Elk Rapids firing of their Football Coach leads to whom really has Power.

Written Sunday November 18th at 11:50 AM

What is going on with the football landscape and who should be the ones making athletic decisions to hire and fire people, the School Board or an Athletic Director.

All interesting questions.

What happened in Elk Rapids was the School Board along with the Principal, the Superintendent, and the Athletic Director fired Ed Schindler from a place he coached at for 11 years in October.

Despite outcries from the community the School Board offered Schindler his job back last week but Schindler decided that Elk Rapids was no longer a place to coach and declined. He said that his firing has hurt his family the most.

What makes this sad is that Schindler is the winningest coach they have had in Elk Rapids in 36 years (60 wins.) He was the Track coach there as well and has stepped down from that.

Schindler concluded his Elk Rapids coaching career with a 60-57 record in his 11 seasons, which included in his final two seasons in which his Elks teams went a combined 2-15. However the decision to let Schindler go wasn't about wins and losses.

Schindler will be an assistant next season at Frankfort but the damage from Elk Rapids has already been done.

Who has the Power to hire and fire coaches???

In most school districts across the State the School Board has the power to renew contracts to coaches along with other budgetary and school decisions made but there are those that give power to the Athletic Director because the School Board trust him or her with their decisions.

School Board members are elected by the voters in their respective school districts while the principal and Athletic Director are named by the Superintendent.

Now I understand that people complain about certain issues like playing time or other issues but when a person gets fired without cause like Schindler did then it opens up a new case of worms.

I know this topic will open up debate. Every School district is different when it comes to power structure and they do things differently but who should be making these decisions, that is up for debate.