Tuba City football coach resigns amid controversial investigation

CHINLE

Last Friday, Tuba City High’s football coach Vincent Lee resigned “under duress” from his coaching position amidst an investigation involving him and a verbal encounter with a student’s parent.

“It’s a very difficult situation because it’s caused a lot of turmoil in the community,” Lee said. “It was never my intention to cause a lot of turmoil in the community with my intention to resign so that I could tell people what happened because there was a lot of misinformation being spread about me as a person, about my coaching style, and about how I handled the situation.”

A liability

According to Lee, on Aug. 1, he was training the football team on the field when he was told there was an athlete still in the weight room who didn’t want to train with the team that day. Since having an athlete alone in the weight room was a liability, he told the young man to come out. The young man responded agitatedly, prompting Lee to request that he leave. The young man then made inappropriate remarks about the team, ending with Lee insisting he go.

Afterward, he immediately informed the athletic director, who said they’ll take care of it, and then asked Lee to get statements from the witnesses (most of his coaching staff and some athletes). They then returned to practice.

A few minutes later, the young man’s mother arrived, came onto the field, and began verbally abusing the coaching staff and threatening to have Lee fired. Lee told her he wouldn’t talk to her on the field and asked her to leave, but she continued to yell at him.

After the parent left, Lee contacted the sports director and the school principal again and reported the incident, and again he was asked to retake statements. Afterward, they continued their practice.

Lee felt this was an “open and closed case,” with at least 20 witnesses seeing the angry outburst from the young man earlier and the uncivil conduct of the parent.

Instead, an investigation was opened. He was reassigned and no longer the team’s coach; he was also told not to interact with them, not to talk with faculty, enter the school or tell anyone about the incident.

Matter continues

Lee feels like the investigation should take a day or two to resolve as there were many witnesses to what happened. But instead, the matter continued, and he had yet to speak to anyone but his representative from human resources, who didn’t give him a time frame or a reason why the investigation was taking so long.

He then began to hear rumors of similar incidents happening to coaches in the past and that there was a possibility the investigation would remain open through the whole season, with him being left in a sort of limbo. There may be no reason for him to be fired, but he could be left on the sideline as a way to appease the angry parent.

Tuba City High Principal Raye Lynn McCabe said she couldn’t comment as it’s an ongoing investigation involving personnel and a student.

Personal attacks

Word of Lee’s predicament spread fast. Everywhere he went, he would run into an athlete, their parents, or friends who would ask him what happened, but he couldn’t tell them.

Lee felt his rights were being attacked and that he was being mistreated as the school district worked to appease the angry parent and not pay heed to what he had to say. He hadn’t heard anything from the administration handling the investigation and that the young man had since returned to the team.

More importantly, in his opinion, the investigation was hurting his team and coaches.

Because the team could be anxious about the uncertainty around the investigation, Lee believes the coaching staff isn’t being treated properly. The coaches had worked with the athletes all summer, giving their own time to work with the team and improve them. Lee is proud of his staff and encourages them to stay and support the athletes.

Finally, after being left in the dark with no further information or knowing what was happening with the case, Lee demanded to have the investigation concluded by Thursday, or he’d resign.

Because of this and wanting to be able to speak and defend himself, he resigned as football coach on Friday (Aug. 5) but is keeping his teaching position at the school.

Interim coach Scott Pulham will be leading the team.

“I’m confident in my coaching staff that’s still at the school, and I’m confident in these young men and women on this team, that they can still move forward and that they can still have a successful season; I absolutely believe in them,” Lee said. “I implore the community to support them during this time because this is not their fault. The stuff that’s going on is not their fault.

“And that’s the sad part in all of this, that these young men and women in this program have to suffer because there are parents out there that would rather see their wants and needs appeased for their children than to look at the overall good of the whole team,” he said.

Platform for petition

Since his resignation, an online petition had started, and as of Wednesday morning, 484 people signed to support Lee being reinstated as a coach. Meanwhile, the boy’s family who started the altercation has begun smearing Lee’s name, leaving the community scattered and uncertain.

Lee doesn’t want to take sides, wanting the community to unite as Tuba City’s first football game will happen later in the month, and the team needs the community’s support.

Lee said none of this should be happening. He’d be willing to talk to the boy and work with him, saying as a young man playing football, aggression and attitude can be expected, and he had worked with tough players before – it’s a part of the sport. He was thinking of letting the young man cool down and then talking to him again after a few days.

However, Lee said parents shouldn’t be coming out onto the field, yelling insults, and acting childish in front of the young athletes. He’ll accept constructive criticism but no yelling, threatening, or name calling.

Asking forgiveness

He asks the community to be forgiving and not hold the young man responsible, as he is still learning, and as this whole situation has been tough on Lee, he can imagine it being even more challenging for him.

“That’s the thing that I’m very disappointed about, my district not supporting me,” Lee said. “This parent constantly has the opportunity to meet with admin, and I haven’t even had my opportunity to meet with my admin to tell them how I feel, that my rights are being violated. And I’m actually looking at possibly filing a lawsuit against my district because the longer this investigation goes on, the more damage is done to my reputation, not only as a coach but as an educator.”

Should there be a positive outcome and he is offered the coaching position again, he is uncertain if he’ll take it. He loves football and cares about the team, but he isn’t sure if he wants to work with a school that won’t support him should a similar incident happen again.

A board meeting was held on Wednesday with Lee’s resignation on the agenda. A few parents told Lee that they intended to speak on his behalf.

“I would like to ask the community of Tuba City to show their support for this team for the coaching staff that is on there because they need it,” Lee said. “Regardless of what happens with me or this other family, that’s not important. If I don’t coach, I can live with that; I’m OK with that. But I can’t live with this team falling apart or not being supported by the community.”

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