Published: Dec. 19, 2013
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor
Speaking for West Bend East, Athletic Director Jeff Rondorf
warned the potential applicant for the vacant varsity football position about
what challenges lie ahead for a program that has lost 18 straight games.
A lot of the same sentiment can be said regarding the West
Bend West vacancy as well, with the Spartans having missed the playoffs for
three straight seasons.
“The new guy coming in is going to have to realize the
patience level is very low based on what’s happened the last couple of years,”
Rondorf said. “It’s going to be a tall task for anyone who’s coming in because
there’s not a lot of patience left.”
Rondorf and Stier addressed the football coaching vacancies
at their respective schools after Monday night’s open forum with the parents of
fall sports student-athletes.
“It’s going to take three to five years to establish a
program,” Stier said. “It’s after that time when you get things rolling and
start sustaining success. It’s only going to help our program.”
The vacancies came about when Scott Mindel resigned from
East shortly after a second straight winless season for the Suns in his only
two seasons as the head coach. Not long after Mindel’s resignation, Aaron
Paulin stepped down after five seasons as the Spartans’ coach.
Paulin led West to back-to-back playoff appearances in his
first two seasons, but were 6-20 in the following three seasons.
Mindel spent more than 20 years with the East program in a
variety of roles.
“I really think we have to establish consistency and
longevity,” Stier said. “When you turn over coaches, when coaches decide not to
coach, things like that, you start over in a lot of senses. You need to have
those coaches who are invested for a lengthy period of time and establish their
program.”
However, the question hovering over the East and West
football programs is how soon will this turn around?
Football is an important part of a high school because it is
often the big revenue sport and typically the one with the most participants.
“A lot of people feel football sets the tone for the school
year,” Rondorf said. “That way the other programs will benefit from having a
successful football program.”
East and West parents expressed passion in getting things
going for not only football, but for all sports in West Bend. However, the road
block appeared to be the unwillingness to make the commitment.
“It’s going to take a lot of support,” Rondorf said. “The
parents are going to have to be supportive of the individual.”
Stier said he wished school spirit was better, but losing
makes it tough to be celebratory.
Stier praised Paulin’s efforts to try and better the West
program, such as taking on a big role with the youth program and assisting the
studentathletes with their grades, when needed, with study hall sessions.
“Aaron Paulin did a heck of a job in a lot of areas, but he
decided for right now he’s going to step away,” Stier said. “He invested
countless hours at West to better the program and he did in a lot of areas. In
my mind that’s a success.”
But Paulin’s gone and that left at least one parent
wondering: Why?
Stier promised the parents that with the football position
and any other coaching position in the school’s athletic program, the best
applicant is hired.
There is belief from parents that’s not always true,
especially if the most qualified candidate is a teacher from another district.
With so many areas in education looking for ways to cut down costs, creating positions,
which mean more money spent, just to add a football coach makes that
possibility a challenge.
With that, a parent questioned whether the right applicant
is truly hired.
In Washington County, there have been four winless football
seasons since 2009. East has three of them and West has the other. East and
West also have the two worst records among the eight programs in the county.
“For every question in every group brought up the fact that
you need a dynamic leader in place,” Rondorf said. “You need someone that’s
going to lead the program. When you get that person in place, that strong
leadership, they felt the kids would be very responsive to that to working hard
and having quality workouts and not so much quantity workouts, to be able to
get the most out of his kids in the short time he has.”
“It’s going to be a tough job for the person that’s coming
in,” he added.
Rondorf said the likely candidate will probably come from
out of the district, one who can change the culture at East.
The same goes for West.
“The (hiring) committee is aware of the need to bring
somebody that can get this thing turned around in a relatively short period of
time,” Rondorf said. “It’s going to be a tough job for the person that’s coming
in.”
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