The below is a comment left on a previous Unit 5 story. It states clearly what questions need to be answered. A reader posted the picture in a comment yesterday.
I have been following this story in the media for the past almost month now, and have been reading the many stories and comments that have been left across the 3 medias that have been posting stories on this concern. The school board and a few others want you to believe that it is somehow related to funds that were paid to the coaches. Us that are awake and can read between the lines feel it is related to other things.
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What we do know is that the older quarterback walked off the team on Monday Oct 30, 2017 which was the following Monday after West had just won a home playoff game. Why, when there was still another playoff game to be played the following week? You just don’t quit in the middle of a season for no reason, more so during the playoffs, unless you are pouting about something.
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The picture on WGLT website for the parents waiting to meet with the school board for the closed-door session clearly shows 2 set of parents waiting for this meeting to take place to discuss “a prominent national issue faced in schools needed to be addressed”. In this picture you can clearly recognize that the one set of the parents are the parents of the older quarterback who had walked off the team so abruptly during the playoffs, leaving his team hanging, and being selfish and only thinking about himself.
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Now my question is, and granted I am not as smart as the school board and why I must ask these question…..but if all this is related to the coaches being paid, as the school board would like everyone to believe, then why was the older quarterbacks parents who quit the team at this closed door meeting? He had chosen to quit and was no longer a part of the football team. So, why would the parents of a player who quit need to address the school board at all, or about the football program? If all this is related to coaches getting paid, then why quit the team at all? How does them getting paid to coach and help you, upset you enough to quit on your team? After all the season had started back in April/May for most, and apparently the older quarterback didn’t have any issues to quit back then. Why quit during the highlight of any High School athletes glory time of being in the playoffs?
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The older quarterback quits during the playoffs, his parents are at a closed-door meeting with the school board shortly thereafter, and then the coach resigns……. I’m really having a hard time grasping what the school board wants everyone to believe…….
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Now I pride myself on being a fact-based judgement person. I don’t judge until I know that the facts, and I don’t jump to conclusions. I also believe that if someone has done something wrong, then suck it up, learn from it, deal with the consequences and move on. The problem that I am having with this story, is the facts are not supporting the outcome so far, and I hate escape goat situations, which is what this is feeling like. Our justice system is supposed to be based on the facts, not the allegations. In this situation it seems as thought that to be not true, and the outcome has been based on the allegations and not the facts, and possibly the wrong people are paying the price.
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Listed below are what has been discovered so far as facts to this story. As of right now these facts outweigh the theory, and do not support or justify the recent outcome.
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1. The older quarterback didn’t receive much playing time in the first playoff game on Oct 28, 2017. (Which made sense, because after all, you want to increase your chance of winning by putting the better of each position on the field during the playoffs.)
2. The older quarterback then quit the team the following Monday Oct 30, 2017, right before the team was to play in the second round of the playoffs on Nov 4, 2017.
3. His parents are at a CLOSED-door school board meeting shortly after the season had ended.
4. The older quarterback has one more year of eligibility left to play football in high school at West
5. Coach Hess abruptly resigns after this closed-door meeting, even though he had just finished having a winning season, matching the farthest in the playoffs that West has been able to reach. With an even more promising season as a team ahead of him. In other words, his resignation was not performance based.
6. The numbers of parents at the OPEN-door meeting to support Coach Hess outweigh the number of parents at the CLOSED-door meeting by 15 to 1. That’s 1500%. Pictures that have been posted will support this.
7. The statements made at the open-door meeting have been posted and available for anyone in the public to see.
8. Nothing from or about the closed-door meeting has been made available for anyone to see.
9. The school board has only offer up allegations of wrong doing as the justification behind the resignation of the coach. Not one fact or piece of evidence has been presented to support these allegations.
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Like I stated at the beginning of this post, I am not as educated as the members of the school board, so I am not saying that I am right in my judgement, but I do know how to read facts and come to a practical conclusion, and I am social savvy enough to read between the lines, for what is not being told. As of right now I feel that the public is being miss-guide by the school board, and at a 15-1 ratio feel like the majority deserves the answers that the 1 already is aware of…..
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Maybe just got tired of being accused a of foul play through being a winning coach?
I know I’d get sick of it off I had somewhere else to go or do.
Is this fact or bullying the coach?
Diane, Please repost the criminal records of the individuals in the above picture, so everybody can know what “Solid Citizens” the School Board chose to grace with a private, SECRET meeting.
I don’t know the names! Send me the info.
In fairness, please add “some of” between “records of” and “the individuals” in my previous post.
Is that really necessary? How is that going to help the situation?
Supposedly News Happening guy has a massive file on one of them he said is not good. 1000 pages he said
A player that saw limited playing time during a State playoff game, immediately quits the team, after the team had just won the playoff game and had another game the next week. The parents of said player then attend a close door meeting with the school board. The player’s coach then resigns after this meeting had occurred. To the public this smells like revenge and entitlement was being sought out, and the school board handed it to them. This will deeply impact the public’s view, trust, and respect of this school board. and this will be the perception by the public of this situation going forward and always, until the school board can show that it wasn’t about revenge and entitlement.
When the kid quit the team, that should have been it. Quitters never win.
That pretty much sums it up
Whoever took that photo two months ago probably had no idea how important it suddenly has become!. He or she gets a photo journalist award for picture of the year. Priceless!
Diane – have you tried to interview the coach to ask him directly why he resigned? And have you approached the IHSA to inquire what their policy is on paying assistant coaches? If the IHSA won’t let schools recruit players outside of their District boundaries, then why would they let schools hire assistant coaches? You are not going to get top-notch talent to work on the sidelines for free or as a volunteer. I think to keep things on a level playing field, their rules allow a school to pay a faculty member to coach, but not volunteers. So if this was a big no no, then the coach may have elected to resign as to not have to face sanctions by the IHSA. In my opinion, I’d rather go out with my reputation intact than have my name muddied by inappropriate use of school booster funds that got my program in trouble. Whether this all began with parent complaints or not, if there is any credence to the school having broken or been in violation of IHSA rules, then the coach stepping down may have negated any further action against the school or the football program.
I know somebody trying to talk to the coach. I have a copy of IHSA rules. Will advise later
Diane, you are just trying to stir the pot here. This is a non story. Seasons are long…a bunch of stuff piles up and then can be addressed at the end of the season. Quit gossiping and pointing fingers. The coach quit. /story
Since my mom doesn’t know how to use the internet, should I file impersonation charges?
Your Mom says- you are wrong and misinformed on so many levels. Thank God Diane is hammering away on this. This is a serious wrong that needs righted.
Has anyone looked into going over the school boards head? What the regional superintendent do?. I was told his office has the authority to remove board members. I would think the illegal secret meeting could warrant his involvement. Just a thought perhaps. Might be worth looking into since we seem to be having transparency issues.
Read the corrections to the story, it wasn’t illegal, just looks unethical to hold a private meeting
What exactly is this “ prominent national issue faced in schools needed to be addressed”. that had to be discussed by Mr. Cobb, Mr. Worthman, and Mr.Lewis in a closed-door meeting with the school board? If this is indeed a “prominent national issue” wouldn’t it have been better served in a open public forum? Just saying, there seems to be a lot of dancing around going on, where facts and truths are not on the same page…..
You stated above “a player saw limited playing time during the State playoffs”.
Without a doubt, this situation had NOTHING to do with playing time. Playing time was sooo far down the list, it is laughable. But since you and others keep bringing up playing time. How does this compute to you? The older player saw not limited, but NO PLAYING TIME during the playoffs. The older player has STARTED AND HELPED WIN many regular season games on a State Ranked football team. The older player has STARTED in half of the games this year on a State Ranked football team but has not play one single second in the playoffs this year. Look it up.
As a matter of fact, the older player has played for 3 years and has STARTED AND HELPED WIN many regular season games but has not play ONE SINGLE SECOND in a playoff game EVER. Not one second EVER. This player has been on the football team for 3 years and there are no State records that this player has spend ONE SINGLE SECOND in a football playoff game EVER. Look it up! That sounds pretty willful to me. That is not even the tip of the iceberg.
People here are so hellbent on revenge and “exposing the bully parents”, they can’t see the forest for the trees. You keep talking about “bully parents” as though they CONTROL the actions of school board members. If there was something that parents brought to the school board, the board members still have the power to act or not to act on that evidence. The head coach is the leader of the coaching staff and the team. If something happened, it was compelling enough to get the school board’s attention. If something happened, it was compelling enough to lead to the resignation of a 15 year coach that, by all accounts, lead a successful team.
A 15 year successful coach has a lot of power when there is no wrongdoing. When there is wrongdoing…… One would think that something had to be serious to take down a coach in that position. One would think that something had to be serious for that successful coach to not put up much of a fight. Maybe its because something DID happen and the coach knows that he can’t defend it. Maybe its because something DID happen and the school board knows that they can’t defend it. The IHSA is CHOOSING not to investigate. Maybe its because something DID happen and the IHSA knows that they can’t defend it. Keep in mind that the coach, the school board and the IHSA all have far more evidence than any of you and they are all making decisions off of that evidence, hard evidence. The sad thing here is so many people want to shoot the messenger (the parents) for something that may have occur due to the actions of the coach and/or coaching staff.
Never playing in the playoffs even though Normal West has played in multiple playoff games over the years isn’t even the real problem. No one is going to quit a team after 3 years because they are “pouting”, as someone said earlier. If something else happened, those things are real and PROVABLE. The school board, the coach and the IHSA all know it
We now have two choices here.
Choice 1 – Coach Hess not coach the team with his legacy intact.
Choice 2 – Coach Hess not coach the team with a tarnished reputation.
I make the comparison below only as it relates to the fact that there were scandals and NOT drawing comparisons to the nature of the scandals as they relate to coach Hess. I would bet that Rick Patino would have preferred to leave his position with his reputation untarnished. I would bet that Joe Paterno would have preferred to leave his position with his reputation untarnished. I would also bet that coach Hess would preferred to leave his position with his reputation untarnished. This is probably the reason that he is not putting up a fight.
The younger QB’s dad spoke passionately at the board meeting. He stated at the mic in front of the school board his preferred replacement for coach Hess. Some support for coach Hess. At a board meeting filled with people there to support coach Hess, he abandoned ship.
There probably is compelling evidence that if brought to light will surely tarnish the coach’s legacy. People here can continue to character assassinate “bully parents”. Many of these people will NEVER believe that ANYTHING occurred no matter the evidence. To the school board, the coach, the parents, and the IHSA, the evidence that they have, and you don’t, stands on its own.
You wrote a lot of words with out saying much of anything.
You sound like you KNOW things, if so please enlighten us all. Otherwise;
You stated “Without a doubt, this situation had NOTHING to do with playing time. Playing time was sooo far down the list, it is laughable” —-how do you know this? this DAD was very vocal about his kids playing time. Once he knew his kid was going share the QB position, he began complaining to everyone, making threats, making accusations and so on. If he didn’t care about playing time why was he so hostile before the season even began? The DAD began complaining about PLAYING TIME FIRST THEN came the racist accusations to make an excuse for why he wasn’t THE STARTER. He couldn’t face the music that his kids just NOT that good. Had the dad not immediatey started accusing coaches of racism, his kids may not have seen the field at all. The coaches gave him a gift of playing time because of his dads CONTINUAL threats and allegations… They TRIED to keep snowflake happy. You claim playing time was not an issue (not sure how you KNOW this) but man you really tried to get a point across in your post. lol
Regular season play, lets be real, the kid received more playing time than deserved BECAUSE his dad made those threats and continued to make those threats. As far as state playoff games, he wasn’t good enough to play in a playoff game for all 3 years. so what? The coaches evaluated the players throughout the season and playoffs is when you put the best players on the field. He wasn’t the best (obviously for NONE of the 3 years). Someone else posted the stats, he was NEGATIVE in rushing yards for the season. Which tells me he played too much during the regular season anyway.
POWER- Yup the school board can act or not act, however when they are threatened with the ACLU and racism, even with NO HARD evidence, NO school wants the black eye or media attention from that. It’s easier to make it just go away…AND these parents are well aware of this.
You say no one quits because they are pouting…. SO you seem to know so much. What happened at that last game that was so real and provable that he would quit??? Maybe the FIRST TIME of the season that he didn’t get to play? And they WON WITHOUT him! Yup, that was REAL and PROVABLE!
IHSA-NEVER investigated because there is NOTHING to investigate. IF there were something to investigate, THEY WOULD! Dr. Daniel Lied to the public on Wednesday saying they were investigating…. THIS is part of the problem with UNIT 5, they are not trustworthy. This has raised a red flag for many. MY POINT anything you said about IHSA NOT Facts…
Most people at the board meeting spoke on behalf of Coach HESS, asked for answers and meeting minutes to be released, but everyone knows UNIT 5 is hiding something so parents wanted to stress moving forward and keeping the program intact. Lets be honest, Coach Hess probably doesn’t want to come back and everyone realizes that. He is tired of being interrogated and having bully parents make FALSE accusations because snowflake didn’t play or didn’t play AS much as they THOUGHT he deserved. To the community, it’s about the board being HONEST and transparent.
IF there is compelling evidence then the board needs to come out with it. AND you are right, parents won’t believe NON compelling evidence. People can make up and say anything they want so THAT is NOT compelling. AND due to the character of some of these parents it would have to be pretty compelling because people are NOT stupid and realize the parents are NOT trust worthy. And just to be clear its NOT character assassination on “bully parents” , it is the FACTS about their character.
How many runningback were there on Normal West’s football team? Who evaluates a quarterback based on his rushing yards? That’s like saying that Tim Tebow is a better QB than Tom Brady because Tebow is a better rusher. Most people would find that laughable. Quarterbacks throw the ball down field. Quarterbacks move the ball down field. Normal West won a lot of big games and had a number of touchdowns with the older QB behind center. I would think that that would be impossible with a QB that’s just NOT that good. You mentioned the last game. The Providence Catholic game had pretty bad QB play and was a blowout. The ball didn’t move down field.
People’s minds are make up and no evidence is going to be compelling enough PERIOD. Their minds are set and they figure that if they can just say “bully parents” enough time, someone in power will listen.
This sounds like some one trying to run interference for the 3 bullies. This started over some crybaby’s playing time and his dad and has escalated into all kinds of garbage. There was no scandal ever. Had that kid become clear cut starter for the season this would not have happened. Plain and simple. As for character assassination on the 3 troublemakers, I would say that’s what you get when you make false claims and start character attacks on people. Also, as for the 3 parents, that’s what you call serious character issues. 2 with criminal records that are very disturbing. Where was the national issue before the season started? Maybe people just want the real story. If you have some HARD EVIDENCE lets hear it. Somehow I doubt it though. The reality is the bully parents (and gaag poop) are trying to go into full spin mode to deflect from what they have started.
What does a parent’s criminal record have to do with a coach’s actions? Most people are smart enough to know that the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Also, most people are smart enough to know that we are talking about the actions of a coach and/or a coaching staff.
Evidence is for the people who would view it objectively. You have shown yourself to be someone that is not in that category. Your mind is made up. Any evidence would just be background noise to you and immediately fall on deaf ears. You are not here to “find the truth”. Your agenda is very clear. Tell me this, why are the people with the most power (the school board and the IHSA) not siding with your position? I’ll give you a hint, it has nothing to do with bully parents and playing time.
Poop is laughable. Poop has shown their character, their mind is made up also with NO proof either. They seem to KNOW so much but when asked to enlighten us…. NOTHING! HA. Glad to see others see exactly what poop is doing…… Pathetic interference….SPIN.SPIN.SPIN.
So….. if playing time wasn’t an issue why did the older qb’s daddy wait until after he quit to go to the meeting and complain (aka claim racism). No racism during the season? Or just not at all so you had to make something else up? No complaints to the school board until the 2nd string qb quit (on his team during the playoffs, that’s the definition of a loser not a winner and losers don’t get playing time during the playoffs). Just because you’re on the team for 3 years and the TEAM won several games doesn’t make you the best person for the job. If arm strength is close to equal (younger qb had a slightly better arm) and the younger qb moves better and is more athletic then he gets the starting job. It’s that simple. Stop trying convince people that this entire situation had nothing to do with a daddy who was upset his 2nd string qb wasnt getting the playing time he thought he should have. And who claims racism when the majority of the starters were not caucasian? Stop playing the race card when race isn’t an issue!!!
The powers that be can’t make a statement for fear of a lawsuit on what has transpired. You have no HARD EVIDENCE. Only a gray area IHSA rule that doesn’t explain any financial wrongdoing. This problem resulted from 3 parents playing the race card, plain and simple. I might agree that someone’s criminal record has nothing to do with the problems that have ensued. However, when you go after someone’s character, you better be prepared to take the heat in return. I’m sure the real story will get out and its not going to involve anything earth shattering. Its simply about an agenda for playing time and the supposed national issue was used to attempt to make the case look even better. Would you say that if the playing time wasn’t an issue would we be here discussing this. I doubt we would be. All 3 parents obviously had an axe to grind with the football program. There’s no other reasoning behind this. Haha Poop does sound like someone running interference to make the issue into some massive scandal. Its not. Its helicopter parenting gone bad. Really bad. That’s the story here.
In the last regular season game the older quarterback was 3 for 8, 37.5% completion rating, for 67 yards with1 interception that game. Let it be also noted that he led the team in fumbles with 5. Does this sound like numbers of a quarterback that you would want running the team in the playoffs? Like the old saying goes, you are only as good as your last game. Now you were right about one thing, he was part of a State ranked TEAM, and it took everyone down on that field to make it a State ranked Team….all of the coaches, all of the players, all of the medical staff. West wasn’t a State ranked team just because of the older quarterback being on the team. I’m not sure certain egos understand this. But I have to ask, was he playing for himself or playing for his team?
As a team player going into the playoffs, he was the #2 quarterback, just like all the other # 2’s and #3’s on the team, the kicker, the running backs, the line, etc….and they all were right there on the sideline cheering and supporting the team, and being ready for whenever the team needed them to go in.
This is how things differ for the older quarterback. He couldn’t or his parents couldn’t handle the fact that he was the #2 quarterback for the playoffs, that after he saw little playing time…which he did see some playing time, because he was still the place holder for extra points and field goals, he walked off the team after the first playoff win, leaving the team with not having their first backup available should the #1 quarterback had gotten an injury and couldn’t continue during next playoff game.
This is not the actions of a TEAM player. Does this sound like a team player to anyone? A player that respected his team? His coaches? or does still sounds like a me player, who thought he was the team, and knew more then the coaches?
Very very well said (The entire comment)!!!!
I would just add now that we are past football and baseball is on the horizon, watch that situation closely. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the National Issue come up again. There are already rumors circulating that one of the parents is already setting his sites on that too. Just saying. Get your popcorn ready!
What games did he win? Freshman and JV games don’t count in any record book. He didn’t have any varsity experience except some mop up duty last season. I’m pretty sure the position was an open competition going into this season. If that poor kid didnt play well I’d almost blame his dad for putting too much pressure on him to perform. Obvisously didn’t work out for him. Oh well, move on and do something else. Football doesn’t define your life. Focus on school and getting a job someday. Hopefully, he can get away from the helicoptering that has surrounded his life and be successful someday. Kind of a sad story really.