Board will pass on Calabro for XC head coach spot at Twp.

BY DANIELLE MEDINA
Correspondent

BRICK - The boys of the Brick Township High School (BTHS) Cross Country Track Team are used to encountering rough terrain on race day. But the path to finding a new head coach has been an even bumpier course for the team.

When Peter Panuska was promoted to assistant principal at Brick Township Memorial High School on Aug. 24, the team was left without a head coach, even though summer practice for the season had already begun.

Since that time, the boys have been practicing and competing at track meets without an official head coach. Instead, the students and parents say that Calabro, the head of the physical education department at BTHS, has been volunteering as the team's coach.

"Mr. Calabro was doing everything a coach should do, but not with the blessings of the board," parent Janet Doyle said at the board's Oct. 4 pre-agenda meeting last week. "Either someone doesn't like him or they don't have enough votes for him."

Instead of naming Calabro as head coach, the board was expected to name Kathleen Meehan as the team's coach on Oct. 11. Meehan has been serving as an assistant coach for both the boys and girls team.

Meehan and the girls head coach, Donnie Blair, who have been on the field working with the team, not Calabro, Board President Sharon Kight said.

"I asked Bill Bruno [the district's athletic director] if Jim Calabro was working as a track coach and he said he was not on the field because he wasn't board approved," Kight said last Friday.

Kight also said that the decision not to hire Calabro, a former head of the Brick Township Education Association, was not politically motivated.

"In fact, this board just voted him in as the athletic department head at BTHS and spring track coach," Kight said.

The coaching indecision has left a number of the boys on the team frustrated and angry, and their parents say, has put their safety at risk.

"From day to day, we come to practice but we still don't know if we have a head coach," said junior Jake Garcia. "How can we perform our best with all of these inconsistencies?"

Resident Debbie Devereux said her son passed out from dehydration during a meet last week and had to rely on the coaches from the Toms River North team for assistance.

"It potentially was a very dangerous situation," Devereux told the board last week.

Although Superintendent Thomas L. Seidenberger said he was unaware of the situation with Devereux's son, he defended the decision to hire Meehan.

"The people we recommend have talent and experience," Seidenberger said.

As for the number of coaches assigned to the team, Seidenberger said that the staffing for both the boys and girls team is in line with other schools in the area.

Last year, there were three coaches for the boys and girls team - two head coaches and a swing, or assistant, coach who rotated between the two teams.

This year, the district will pay two head coaches, Meehan and Blair, and will rely on a volunteer for each team to help out.

The stipend for the cross country coach is $7,056.

With 35 students on the cross country team - 14 girls and 21 boys - the average is 17.5 students per coach, compared to an average of 23.5 at Ocean Township High School and 20.5 at Toms River North High School.

"I'm a big supporter of sports. Nobody wants to take away a coach," Kight said Friday, "but we had $1.3 million cut from our budget."

While losing a coach is difficult for the team and their parents to swallow, what's harder is losing Calabro.

"The kids are losing spirit. They don't want to practice," said Doyle. "Someone who was willing and qualified for the position was available and we're letting them down."

Calabro could not be reached for comment.