Mr. Buddy Garrity
12-15-2005, 08:01 AM
School board prez wants Colbert fired
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By Dave Rogers - The News staff writer Posted: 12/15/05 - 12:08:11 am CST
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The president of the Port Arthur school board says it's time for Dean Colbert to go.
The job status of Colbert, head football coach and athletic director for the last three and half years at Memorial High School, may or may not come up at Thursday's night school board meeting.
Julia Samuels, the longest tenured member and president of the board of PAISD trustees, would like to hear superintendent Willis Mackey say he is making a change.
"I've been getting calls from members of the community," Samuels says. "They're wanting to see some changes made, particularly to the football program. But Dr. Mackey has not made any changes.
"The community is not pleased. They say 'We went to one school (with the 2002 consolidation).We still can't go to state. What's going on?' "
"From what I've been hearing, I can't see why he (Mackey) doesn't replace coach Colbert. He's got to do something with that program, because we're not where we need to be."
Colbert had a response to Samuels' comments.
"Everybody's entitled to their opinion," he said, "but I've won 28 games in five years, 22 at Memorial, and been to the playoffs twice. And we're not playing weak teams."
Colbert has complied a record of 22-18 in four seasons as head football coach at Memorial, including a District 22-5A co-championship in 2004 and two trips to the playoffs.
But the Titians were 2-5 this fall and appeared over-matched in all of their losses.
Colbert said he has not been informed of any change in his employment status and is already preparing for next season.
"We're going to be great next year," he proclaimed.
Since the end of the Titans' football season, reports of Colbert's dismissal have circulated via the internet and phone calls and e-mails from parents and other concerned citizens received by the The News .
Asked last Friday if Colbert had been fired, Mackey said the Houston native was still the coach.
The superintendent did not respond to an interview request Monday seeking his views on Samuels' comments.
Colbert has some built-in excuses for his football team's performance, not the least of which was Hurricane Rita, which wiped out three weeks of practice and games in the middle of the season and forced Memorial out of its home stadium for the Titians' final four games.
Memorial has annually played one of the toughest schedules in the state. All five teams that beat the Titans in 2005 went to the playoffs.
Colbert and his team were probably hurt less by the hurricane than by the preseason knee injury to quarterback Davon Lewis and the dismissal at the start of August two-a-days of assistant coaches Donald Douglas and Dwight Scypion.
The veteran coaches were let go because they lacked state teacher certification, a move that came too late for Colbert to find replacements.
A no-excuses guy, Colbert never made a big deal of losing the coaches nor Lewis' injury when they happened. He had always maintained that Lewis and fellow quarterback Antone Goudeaux were running neck and neck. However, Goudeaux threw only six passes in six games during July's state 7-on-7 tournament.
"It was kind of ironic," Colbert said Wednesday. "I did consider he (Lewis) and Antone equal, but that scrimmage he got hurt in, he was clearly going to be the guy after that scrimmage. He was doing such a good job making plays.
"That really hurt us, too."
The agenda for Thursday's 7 p.m. school board meeting includes no mention of Colbert, but a 6 p.m. executive session has been called for Mackey to discuss personnel. Colbert's status could be addressed then.
One name on Thursday's agenda is a parent, Deborah Freeman. She is scheduled to appear during the public comment section of the meeting to complain about a lack of attention for the baseball program.
"I go in front of the school board two or three times a year about baseball," she said. "I have to. It's always so much turmoil. They don't have uniforms, the field's messed up, we don't have equipment.
"I would just like to be able to compete."
As athletic director, Colbert is also hearing complaints from parents whose children are involved in the district girls' basketball program.
They argue that their daughters are not getting equal treatment with those in the boys' basketball treatment.
One parent cites the lack of a ninth-grade basketball athletics period for girls, something the ninth-grade boys have. Another is concerned that her middle school daughter knows more about the sports she plays than the people coaching her.
"A lot of kids are being taken out of the Port Arthur school district because of the things they're lacking," parent Lynn Price says.
"I just want the best from our area," mother Tashia Brannon says. "We combined all the schools and it seems like we're not going anywhere. We're supposed to have a powerhouse in everything. That's not happening."
In the major team sports of football, volleyball, boys' and girls' basketball, baseball and softball, Memorial has won one district title, the 2004 title share by Colbert's gridders, and finished last seven times.
"I've heard about every sport being displeased about everything," Freeman says.
Five Memorial teams -- two in football, three in basketball -- have gone to the playoffs on Colbert's watch. But last year marked the first time since 1979 that no Port Arthur basketball team appeared in the playoffs.
Under pressure to get back to the playoffs, the boys' and girls' varsity basketball coaches are having to scramble for practice space and play all their games on the road at the James Gamble Gym at the Ninth Grade campus. That's because of hurricane damage to the floor of Memorial's Competition Gym.
Wednesday, they might have practiced at the Girls Gym, but rain leaked through the roof there during the afternoon storms and made the floor slippery and unsafe.
To top it all off, former baseball coach Triny Rivera, who says he was fired by Colbert last summer, has filed two grievances against the athletic director. He directed The News to his attorney, David Bernsen of Beaumont, who did not return a call requesting comment.
But Colbert has his supporters.
"He's a good person. He treats our kids good. He sets a good example," PAISD trustee Greg Flores says. "When we went to San Antonio (for a 2002 football game), we got some compliments on our kids as to how disciplined they were. We got a letter from the hotel on how well behaved they were.
"Everyone wants to fire the coach if they don't win the games, but there's more to it than that."
Samuels agrees. But she's realistic.
"Academics is No. 1," she says, "but I continue to remind our board that our community is heavy on athletics. We are not going to please this community until we have good athletics.
"We have taken away their joy."
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By Dave Rogers - The News staff writer Posted: 12/15/05 - 12:08:11 am CST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The president of the Port Arthur school board says it's time for Dean Colbert to go.
The job status of Colbert, head football coach and athletic director for the last three and half years at Memorial High School, may or may not come up at Thursday's night school board meeting.
Julia Samuels, the longest tenured member and president of the board of PAISD trustees, would like to hear superintendent Willis Mackey say he is making a change.
"I've been getting calls from members of the community," Samuels says. "They're wanting to see some changes made, particularly to the football program. But Dr. Mackey has not made any changes.
"The community is not pleased. They say 'We went to one school (with the 2002 consolidation).We still can't go to state. What's going on?' "
"From what I've been hearing, I can't see why he (Mackey) doesn't replace coach Colbert. He's got to do something with that program, because we're not where we need to be."
Colbert had a response to Samuels' comments.
"Everybody's entitled to their opinion," he said, "but I've won 28 games in five years, 22 at Memorial, and been to the playoffs twice. And we're not playing weak teams."
Colbert has complied a record of 22-18 in four seasons as head football coach at Memorial, including a District 22-5A co-championship in 2004 and two trips to the playoffs.
But the Titians were 2-5 this fall and appeared over-matched in all of their losses.
Colbert said he has not been informed of any change in his employment status and is already preparing for next season.
"We're going to be great next year," he proclaimed.
Since the end of the Titans' football season, reports of Colbert's dismissal have circulated via the internet and phone calls and e-mails from parents and other concerned citizens received by the The News .
Asked last Friday if Colbert had been fired, Mackey said the Houston native was still the coach.
The superintendent did not respond to an interview request Monday seeking his views on Samuels' comments.
Colbert has some built-in excuses for his football team's performance, not the least of which was Hurricane Rita, which wiped out three weeks of practice and games in the middle of the season and forced Memorial out of its home stadium for the Titians' final four games.
Memorial has annually played one of the toughest schedules in the state. All five teams that beat the Titans in 2005 went to the playoffs.
Colbert and his team were probably hurt less by the hurricane than by the preseason knee injury to quarterback Davon Lewis and the dismissal at the start of August two-a-days of assistant coaches Donald Douglas and Dwight Scypion.
The veteran coaches were let go because they lacked state teacher certification, a move that came too late for Colbert to find replacements.
A no-excuses guy, Colbert never made a big deal of losing the coaches nor Lewis' injury when they happened. He had always maintained that Lewis and fellow quarterback Antone Goudeaux were running neck and neck. However, Goudeaux threw only six passes in six games during July's state 7-on-7 tournament.
"It was kind of ironic," Colbert said Wednesday. "I did consider he (Lewis) and Antone equal, but that scrimmage he got hurt in, he was clearly going to be the guy after that scrimmage. He was doing such a good job making plays.
"That really hurt us, too."
The agenda for Thursday's 7 p.m. school board meeting includes no mention of Colbert, but a 6 p.m. executive session has been called for Mackey to discuss personnel. Colbert's status could be addressed then.
One name on Thursday's agenda is a parent, Deborah Freeman. She is scheduled to appear during the public comment section of the meeting to complain about a lack of attention for the baseball program.
"I go in front of the school board two or three times a year about baseball," she said. "I have to. It's always so much turmoil. They don't have uniforms, the field's messed up, we don't have equipment.
"I would just like to be able to compete."
As athletic director, Colbert is also hearing complaints from parents whose children are involved in the district girls' basketball program.
They argue that their daughters are not getting equal treatment with those in the boys' basketball treatment.
One parent cites the lack of a ninth-grade basketball athletics period for girls, something the ninth-grade boys have. Another is concerned that her middle school daughter knows more about the sports she plays than the people coaching her.
"A lot of kids are being taken out of the Port Arthur school district because of the things they're lacking," parent Lynn Price says.
"I just want the best from our area," mother Tashia Brannon says. "We combined all the schools and it seems like we're not going anywhere. We're supposed to have a powerhouse in everything. That's not happening."
In the major team sports of football, volleyball, boys' and girls' basketball, baseball and softball, Memorial has won one district title, the 2004 title share by Colbert's gridders, and finished last seven times.
"I've heard about every sport being displeased about everything," Freeman says.
Five Memorial teams -- two in football, three in basketball -- have gone to the playoffs on Colbert's watch. But last year marked the first time since 1979 that no Port Arthur basketball team appeared in the playoffs.
Under pressure to get back to the playoffs, the boys' and girls' varsity basketball coaches are having to scramble for practice space and play all their games on the road at the James Gamble Gym at the Ninth Grade campus. That's because of hurricane damage to the floor of Memorial's Competition Gym.
Wednesday, they might have practiced at the Girls Gym, but rain leaked through the roof there during the afternoon storms and made the floor slippery and unsafe.
To top it all off, former baseball coach Triny Rivera, who says he was fired by Colbert last summer, has filed two grievances against the athletic director. He directed The News to his attorney, David Bernsen of Beaumont, who did not return a call requesting comment.
But Colbert has his supporters.
"He's a good person. He treats our kids good. He sets a good example," PAISD trustee Greg Flores says. "When we went to San Antonio (for a 2002 football game), we got some compliments on our kids as to how disciplined they were. We got a letter from the hotel on how well behaved they were.
"Everyone wants to fire the coach if they don't win the games, but there's more to it than that."
Samuels agrees. But she's realistic.
"Academics is No. 1," she says, "but I continue to remind our board that our community is heavy on athletics. We are not going to please this community until we have good athletics.
"We have taken away their joy."