Crockett football team not allowed to practice, Coach Sensabaugh under fire

[workinprogress]

I'm an outsider looking in. From my perspective I don't know of any school system where an untenured teacher could make these types of distractions/grievances against the board in the way that he is doing it and keep his job.

Regardless of the validity of his thoughts, and I don't know the validity or to what degree, there is a right way and a professional way to communicate those thoughts.

Hoping for the best for the kids. Unfortunately they will be the ones to suffer from this mess.

[WaCoJaCo]

21 minutes ago, hardtackle said:

Thinking this guy was best for the football program. A non educator former NFL player and most know nothing about running a high school program.  He has proven that. That is what they asked for and got what they asked for.

What?

[BlueDevil58]

53 minutes ago, WaCoJaCo said:

I'll reserve judgement on whos right and who's wrong when the wash is done. As for the players, It was the school board that nixed their practice today. Even refusing to let them practice without the coach. That's clearly taking it out on the kids. 

The Director has stepped in and suspended GS, but cleared the team to practice without him with assistant coaches running the show tomorrow.

Now GS is going on Facebook and telling the team to refuse to practice or play because that would hurt his leverage.  He's posted that publicly.  He says if the players practice, that weakens his position and leverage.  He wants the players to quit and force Crockett to cancel the remainder of the season if he's fired because "that would take away their product" that they rely on to fund all sports besides basketball.

In the past couple of weeks, GS has ran off another assistant coach, one of several on the season.  The remaining assistant coaches on staff have been complaining to the principal and AD about GS treating them unprofessionally and literally shouting over them when they try to voice any concerns to him.  The team trainer has said that Sensabaugh was "bullying" him/her.  He's gotten the AD under investigation for missing money from GS's first (and I believe only) football fundraiser, which GS refused to actually do himself in the first place as most coaches would do.

[BlueDevil58]

27 minutes ago, workinprogress said:

I'm an outsider looking in. From my perspective I don't know of any school system where an untenured teacher could make these types of distractions/grievances against the board in the way that he is doing it and keep his job.

Regardless of the validity of his thoughts, and I don't know the validity or to what degree, there is a right way and a professional way to communicate those thoughts.

Hoping for the best for the kids. Unfortunately they will be the ones to suffer from this mess.

He's not a teacher.  He likes to point that out.  According to him, all the teachers are just stupid "yes men" who are too afraid to stand up for what's right and they need to be fired for being so terrible.  According to Sensabaugh, only he, millionaire former pro athlete, can stand up to those awful teachers, principals, and educators who have devoted their lives to working with kids because he doesn't need a paycheck.  When he wants "to make real money again," he'll leave and go coach college somewhere.  He's said that publicly.

If he wanted to really get change, there are plenty of ways he could have done that and been more productive.  He could have lead fundraisers to change things with his celebrity attached.  That would have been a slam dunk.  He could have waited until after the season and went to the school board directly.  He could now say that his own grievance with the board isn't more important than these young men and their team--but instead he wants them to throw away their season to support him... until he eventually quits and moves on, anyway.

Edited October 10, 2017 by BlueDevil58

[WaCoJaCo]

18 minutes ago, BlueDevil58 said:

He's not a teacher.  He likes to point that out.  According to him, all the teachers are just stupid "yes men" who are too afraid to stand up for what's right and they need to be fired for being so terrible.  According to Sensabaugh, only he, millionaire former pro athlete, can stand up to those awful teachers, principals, and educators who have devoted their lives to working with kids because he doesn't need a paycheck.  When he wants "to make real money again," he'll leave and go coach college somewhere.  He's said that publicly.

If he wanted to really get change, there are plenty of ways he could have done that and been more productive.  He could have lead fundraisers to change things with his celebrity attached.  That would have been a slam dunk.  He could have waited until after the season and went to the school board directly.  He could now say that his own grievance with the board isn't more important than these young men and their team--but instead he wants them to throw away their season to support him... until he eventually quits and moves on, anyway.

So how long have you been on the school board there in Washington Co. ?

[WaCoJaCo]

33 minutes ago, BlueDevil58 said:

The Director has stepped in and suspended GS, but cleared the team to practice without him with assistant coaches running the show tomorrow.

Now GS is going on Facebook and telling the team to refuse to practice or play because that would hurt his leverage.  He's posted that publicly.  He says if the players practice, that weakens his position and leverage.  He wants the players to quit and force Crockett to cancel the remainder of the season if he's fired because "that would take away their product" that they rely on to fund all sports besides basketball.

In the past couple of weeks, GS has ran off another assistant coach, one of several on the season.  The remaining assistant coaches on staff have been complaining to the principal and AD about GS treating them unprofessionally and literally shouting over them when they try to voice any concerns to him.  The team trainer has said that Sensabaugh was "bullying" him/her.  He's gotten the AD under investigation for missing money from GS's first (and I believe only) football fundraiser, which GS refused to actually do himself in the first place as most coaches would do.

You know I went to his facebook page and as of three minutes ago I didn't see anything about him telling the team to refuse to practice. Maybe I missed it. But by the looks of his facebook page looks like he has a lot of support. This is interesting. I can't figure out which side has bit off more than they can chew at this point.

[BlueDevil58]

5 minutes ago, WaCoJaCo said:

So how long have you been on the school board there in Washington Co. ?

Haha.  Exactly 0 days.  I don't work there, either.  But I know a bunch of people who teach and coach in Washington County.  They're good people.   They bust their tails with what they've got.  Then GS walks in with his millions and starts throwing them under the bus for doing what teachers and coaches in county systems have to do every day.  That got me fired up.

I'm just calling this like I see it.  It's depressing to see a community so riled up behind a guy who's feeding them BS and using kids to stroke his own ego.  That's all this really seems to be: a spoiled millionaire who's used to getting everything he wants is now throwing a bunch of working people (and kids) under the bus because he couldn't get his way on a bunch of petty stuff that had nothing to do with the job he was hired to do.  It's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in all my years of coaching and teaching in other systems.

It'll be interesting to see how much uglier this gets over the coming weeks.  He's trying hard to get his team to walk out in support of him and forfeit this week's game and maybe the season, even though they were (by his own admission on Facebook) recently passing around a petition amongst themselves to get him fired.

[BlueDevil58]

1 minute ago, WaCoJaCo said:

You know I went to his facebook page and as of three minutes ago I didn't see anything about him telling the team to refuse to practice. Maybe I missed it. But by the looks of his facebook page looks like he has a lot of support. This is interesting. I can't figure out which side has bit off more than they can chew at this point.

What he's doing is his usual garbage way of portraying himself as the hero while placing all the blame on the school.

From his own page, copied verbatim:

Practice or No Practice:

I just got a call from the Principal and she is going to read and give me a letter of reprimand tomorrow. So our team is able to practice but I am not allowed to attend. What????

This is a tactic used to see how strong your backing is (testing your true support). They are putting the kids in the middle to make a decision. They are pretty much putting me on leave but from my understanding wanting to see how many of the players and coaches will support. This is the beginning of crunch time. 

From my perspective this can go only 2 ways. 

1. The kids don’t show up and they are threatened with not having a product to sell, that would pretty much supports all of sports except basketball (They can’t be planning on forfeiting games). In return they tell me I can come back. 

2. The kids show up and practice and my fight for change becomes diluted because they still have a product to sell, at that time they won’t need me back as long as the kids will still play. 

I’m sharing this with you guys so you know why some coaches resign when fighting against a school system, they will use the kids to see if they have leverage or not (protests and lockouts become key). I know I have a lot of supporters, I just hate how they put the kids in the middle. 

Like I’ve always said to my team this isn’t about football for me, it’s about bringing change and a winning tradition. I know I aired out some dirty laundry that shook up some people but when I asked for support the answers have been that “Washington County just doesn’t have the funds”, forcing me to pay out of pocket for necessities for our team (in which I don’t mind doing). Please don’t hire the NFL guy for publicity but when he wants things or is concerned about major issues, sweep it under the rug. 

At some point in time the Old Generation needs to let go, better your community...

“Crunch Time”

“Either I have the support, or I don’t”

“At the end of the day, this team will always be family to me”.

[Bucsback]

7 hours ago, BlueDevil58 said:

The players are being barred from practice because it looks like GS has effectively gotten himself fired for insubordination after he was told to stop posting negative things about the school and system on Facebook to turn parents and the community against the teachers and county school board/administration.

GS has portrayed himself as a hero crusading for the kids throughout all this, and I think he means well, but the truth is that he's been going off half cocked about stuff he does not understand and even threatened on Facebook to blackmail the school on Friday.

Since he's gotten there, all he's done is condescend to everyone around him and demand that the school board do whatever he says, not understanding why they can't just snap their fingers and make it happen.  Let me give you a hint: it's not "just gold ol' boy politics," but a man like GS isn't used to being told "no."

So... some things GS has done on Facebook to get to this point:

***He demands the school system bus all JMS and JES kids to the new Boone's Creek School, effectively turning it into a feeder for Boone (which can't handle the 500+  kid freshman classes that would result and would require a new school built there) and effectively closing David Crockett down within a few years, all while leaving the Boone's Creek kids out in the cold in their own aging building.  Either that, or build a whole new school for JMS and JES immediately--which is actually in the works--but he's told parents those plans are just a lie when told of them.  They're not.

***He's demanded that Washingtonian County schools immediately stop using inmate labor, even though there is literally no money to pay for maintenance otherwise and that would take a ruling by the county commission.

***He's demanded that David Crockett's football stadium, which was just painted (with inmate labor) be condemned and replaced with a multi-million dollar facility including a new weightroom.

***He's alleged that any teacher who doesn't come out and publicly support him (and get fired) is a worthless "yes man" who hates kids and parents, putting everyone in his building under fire.  Then he threatened to "expose" people who had anonymously offered him support.  Throwing your supporters and teachers under the bus is not effective leadership for a coach.

***He blamed another faculty member for losing his first fundraising money (he's done very little fundraising) and got that person fired, even though as a coach it should be his responsibility to handle that instead of handing that duty to someone he doesn't know.  That's as much on him as anyone.  This was also on his Facebook.

***He's telling people that the new school the county is spending millions to build in Boone's Creek will be seized by Johnson City as soon as it's built, which is not legally possible.  Frankly, this showed me just how ill informed he is on the issues he claims to be raising "awareness" about.  He may mean well, but he's mostly just spreading BS and lies to get people worked up.

***Sensabaugh has complained very loudly about all the out of pocket expenses he's taken on as coach at D.C.  Welcome to public education!  Most of that is normal, and if he's handled his fundraising and not demanded charter buses for road games and things like that, he wouldn't have had to pay so much.  Again... he's blowing things out of proportion to draw attention to himself.

***On Friday; when the Principal and AD met privately with him to warn him to stop before he's fired (a meeting I only know about because GS posted about it on Facebook), Sensabaugh responded by alleging someone in the school offered him drugs one day (which he never reported before now, even though there is a police officer in the building) and said he was recording the conversation to use as blackmail.  He took this straight to Facebook, of course.

A petition is currently being circulated among the players asking that Sensabaugh be fired for the way he's treated them this season, including allegations of verbal abuse, public humiliation, and incompetence. The teachers at Crockett have few positive stories to tell about him, either.

This isn't about them not having a place to practice or anything like that.  This is about Sensabaugh being sent packing for insubordination and demanding the school system completely restructure itself and magically come up with millions of dollars to do so, then smearing the school system when they can't do this.  That kind of behavior would get anyone fired anywhere.

People see a "leader" here because that's how he's painted himself throughout this.  I see an ill-informed rich jackass who was hired to be a coach and now is trying to run the whole school system through indimidation and a media smear campaign, so he's getting the axe.  That is the opposite of leadership.

I tried to tell people and was told that I had sour grapes and I must have applied for the job. lol Seen and heard things with my own eyes and ears. Glad someone else see's the same thing.

[Bucsback]

5 hours ago, WaCoJaCo said:

All he needs is "most". He obviously has the support of "all" his players at this point. And that is gold. The "good ole boys" will win in the end but lose in the long run. 

It's the question of how he's getting that "support"! Is through scare tactic's, bullying, or paying their way into movies and promising them the moon? He had a WR with over 250 yards in receiving Friday and a QB with 6 TD's of course no one knows that because that isn't about him! You know he preaches it's all about his team. No not "all" are supporting him, that's why he is begging kids not to show up to practice tomorrow on FB and group text. He know's the writing is on the wall and trying to circle the wagons. I say, see you later. Go back to DB. Oh, they don't want him back. lol

[Bucsback]

Jason Witten donation helps Boys & Girls Club of Elizabethton/ Carter County start new reading program

This is how you help kids in the community!! Not tearing the community apart. I wish Jason would teach GS a thang or ten.

[WBNC83]

Bucsback, you're a Crockett fan, right? I seem to remember your posts when GS was hired. You weren't sold on the hire from the get go.