Pushing aside the issue of who should be running the McKinley football program, the Canton City Schools Board of Education held a meeting at McKinley Senior High School with the public last Wednesday to discuss what qualities and attributes are desired in a head coach.
The community responded, with more than 100 people attending the meeting.
During the meeting, each person was given a random number, and assigned to a corresponding table. Each table was assigned a facilitator, who read off five questions to the groups, and wrote down their answers. Each group then had a chance to speak to the board and others attending the meeting.
After much discussion, tradition, ethics, and a proven track record seemed to be the three things those who attended the meeting would like to see in a coach.
“A lot of our traditions have been lost, because we brought guys in here that didn’t respect that and embrace that,” said Rennard Torrence, speaking for his group during the meeting. “We have a certain system here that we have to get back to. I think the only way we’re going to do that is to get somebody that’s been in that system, is from here.”
Torrence said he also felt that if tradition were the foundation, the rest of the qualities would come along with that.
Along with tradition, a proven track record was one of the most frequent topics of discussion. Many groups believed that to be a coach at McKinley, an applicant must have a winning record at a reputable school.
Ethics and character were also important to most all in attendance, although not all agreed as to how high it should be on the list of qualities. A couple of groups believed that a coach at McKinley should, most importantly, have a good understanding of the “X’s and O’s” of football, meaning they should be good at helping their team on the field.
Other groups felt that a coach should prioritize character, education, and then football.
While education was not as talked about as the other subjects, it still has played a major role in the discussions of who should be coach. Last year, Johnson was nearly non-renewed after board members voted against his renewal due to the lack of study tables.
A couple of the groups at the meeting discussed the topic, and many thought that while the coach should make sure his students do well in school, it’s not his primary job.
Michelle Clark, speaking for another group at the meeting, said that her group came to the consensus that a coach should support the academic process, but that’s not who is primarily responsible for education.
“First and foremost that needs to come from the parents and the students at home,” Clark said.
Many players will argue that they already had a coach who was helping them in the classroom.
“He got our grades up,” said junior Jalen Dicenzi. Dicenzi also credited Johnson with helping the team become Academic All-Ohio.
While there was a wide range of viewpoints in attendance—both for Johnson and against him—the meeting was a cordial one. While the atmosphere early on was a bit edgy—nobody was too sure about what was going on or how it was going to go—it quickly loosened up as people greeted one another and discussed their obvious passion: McKinley football.
Board President Rich Milligan said that he was pleased with how it turned out, and explained the reasoning behind the random assignment of numbers.
“We wanted to break people up, mix people together, so that people pro, anti, in-between are all mixed together so they can talk to each other,” said Milligan. “They can come to some civil discussion of where we want to go with our football coach.”
While a large group in the community, as well as many of the football players, still want to see Johnson retained as coach, it seemed Wednesday like an unlikely scenario, as board members frequently mentioned looking forward, as well as finding a new coach.
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