By Larry Fleming
When did the act of applying for a job become reason for dismissal-by-pressure from a group of influential Dalton High boosters?
Just who is running the Catamounts’ athletic program? Is it athletic director Ronnie McClurg and principal Debbie Freeman, or a six-person booster group?
Adam Winegarden deserves answers to those questions since he has been forced to ponder his future after serving eight years as an assistant — he was the Cats’ offensive coordinator from 2003-07 — and the last two seasons as head coach, compiling a 14-7 record with one state playoff appearance.
Multiple sources inside the Dalton athletic program, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say that if Winegarden should step down on Monday, which some term as a “high probability,” it will send a message throughout the school’s coaching fraternity that it’s not a good idea to seek a better-paying job for the benefit of a growing family.
In late January, Winegarden was one of three finalists to become head coach and athletic director — dual positions that would have paid him between $16,000 and $20,000 more than his current job at Dalton — at Perry High School. He chose to withdraw his name from consideration before the final selection was announced. According to those close to the situation, the day a story appeared in The Daily Citizen saying he had withdrawn his name for the Perry job, the group of boosters quickly started a campaign to pressure Winegarden into leaving the Cats and held a meeting with McClurg, Freeman and superintendent Jim Hawkins. The pressure against Winegarden has been building ever since.
McClurg, Freeman and Hawkins “are 1,000 percent” behind Winegarden, one current coach at Dalton said, and they “really want him to stay.” But Winegarden, the coach continued, is tired of what’s going on, thinks “it will never end, it will cause trouble in the community and be a cancer” on the program.
At this point, the coach said, Winegarden doesn’t believe it’s worth the fight to stay and, barring a change of heart, is likely to step down on Monday.
In the last week, Winegarden, who teaches special education, twice said he would “like to talk” in a few days and would telephone but has not done so.
It is the belief of some Dalton coaches that boosters are “trying to run (Winegarden) out of town, harassing him to the point that he doesn’t want to be here.”
One coach said it would be a “sad day” at Dalton if the 31-year-old Winegarden, the father of three children with his wife expecting a fourth, does indeed resign.
Another coach said the entire coaching family at Dalton is behind Winegarden “100 percent,” adding, “you can’t fault a guy for trying to advance his career and better provide for his family.”
It is, that coach said, an “unsettling time” at Dalton High.
A coach said losing the head football coach at a time when school officials are looking at cutting $6 million from the system’s operating budget — quite likely including some teaching positions — over the next two years is troubling. What if Winegarden remains as a teacher and the administration can’t find a coach with a teaching certificate that matches a vacancy on the faculty?
One coach thought that Hawkins could have “stopped this controversy” immediately by “declaring that Adam Winegarden is our coach and that’s it.”
That statement prompted a few more questions from the same coach:
• Why did (Hawkins) even listen to the group?
• Why have the meeting when Winegarden did nothing ethically, morally or legally wrong?
• What could the boosters have done had (Hawkins) elected not to meet with the them?
He promptly answered his last question: “Those boosters might have gotten mad, fussed and stomped around, but it would have sent a strong message that they weren’t going to dictate who is the head football coach.”
At Rome High School, head coach Sid Fritts in the last week interviewed — and later accepted — the job as head football coach and athletic director at Elbert County High in Elberton.
While still in the interview process, Rome City Schools superintendent Gayland Cooper said that if Fritts decided to take the Elbert County job the (Rome) school administration would work to help Fritts in any way it could.
“He’s a great guy and we want to help him,” Cooper told the Rome News-Tribune. He’s been a very good football coach and athletic director, and we’ve enjoyed our relationship. We would certainly wish he and his family the best if he does leave.”
Nothing prevented Hawkins from handling the Winegarden situation the same way.
None of the Dalton coaches contacted on Friday and Saturday felt the boosters “should get away with” what they’re doing to Winegarden, which they believe borders on “robbing him of pursuing a livelihood.”
But they understand Winegarden’s frustration.
“My dad,” one coach said, “used to say if you keep banging your head against the wall, take two steps back, slide to the right, move on and don’t look back.”
There appears to be concerns from administrators over “public perception” if Winegarden does announce his resignation on Monday.
“They don’t want the black eye,” one coach said. “Our eyes can’t get any blacker than they are right now.
“I hate what this is doing to Adam and his family because he doesn’t deserve this.”
Another coach said he couldn’t find fault in anything Winegarden has done, and this certainly isn’t the time to be “pointing fingers” at him.
“Advancement is the American way,” the coach said.
Except at Dalton High.
Larry Fleming is sports editor of The Daily Citizen
