had legal counsel before making a move such as this. We'll see how this plays out in the coming months.
PR QB says team was blindsided. "Never saw hazing". Says school board had it out for him. Saw another article or site that said he became more powerful and looked up to than the school board and they resented it. Doesnt sound like its a playing time-helicopter parent issue.
Pine-Richland Fires Head Coach Eric Kasperowicz and Entire Coaching Staff
Shocking news as one of the most successful coaches in the state of Pennsylvania has been let go. The Pine-Richland School District has fired long-time football coach Eric Kasperowicz and his entire coaching staff. In his eight seasons with the Rams, Kasperowicz compiled a record of 85-18, along...
So...members of a board of an educational institution upset and jealous that a football coach was more popular than they are.
Hmmmmm...where have I heard that before....?
First God made Idiots, that was for practice....Then he made school boards. I've seen it all over 47 years.
The potential legal jockeying is what honestly fascinates me the most. Dying to see how it plays out
Apparently you haven't been on social media in the last 24 hours. You may be mildly amused, but a whole lot of your fellow PR folks are not. The school board has created a shitstorm of epic proportions.
Kasperowicz is very highly thought of. They aren't going to be able to replace him with anybody near his level. He just won the state championship, and the school board has already shown themselves to be meddling fools. Nobody with options will want to take that job.
Isn’t it impossible for someone to criticize a school board member unless they’ve also done the job?
Kinda like giving any criticism to a football coach if you’ve never coached in D1?
If you've never practiced medicine, you can't criticize a doctor.
If you've never practiced law, you can't criticize an attorney.
If you've never fixed a car, you can't criticize a mechanic.
If you've never worked in law enforcement, you can't criticize the police.
If you've never been a bureaucrat, well, you get the point........
I would bet some WPIAL teams are tripping over themselves to get to him first. He is a pretty good coach.
I cant see him going back to PR, even if he would win a wrongful termination suit or even win in the ever important "court of public opinion". Why would he. The board obviously doesn't want him there.
I'll predict PR will hire an unproven to average/poor coach and toil in mediocrity for a while after this. As stated above, who would want to go there is you have another decent option. Being in 6A is going to make it harder.
That’s exactly what a bureaucrat would say.
North Hills brought back Jack McCurry after he was dismissed, in part because of Lavar Arrington showing up at a school board meeting and letting his feelings be heard. Maybe Phil Jurkovich will do the same for Kasperowicz.
Don't do social media at all. I guess this just reinforces why I'm so happy I don't.
Per the highlighted comment above, I guess if your kid plays for PR, or wants to, then you'd be concerned. Otherwise I'd hope parents would care that their kid was getting a good education (actually that is also true if your kid plays football) and that he/she had other sports or extracurricular activities that make their high school experience enjoyable.
Oh no, the football coach was not renewed, let's take to social media and create a shitstorm of epic proportions. Uh, I just don't get it. At all. On any level. To each his own I suppose. Still a free country (for now).
I guess it's possible. But I don't see why he would go back, unless PR was his dream coaching job. I don't see him being unemployed very long whether he goes high school or college. Why spend your days walking on egg shells knowing the board is looking to replace you for any viable reason.
