How does DPS hire 2 people to run PR, pay them $180K a year, and the way the community finds out who’s the new head basketball coach at Dunbar- is on my blog?
Way to welcome new coach, Chuck Taylor to Dunbar.
The job was posted, Chuck applied, came prepared to the interview. He’d passed on other coaching positions- waiting for the right job, right time. He’s no stranger to the Dayton basketball community- having run his own AAU team for 20+ years. A Dunbar Roth grad, he lead Roth to a basketball state championship as a point guard, before Roth’s program moved to Dunbar when Roth closed. This was his chance to “come home” and lead.
The other part of the story that’s missing, is that Coach Pullen did a cardinal sin in a very petty district- he dared to apply for the Wayne High School coaching job, although he was never called for an interview. Just like the Trump administration, in the new DPS, where “Great things are happening”- it’s all but an unwritten rule that you sign a loyalty oath. Any deviation from devotion to the Corr machine- and you are out. Got questions? See the Tom Archdeacon story in Sunday’s Dayton Daily [1] where the celebrated soccer coach at Belmont of last year, Julie Raiff, was replaced this year, because she dared to go to Northridge for more money as a Special Ed teacher. The district line for her- we want a coach who is in the building.
Which brings us back to Dunbar’s new coach- who has a full time job as Judge Gehres’ bailiff. He may be the new direction for Dunbar, as what Principal Crystal Phillips told her 63 year old coaching stead as she unceremoniously turned him out to pasture, but Taylor won’t be in the building either.
Coach Pullen had already retired from teaching the year before last, but still taught two PE courses last year. This year, he’d opted out, but is also currently recuperating from major surgery- and did his interviews in a wheelchair- which probably also didn’t help his case for keeping his job.
Phillips also said that Pullen didn’t have a good rapport with college coaches as a reason for not keeping him, yet the fact that there would be seven college coaches at his practices says volumes.
In PR, the secret is always getting ahead of the story. In this case, considering the smoldering smirch on the district of the Dunbar/Belmont football fiasco last year, the new PR fiasco of the announcement at an emergency meeting about the new academic eligibility standards, you’d think the PR wizards on staff would have made sure that this change wouldn’t be yet another target for tomato tossers- but, they failed.
In the end, Dunbar will do fine in basketball. The question again, is why is this change being made this late? Would Dunbar have lost two star players, DeVon Baker and Caleb McConnell, to SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio, for their senior year? Other districts know that parents of star athletes choose to enroll their kids in schools because of the coaches, not necessarily because of academics. If your ticket to college is being punched because you can play hoops- that’s the first thing you look for.
However, I sure wouldn’t want to be on the other side of the coming Dunbar parents and alumni storm- which all could have been avoided had this been handled properly.
Providing subfloor for the coming age/disability discrimination lawsuit?
To say Chuck Taylor is prepared to take over the most accomplished boy’s basketball program in SW Ohio recent memory is a joke. Please stop trying to equate being an AAU coach to running a HS program-there is no comparison to practicing a couple of times a week and the rigors of full HS season not to mention all the other administrative duties that are required. Also just because you might have been a decent player in your day doesn’t mean you can coach at a high level! The vast majority of AAU coaches are egomaniacs who are out for themselves, can’t teach the game and just roll the ball out and hope that their athletes are better than the opposing team. To my knowledge Taylor has never been a head HS coach and if he were capable he would have already had a head position at his advanced age. To give the head coaching job at the strongest school in the league to the JV coach of probably the weakest program in the city (Stivers) is like hiring an athletic director who has never been an AD or an assistant AD or even a head high school coach. Oh wait….that’s exactly what Crystal Phillips did when she hired Quiononna (sp?) Boffman as the Dunbar AD. All I can find is that she had been the head volleyball coach at Central State and amassed a 6-102 record in four years! No wonder she took the AD job when Phillips offered it to her, she would have certainly been fired at CSU. To say she is green is an understatement. If this scenario sounds familiar…that’s because this is what DPS did when they hired an AD who had never been an HS AD or an assistant AD when they hired Mark Baker. I guess Phillips was just following the DPS playbook! While I agree with most of your sentiments David, you’re off on this one. Dunbar basketball will not be fine. Here’s the scorecard: Mark Baker (inexperienced liar and cheat with a strange hatred for his alma mater and Pete Pullen),… Read more »
[…] would apply – because Pete Pullen is a coaching legend with a long list of championships- Chuck is a Bailiff for a local judge who sucks at the political teat of the Democratic party and hands out $10,000 bails on homeless […]