The Bronco girls basketball team is still without an assistant coach for the upcoming season after the Falls School Board Monday agreed to remove a recommendation to rehire Jay Boyle from the agenda.
On a 5-1 vote, with board member Mike Holden voting no, the board agreed to remove from its agenda the recommendation to rehire Boyle for the position because another applicant wasn’t given an interview. The position will be reposted with interviews to follow.
“It has been brought to my attention that there was another applicant,” board member Will Kostiuk said.
Holden said he understood that application was turned in after the deadline, but Kostiuk said he was told by the applicant that it was turned in on time.
“I think it would be fair to give (the applicant) a chance to interview,” Kostiuk continued. “If he delivered it and it was lost...to be fair, why not interview him?”
When contacted by Journal staff last week, athletic director Kevin Grover said no other applicants had applied for the assistant coaching position.
The original recommendation to rehire Boyle as the Bronco girls assistant basketball coach was tabled by the board three months ago when concern was raised regarding the number of times teachers are absent from the classroom to coach
Boyle, who is a math teacher at Falls High School, has been coaching all three seasons during the school year as the head football coach, assistant girls basketball coach and an assistant track and field coach.
A committee made up of three board members and school administrators was formed to look into the concern about teachers being out of the classroom to coach and substitutes having to fill in for them.
Board members voted in June to rehire Shawn Gilbert as the head girls basketball coach when they held off making a decision on the assistant coaching position, which was then posted for anyone to apply.
During open forum, Tammy Sullivan spoke in support of rehiring Boyle, although she never mentioned him by name.
“I’m disappointed it has been taken off the agenda,” Sullivan said of the board’s action.
Sullivan said “the junior varsity coach” showed dedication and love of the sport and “during the off season, spends hundreds of hours of his own time in the gym, practicing and teaching these girls to compete at the next level.”
“He travels twice a week...taking our kids to improve their game and their unity as a team,” she said. “I believe this coach is dedicated and is tough...if you ask his girls, they want to play for him, my daughter included.”
Kayla Gilbert agreed.
Also during open forum, she said there wasn’t a lot of interest in the coaching position, and that several factors may contribute to why some people are unable to coach.
“I understand the problem with teachers being out of the classroom,” she continued. “I know of at least of a handful of teachers who coached every season available.”
As a teacher, Gilbert said one of the first questions she was asked when being interviewed was if she was willing to be a coach.
“Jay has a willingness to volunteer on his own time and own pay,” she said. “A teacher doesn’t just teach...but he has the technology and the know how to record himself teaching first hour and a substitute can just push a button and it’ll be like he’s giving the lecture.”
