MBA Headmaster Brad Gioia Resigning?

[InItToWin]

Rumor mill working overtime today. Heard MBA Headmaster Brad Gioia is preparing to submit his resignation and hasn't been seen on campus for two days. Any truth to this????

[shakinthefat]

Rumor mill working overtime today. Heard MBA Headmaster Brad Gioia is preparing to submit his resignation and hasn't been seen on campus for two days. Any truth to this????

He was at the BA/MBA Baseball game on Thursday.

[MBAFAN08]

He was at the BA/MBA Baseball game on Thursday.

 

Big big movement to get him out. Never seen a guy more unpopular

 

Lots if chatter this week. Lets see what happens

[JohnJacob]

If Gioia had any sense he would resign. He would still be viewed as a top tier hire for another school in another state. His 17 year record at one school would be impressive to many.

 

MBA is too fractured for him to stay. It will never be the same for him and he should know this. The writing is on the wall. The only was to fix it is to re-build it and start by hiring a new headmaster. The problems at MBA go way beyond football. All of this can be repaired in time but not without new leadership.

 

MBA folks should not worry about spring practice, next fall, etc. If Gioia leaves then this will be the biggest hire they have had in the last 50 years. They need to take their time and get it right. If they get the right man, he will lure the right coach.

Edited May 8, 2011 by JohnJacob

[johnsmith1]

Johnjacob:

MBA folks should not worry about spring practice, next fall, etc. If Gioia leaves then this will be the biggest hire they have had in the last 50 years. They need to take their time and get it right. If they get the right man, he will lure the right coach.

 

 

I agree that gioa needs to resign. I do not agree that the MBA folks should not worry about spring practice, next fall, ect. That is crazy. MBA has contended for state championships while i went there, before i went there and after i went there, and they plan on doing that this year. In able for this team to be good, they need a coach soon. The coaching decison needs to be made, and then deal with the headmaster later. If all of this breaks apart the football coaching decision will be in the background while the headmaster spot is filled and in able for this team to be a state championship contender this year a coaching decison needs to be made.

Edited May 8, 2011 by johnsmith1

[JohnJacob321]

Is George McGugin still on the board at MBA? Do you think he is pushing Gioia out, so he can put his son back in as football coach?

[JohnJacob]

Love seeing another "Johnjacob" on the board. How original you are "Mr. 321". Of course we all know the song - "his name is my name too".

 

Back to my point - the last thing that needs to happen is to have Gioia hire a coach and then resign. His leaving would open the door to many coaches who would not consider it if he were still the headmaster.

 

Let's see.......maybe I should change my screen name to something real original. Like rollredroll2....or Kwoodruff55...yeah that has a nice ring to it.

 

Signed,

 

the real Johnjacob

Edited May 8, 2011 by JohnJacob

[KWoodroof]

A couple of thoughts here. I spoke with someone close enough to the situation to have a few facts, though football is not his big interest. There are apparently a lot of applications for the head coaching positions, though he didn't mention any names, or know of any front-runners.

 

We discussed Gioia (prior to this thread) and he indicated that he didn't see any imminent movement there. He felt it might be something the Board of Trust might look into in a few months when the dust settles a bit (assuming it does actually settle). I think if the Board were going to step in, it would more likely be private and work much like the resignation of Gordon Bondurant. A discussion with the board chairman led to his resignation announcelment in Aug '87, but effective 1 Jul '88. This would be a very awkward time to try to find a new headmaster in time for the next school year. While there is precedent for an interim headmaster (Dr. Drake for Mr. Carter in '78-'79), the presumption at that time was that Mr. Carter would recover and return to the school.

 

I have to agree with JohnJacob on this one. I think the Heamater's position is the most significant. In my day, the athletic tail never wagged the school dog. If the cost of trimming the dog's tail to get things back in order is a rough season this year, I'm good with that.

Edited May 8, 2011 by KWoodroof

[KWoodroof]

Love seeing another "Johnjacob" on the board. How original you are "Mr. 321". Of course we all know the song - "his name is my name too".

 

Back to my point - the last thing that needs to happen is to have Gioia hire a coach and then resign. His leaving would open the door to many coaches who would not consider it if he were still the headmaster.

 

Let's see.......maybe I should change my screen name to something real original. Like rollredroll2....or Kwoodruff55...yeah that has a nice ring to it.

 

Signed,

 

the real Johnjacob

If you're going to use my name, please assign it the number "74," my last number at MBA. I can's speak for RRR.

[cbg]

Could the following time line have anything to do with Brad Gioia's possible resignation:

 

A meeting at Hillwood Country Club that was attend by several athletic boosters, Brad Gioia, multiple Board of Trust Members & the former head football coach.

 

It was discussed that a family (football player) was having financial troubles & the hat was passed to collect a donation that would help the family

 

The monies were collected and a cashiers check was purchased (why purchase a cashiers check unless you are trying to hide something?)

 

The cashiers check was taken to Mr. Gioia and he was told that it was from the collection taken up at the Hillwood Country Club meeting. Mr. Gioia said that he should not receive the check and the check should be given to the head football coach and he would know what to do with the check.

 

The check was then given to the head football coach and he passed it along to the student/athlete and told him to give it to his father.

 

1. Is this time line of events true?

2. If it is true you have the head football coach, headmaster & several Board of Trust members directly involved

3. Should the pubic be naive enough to believe that this is only time an event like this has take place at MBA

4. If and only if the above mentioned events are true why would the TSSAA walkaway from this? Could it be the TSSAA is broke due to the Brentwood Academy legal case with the Supreme Court and does not have the funds to challenge MBA in a "high profile" public legal battle?

 

Let's all hope that I have received some very bad information and none of this is true!

Edited May 8, 2011 by cbg

[KWoodroof]

cbg,

 

We've both posted on this board for a good while, and I've always respected and ejoyed your posts, even if we disagreed. They're always well thought out and articulately expressed. I say that because I have a couple of questions, and I want it clear that they are genuine questions, not an argument or denial with a question mark at the end.

 

1) Is your source relating something he knows firsthand, does it come to him from someone who has firsthand knowledge, or is it speculative?

 

2) Is your source in a position that it's reasonable for him/her to come across this information?

 

3) What level of credibility would you assign your source?

 

Again, let me stress that I'm not arguing or disputing your information, just trying to evaluate the quality of your source. I underline this particular point becuase on more than one occasion, I've been unjustly accused of being sarcastic. As Lewis Grizzard said, "I resent the allegation, and I resent the alligator."

[Byronhasfleas]

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.