Tyrone Wright has resigned after one season as Dieruff High School’s girls basketball coach, saying simply, “the parents were out of control.”
The Huskies went 4-18 overall, 2-12 in the Lehigh Valley Conference last winter.
However, the resignation was a surprise since Dieruff won four games and made it to the latter stages of the recent Stellar and SportsFest basketball tournaments.
“I would have loved to have continued what I started, but I felt that the parents were out of control,” Wright, a Dieruff graduate, said. “I tried to give back to the community from which I come. I wanted to be a blessing to the Dieruff community, but what I have to offer was resisted.”
Wright, who played for respected coaches Dick Schmidt and Terry German during his own playing career in the 1970s, said that the problems started the day he was hired in June of last year. The problem, he said, was that he wasn’t the choice of the parents.
“They wanted someone else to be the coach,” Wright said. “Most of them were unreasonable and unsupportive because I was not their candidate. The parents would not let me do my job because they knew I put the team first, and decided playing time based on attitude, hard work, and skill.
“I had to deal with the negative attitudes that the players gained from their parents. The players saw their parents mock, criticize, and disrespect me. So, why should the players obey, respect and listen to me?”
Dieruff athletic director Mel Riddick said he was aware of the strife between the parents and Wright, who was one of his first hires after getting the AD job on a full-time basis last summer.
“He and I had discussions, conversations about things,” Riddick said. “It blindsided me that he left because I thought we could work through these things. But yes, I was aware there was some difficulty between him and the parents. It's unfortunate.
“We thank him for his efforts and the time he put into the program. Things just didn't work out the way we hoped that they would. We have to do the best we can for the young ladies involved and move forward.”
Riddick said his goal was to get a replacement for Wright in place as soon as possible.
Wright has been a local basketball coach for several decades, beginning his career as an Allen assistant in 1989. He was Allen's head coach from 1998-2000 and then an assistant at Parkland before going to the college ranks and becoming the head women's coach at Lehigh-Carbon Community College and later the men's coach at Northampton Community College where he was 71-19 from 2006-09.
He was an assistant men's coach at Penn State-Lehigh Valley before taking the Dieruff job.
“I have been coaching for a long time. … AAU, Allen, Parkland, Southern Lehigh, LCCC, NCC … and have never seen anything like what is happening at Dieruff,” he said. “I wasn’t appreciated.
“My mission was to change the culture of the girls basketball program from a losing culture to a winning culture,” he said. “I tried to do this by instilling discipline, and teaching the fundamentals of basketball. Also, I stressed the value of a great education because a great education lasts longer than they will play basketball. I explained the definition of being a true student-athlete.”
Wright is proud of the fact that he grew up in Cumberland Gardens, a public housing complex on Allentown's south side, and made something of himself. He has three college degrees and put two of his own children through college and has another one currently attending school.
He hoped to instill the same “can do” values in the players he coached, but Wright said the parents had their own objectives, and were relentless.
“Parents no longer try to prepare their kids for the path,” Wright said. “They're too busy preparing the path for the kid. The real world doesn't work like this.
“These kids know that their parents are going to eliminate anything or anyone that might challenge their kid too much.”
Wright said he'd move on and continue coaching basketball through his “Smart Moves Basketball Academy.”
“It's just a shame,” he said. “Good luck to the next coach if he or she is not the choice of the parents.”
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