Mazziotta out as Salisbury girls basketball coach; feels he was unfairly "kicked to the curb"

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Monica Deeb, Salisbury High School's director of student activities, confirmed on Friday that Bob Mazziotta has been dismissed as the school's girls basketball coach.

Citing the district’s policy on personnel issues, Deeb wouldn’t disclose her reasons for ending Mazziotta’s tenure.

Salisbury was 12-13 under Mazziotta this season, 6-10 in the Colonial League, in a year in which the team lost starter and steady contributor Hailey Undercuffler to an injury.

The program qualified for the district tournament for the first time since 2004.

Mazziotta was 27-42 in three seasons overall.

In three preceding seasons before Mazziotta's arrival, however, the progam was 14-56.

“It is my job to evaluate each coach and each program after every season and I felt that it was in the best interests of Salisbury that we make a change,” Deeb said. "I can't say anything more than that other than I wish Bob well and that we have an opening and are accepting applications."

But Mazziotta, a veteran coach who has guided local teams at all levels since 1980, did not mince words.

He felt he was undermined by the parents of one player who said basically that either he goes or she would transfer to another school.

Mazziotta declined to name the player and said she was a "wonderful girl with a lot of talent."

He added that "anyone who followed our team to any degree will know who am I talking about and I am not blaming the player at all. She's a great kid."

His issue was with the parents, who he said had set out for nearly a year to get rid of him and who have designs on coaching the team themselves.

He also took issue with how the situation was handled by Deeb.

He said he wanted to speak out and make sure people know he did nothing wrong.

His worst mistake, he said, was getting excited and accidently referring to his non-starters as "scrubs" during a game, which did get him in trouble with a few parents.

For the most part, however, Mazziotta said he and his coaching staff worked well with the girls and were making progress with a program that has struggled for many years.

"We went there with the idea of turning around a program that had been traditionally bad, and we were well on our way to doing that," Mazziotta said. "We were making strides. So, if the on-court stuff was moving in a successful direction, people are going to wonder -- why are you removing the coach? You replace him for another reason and people start speculating about that other reason. People are going to wonder 'What did he do?'

"I want to clarify and assert that I did nothing wrong. The reason I was let go -- and I can prove this with a year's worth of e-mails and other communications with [Deeb] -- is that the parents of one girl on our team wanted me gone and they used their daughter as a bargaining chip. They threatened to transfer her to another school if I remained the coach, even though PIAA rules still state you're not supposed to transfer for athletic reasons. It's a rule that seems to have no teeth nowadays, but it's still there."

Mazziotta said that Deeb's reasons for his ouster were things such as yelling too much at officials -- although he said he received just one technical in three years -- and not doing enough teaching. He said those reasons were basically contrived.

"She had problems with my brother, Mark, who was our JV coach, but I told her that Mark wouldn't be back," Mazziotta said. "She also said we lacked structure, which is something she got directly from the parents who are involved here."

Mazziotta said that before he learned of his dismissal, which came on March 22, he learned of a meeting between the parents, Deeb and acting principal Ken Parliman.

He said he also asked the player directly -- "If I return as coach, will you be here next year as well? And she looked me straight in the eye and said 'No coach, my parents will transfer me' and I believed her whole-heartedly."

Mazziotta, 62, said that he has no interest in coaching a high school team ever again.

"High school sports are now tainted and run by the wrong people," Mazziotta said.

"Parents feel they have so much license and so much of an entitlement to pick and choose coaches, and they can make all kinds of accusations," he said. "Parents only care about what happens for four years and then they're gone. I've told them at parent meetings that their whole perspective on what they're watching is based solely on their child. My perspective as a coach and the perspective of our staff is based on ALL of the kids and the entire program.

"Most parents only care about what their kid can get out of it and how much bragging they can do in the grocery line and it's because of people like [Deeb] that it's allowed to happen. I worked for six athletic directors and the other five I worked for backed their coaches."

Mazziotta said that he was proud of the job he did at Salisbury and he expects that whomever coaches the team next year -- and he said it could very well be the parents who caused his ouster -- will have great success.

"I won't root against the kids and I am not going to worry about who gets the credit," Mazziotta said. "I'm done with this nonsense. I've coached my last high school team.

"But I've been in this business for 37 years and coached at all levels from little-league kids to college men. Everywhere we went, I did my best and we were successful with programs that no one else wanted to touch. And I just don't want to go out with anyone thinking I didn't do my job or that I did something wrong. I dedicated myself to these kids and I wanted to see it through.

"I hesitated to come back this year already because I could see what was going on and how it was being handled and I thought push might come to shove and it did -- and I got shoved and kicked to the curb. These parents got their way and they will be the next head coaches because anything else is not good enough for them."

Prior to coming to Salisbury, Mazziotta coached the girls at Northwestern Lehigh from 1980-85, the Notre Dame boys from 1985-90 and the Lehigh Carbon Community College men’s team from 1997-2005. He was also an assistant coach at Northwestern for several seasons.