You can add Dave Hastings to the growing list of Pioneer Valley Regional School coaching casualties who have departed after issues with the administration.
At 5:11 a.m. on Aug. 9, the 15-year Panthers boys’ varsity basketball coach sent an email to Pioneer Principal Jean Bacon announcing his resignation. It marks the third coach who has admitted to walking away because of philosophical differences, joining former football coach Glenn Wilson and field hockey coach Colleen Bannister.
Bacon said she was under the impression that Hastings was leaving because he wanted to watch his two sons play basketball.
“We’ve had conversations, and Mr. Hastings had an excellent record at the school. He was really successful in terms of the team, and my understanding from him was that he submitted a letter of resignation and felt that it was time for him to be more available for his own sons in terms of their on-going athletic careers,” she said.
Hastings disagreed, saying that he not only never said that, but that when he met with Bacon, he expressed his desire to continue coaching at Pioneer. But when he was told that he would once again have to reapply for his coaching position, something that not every coach has to do every year, it was the final straw in his three-year battle to keep his job.
“I resigned based on the principal telling me that they were going to post the job and wanted me to reapply,” Hastings said. “I didn’t feel there was any reason to ask me to reapply. We ended up with one of the best teams in western Mass. last year, so how could that be viewed as negative?”
Consistent with all Massachusetts public high schools, coaches at Pioneer are hired on a year-to-year basis. Many schools also have a policy of asking coaches back after the season, and the same is true at Pioneer, which has a policy to invite coaches back within 45 days of the season’s end. So coaches do not have to go through the hiring process every year. Bacon said that after meeting with Hastings, the decision was made to post the boys’ varsity position, something she said was the case for many — although not all — coaches at the school.
“I just started at Pioneer in July and am trying to figure things out,” Bacon explained. “So I’ve been meeting with a lot of people, and I think with the athletics program, just getting everyone on the same page, has been very important.”
After Hastings resigned, Bacon sent him an email asking him to contact current players and parents about his decision. Included was a draft of what she wanted him to put in the email, including the part about his decision coming in order for him to watch his sons play. Hastings said he was not comfortable sending that email out, since it was not the truth. Instead, he wrote his own email to parents and players expressing his gratitude for coaching the players over the years, and also acknowledging all of the accomplishments that the team had achieved.
It’s because of those accomplishments that Hastings has difficulty understanding why he has been under a microscope for the past three years. Pioneer Athletic Director Gina Johnson disagreed with Hastings’ opinion that he has been treated differently, and insisted that every coach is held to the same standards.
“We have the same expectations of our coaches as we do our teachers,” she said. “And my expectations of coaches are the same across the board.”
Hastings begged to differ. He points out requirements like having to hand out coaching evaluations to his players each year and to being forced to reapply annually for his job. In his mind, perhaps the most absurd requirement was documenting everything he did at practice and how long he did it. Other coaches at Pioneer said that they never had to do that, and other athletic directors in the area ridiculed at the idea. Johnson said she expected each coach to be able to meet the requirement if asked to do so.
“I’m not going to discuss what for each individual coach the expectation is, but my expectations are the same across the board,” Johnson said. “I ask all my coaches to do the same thing. When they walk into a practice, they need to have a plan. It’s unfair for me to say that I wouldn’t expect to be able to walk into a practice and have that coach be able to hand me their plan. Every coach has been asked to do that, yes.”
If Hastings was in fact being treated differently, the question becomes why, something he has asked himself for the past few years but couldn’t answer definitively. When Johnson was asked to explain, Bacon cut in.
“If you are asking us what are the facts in terms of if there is any different treatment of coaches, I think Gina has answered that,” she said. “The expectations are the same for all our coaches.”
So, then, why did Hastings have to go through hoops other coaches did not, such as reapplying for his job annually? Bacon said that many coaches at the school had to reapply this year but she refused to explain how decisions were made as to who did and who didn’t.
“Those are internal decisions about what’s going on in the school,” Bacon said. “I’m new and I don’t know everybody.”
Bacon and Johnson said they were unable to answer any questions regarding player or parent complaints, although Hastings said he has not had any issues other than one mother upset that her son was not chosen captain. He also handed over a stack of emails from current and former players who wished him well and were shocked to see him leaving. He pointed to a stack of coaching evaluations done anonymously by players (some did reveal their names) last season and not one had a complaint.
Hastings also received the most-recent team evaluation done annually by Johnson and the harshest criticism was that the athletic director did not see the annual growth and improvement she desired. Hastings didn’t accept that complaint and showed numbers from each of the past five years to counter it. Not only did the team see its win totals rise from five in 2010-11 to 16 in 2015-16, but the number of field goals made, 3-pointers made, free throws made and total points displayed an upward trend.
“I think our record and the individual statistics were always improving, and yet I always had to be mindful that I was under the microscope,” Hastings said. “The athletic director was always breathing down my neck …”
One other possible point of contention was how he handled his son, Brad, over the past three years. Brad Hastings wound up scoring the most points in western Mass. last season, and was third in the state, according to Hastings. At one point, Hastings was on the receiving end of criticism in the form of someone writing “Ball Hog Hastings” on an inspirational sign hung in the locker room. Other coaches in the Hampshire League were anonymously asked their thoughts about how Coach Hastings handled his son and the consensus was that Brad Hastings was not a ball hog, but that he had the pedigree to take and make big shots, and regardless of who he played for, he would have been a go-to scorer.
So what does Hastings think precipitated this treatment he views as unfair?
“I believe Gina Johnson just didn’t like me,” he said. “I’ve said that to her. I said, ‘You just don’t like me, you just don’t like my family.’”
Whatever the reason, Hastings is gone and has already accepted a job as a Keene State College assistant.
Calls to the Pioneer superintendent’s office on Monday afternoon were not returned.
Former Pioneer football coach Glenn Wilson, who resigned following the 2014 season due to his own issues with administration, weighed in on his former colleague Hastings’ situation. Wilson himself battled different administrators, former principal Bill Wehrli and vice principal Mike Duprey, as well as Johnson.
Like Hastings, Wilson said that he felt like he was being micro-managed at all times and had to answer for everything he did. He said that, once, the parents at the school continued a yearly tradition of buying hooded sweatshirts for the student athletes and that he was called onto the carpet for that tradition because he did not get it approved by administration. He explained that it was parent driven, and he did not know he needed administrative approval. He also said that he gave out paw stickers for players to put on their helmets.
“We gave them out for doing great things in the community, classroom and, lastly, on the football field,” Wilson said. “I really believe that community and classroom come first. I was told to take them off with the reason being the “no child left behind” thought process. I told them that I would never embarrass any student athlete but thought players should be recognized for doing great things in the community and classroom.”
Wilson also said that in his final year coaching at Pioneer, the players asked him to try and get a home night game, so he went to to the administration for approval. He was told there were three conditions: no postseason soccer games at the school, borrowing portable uprights from NMH, and getting approval from an opposing team. Wilson met the conditions and had McCann Tech scheduled to play at night, but says when he returned to the administration for final approval, he was informed by the officials that they had changed their collective mind.
“My reasons for resigning were that it just wasn’t enjoyable to coach football at Pioneer anymore,” Wilson said. “It seemed as though I was being brought into the office on a frequent basis for situations that were very unclear to me. After the situation with the night game I sat down and thought long and hard. I enjoyed coaching student-athletes at Pioneer but the administration took the fun away from it.”
Like Hastings, it did not take long for Wilson to find work. He is now in his second year as a Greenfield High School football assistant.
“I am very happy where I am and with the administration in Greenfield,” he explained. “They are very professional and I very much enjoy working with the coaching staff, student athletes and parents in Greenfield. They have really welcomed me here.”
Jason Butynski is a Greenfield native and Recorder sportswriter. His email address is jbutynski@recorder.com. Like him on Facebook and leave your feedback at www.facebook.com/jaybutynski.