Byronhasfleas

This whole saga has become very, very sad. Just when you think the incidents have come to their negotiated and agreed-upon end by the supposed "adults in the room" (the institutions of MBA and TSSAA) then you turn around and find further efforts by Daniel McGugin and his circle to get the last word in an attempt to clear his muddied reputation - while at the same time getting in some jabs at the MBA administration for not educating him better about the do's and don'ts of common logic. The letter to a few of his former players seems like a contrite attempt at salvaging whatever influence he may have had with them when he was the coach of record at MBA (and that record now unfortunately officially stands at 0-51). It is fairly widely known both inside and outside the MBA community that there was not universal respect for him during his time as the coach - as evidenced by the significant number of reputable coach and player departures during his regime . There seems to be a pathological need for control - even now - in this sad story. Even last week when the news of the TSSAA sanctions & penalties were announced a former MBA student/athlete affected by the Era-of-Error communicated his frustration of the sanctions via a social media outlet in a brief sarcastic criticism of the former coach. The social media communication made its way to the McGugin circle and Daniel's twin brother Bill even sought to control this communication by directly contacting the former student/athlete to no doubt attempt to bully him into a retraction. To my knowledge, the former student/athlete did the right thing and did not respond to the spin-control attack. It's possible that this social media communication may have been motivation for Daniel to compose his letter to some of the former players. Back in mid-April 2011 when this whole mess began to hit the newswires the revelations were embarrassing enough to a staid and respected MBA institution. I think everyone in the entire MBA family has always wanted this set of unfortunate incidents to come to a rightful conclusion and then go away so that everyone can move forward. Unfortunately, just when you think that ending has happened so that the healing and moving forward can begin there is another last-word grab for control. Back in mid-April the newspaper quotes from coach McGugin were all about "there have been no violoations - and I have done nothing immoral or unethical". Now, we get a letter accepting the blame for the recruiting improprieties - but claiming innocence for resulting sanctions attributed to the financial aid improprieties. Since these are now known as direct violations of the TSSAA rules should we also accept that coach McGugin may have indeed done something immoral and/or unethical? Hiding behind the technicallity of disclaiming responsibility for the whole mess and the resulting vacating of the championships and wins because those were as a result of the financial aid improprieties (for which he had no responsibility?!) rings very hollow. I think we all know that the negotiated and agreed-upon sanctions were really a satisfactory compromise to punish the past - so that the current and future eligibility of athletic teams & athletes can be secured. It is a price that the young men from 2007 - 2011 will pay for the current and future young men of MBA. This whole mess would not have gotten to this point if it weren't for the disclosure of the initial recruiting violation and the $1500 cashier's check (which I understand the source of monies for that cashier's check is now known to have come from someone within the McGugin circle - of which knowledge was denied back in April). I believe MBA is ready to pay the price, clean-up and correct any of the shortcomings and to move forward. That really should be the end of the story. It has been sadly embarrassing enough to the MBA community. It's time for everyone to admit the mistakes of the entire 2007-2011 era, accept the punishment and move forward.

Did the City Paper article really have anything new in it? Seems that some old news is being dredged-up and that the TSSAA and MBA people are confident that the appropriate review/investigation has been conducted with full cooperation. I seriously doubt that there will be anything to come of it. In the meantime, we're still waiting for the former/deposed coach to burn-off the rest of his severance package and then take a new job with a school that needs a new leader of men! Did anyone ever confirm who the original "$1500 check" came from? Seems that would be easy enough to confirm from any investigation. Might it have come from someone within the family?

Let's just all take a deep breath, step back and look at this situation with an overall big-picture perspective. The recent events brought on by the former coach and the politically-charged decision by the headmaster to relieve the former coach of his position are a relatively small piece of the overall puzzle at MBA. If you look at what has happened at MBA over the past several years during Brad Gioia's tenure as the headmaster there have been a lot of impressive accomplishments. The school continuously excels in academic, athletic and extra-curricular activities on both a state and national level. Year in and year out there are more National Merit Finalists and Semi-Finalists than any other school in the state/region and the students are graduating and matriculating on to very strong universities to continue their educations. The fund-raising and capital & facility campaigns have been undisputed successes due to the far-reaching efforts under Gioia's leadership. The non-athletic endeavors are celebrated on equal grounds with the athletic accomplishments and many more young men are encouraged and challenged to stretch their minds, bodies and talents than just the football team. Just because the tail isn't allowed to wag the dog does not make for weak leadership. To the contrary, the good-of-the-all approach allows the young men to recognize their peers on equal footing regardless of their size, strength or athletic ability - and in the game of educating young men that seems to translate to good leadership. No matter how many poisonous and self-serving letters Barton Simmons writes to his friends and fellow alumni of the school in defense of his brother-in-law's character & honor and in attack of the the school and its headmaster it just adds to the sad & transparent saga of an erroding incestuous power-base that pretends to take the high-road while practicing the low-road of erroneous insults in order to try to hang-on to some level of control. The good of the many is thrown out the window in their attempts to satisfy the self-serving few. Move forward and accept that a bad situation will be made better by putting the football team in perspective and returning to providing the young men who attend MBA the platform to learn the life-lessons that they will gain the most from once they leave The Hill. There are more important things to learn than that the football tail can wag the overall experience dog at a place like MBA. The former coach, a brother-in-law alum who works for a high school football recruiting publication and the silliness of a pay-for-play scandal for a high-school athlete should be unfortunate afterthoughts that the MBA community should distance themselves from by moving forward and focusing on the future.

Undisclosed amount. Both sides lawyered-up and came up with an agreement to part ways. The final statements in the Tennessean were dripping with sweetness from both parties so that the saga can be brought to an end and both sides can move on.

Coach Pack has undoubtedly been approached - at least some informal feelers have been thrown his way. However, McGugin won't be suing MBA or the TSSAA. His lucrative private settlement to make everything go away will prohibit him from pursuing any further action. He's been paid handsomely to not try to burn the place down on his way out. Enough damage has been done.

The MBA opportunity is a great job for the right person. The school does have it's unique features that they would need to understand and embrace. However, the school attracts kids and fosters an environment where the boys understand they need to be disciplined and work hard. The talent and depth is always good and they have a chance to compete every year for championships. Great high school facilities and support add to the attractiveness. From the football team to the debate team, music, arts, academic challenges, etc. the desire to grow and be successful is strong throughout the school and that is contagious. If the right person can take advantage of all these features and not try to be bigger than the school or mission then they can add to the overall experience and be very successful for a long time. Coach Owen understood that and is pretty much the benchmark for these qualities.

There have been a few good posts on here lately that have struck at the heart of the matter regarding the dismisal of the football coach. His pattern of manipulation, dishonesty and vindictiveness towards the kids and families had reached a point where the evidence of a pay for play scenario was just the tipping-point incident that was needed to take the appropriate action that has been taken. The family at the center of the controversy is a good, solid family who did receive ill gotten gains by accepting the money - and their son is indeed a hard working, tough-minded young man. Unfortunately, there are a string of similar and real examples under the former coach's reign where the kids & families had been through unenjoyable experiences with the coach and had exercised their right to vote with their feet and not subject themselves to further tirades. There is a deafening silence that has been present over the past couple of weeks as the void of mass support by the former players coming to the support of the former coach was palpable. Except for the articulate message from the young Mr. Kay there hasn't been a real visible showing of support from many of the boys that toiled for him during his short stay at MBA. He just simply had not developed the kind of rapport with the boys that warranted the support. The MBA inside family knew of these examples and you can bet they weighed heavily in the politically charged decision to oust the coach. Kudos to the leadership for reaching the right decision. However, the timing and the communications process chosen by the leadership and the former coach have left a lot to be desired - they just simply could not control the message like they wanted to and it got real awkward on The Hill over the past 10+ days or so. In the end, after the lawyers postured & positioned themselves for both parties the right outcome was reached for the benefit of the kids and the school. A distasteful outcome in this whole mess seems to be the state of denial that the former coach and his MBA board member daddy & his cronies - seem to be in by insisting that it be publicly communicated that "he is a person of high integrity and morals". Give us a break....manipulation and dishonesty towards the boys, vindictiveness and control of anyone that disagreed with him, a sense of entitlement, the bag man for a pay for play soap-opera and other character flaws don't really add up to a person who claims to act with integrity and a True North moral compass. As for winning high school football games, with the depth of talent that MBA has every year - they don't have a ton of great players but they do have a lot more good players than most other teams - there are a lot of people who could take these kids and win 40+ games. It's time to move on, select the new coach who hopefully will do a better job of keeping the proper things in perspective for young people and remember that this is high school football we're talking about here.

Violation in appearance & perception - definitely YES! - and reason enough to take action on if Honor is of importance at an institution molding young people. Violation by the interpreted letter of the ruling - Probably - it depends on how you spin the description of what/how it happened. What I don't hear anybody saying is that it did not happen! Sorry, but family (brothers-in-law included) doesn't hold a lot of weight when it comes to defending honor and character in this case. Also, I don't know the gentleman that is referenced as the big money person at MBA but it was a low-blow to drag his name into it. Amazing to think that this is the first time that someone with money has tried to voice their opinion by voting with their pocketbook at MBA!