Board votes 5-2 not to terminate coach
by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor
An effort to have Rogers City High School boys? basketball coach Karl Grambau removed from his position failed Monday night after a motion was made by to immediately terminate him. Five members of the Rogers City Area Schools Board of Education cast ?no? votes, while outgoing board member Allan Smolinski and Lee Gapczynski supported the measure. Before the vote, and after listening to an hour of comments and discussion, for and against his removal, president Mike Marx strongly suggested having a meeting between district administrators and Grambau, and to have them come back with a recommendation at the June meeting.
?It is only fair,? said Marx. ?Karl is an employee of the district. He has been a coach in this district for quite a long time, he has been an employee of this district for quite a long time, and I need to hear Karl?s side of the story.? Marx also believes there are questions that need to be answered concerning issues raised.
LEADING UP to Monday?s regular monthly session of the board, a group in favor of ?immediate change in the Rogers City High School boys? varsity basketball program? came together and circulated petitions in the community. The petition stated: ?We the parents, students, players and citizen of Rogers City support immediate change in the Rogers City High School boys? varsity basketball program.?
The group placed an ad in last week?s edition of The Advance to get people interested in seeing changes to attend the meeting. There were between 30 to 40 people in the high school library, the most to attend a meeting on one issue in several years. They included the parents of players, citizens and student/athletes. At the beginning of the meeting, Smolinski made a motion to include the matter as an agenda item. Local attorney Erik Stone represented the group as they ?expressed some concerns that to me seemed legitimate and something that the board should be aware of. ?The concerns I heard from the people that came to me are that they thought the program had run off the track and needed to be put back on. These citizens, these parents want to see a change now. They don?t want to wait. They are going to give you good reason for that.?
Stone said the group met with superintendent Dan Byrne, who listened to their concerns but offered no commitments.
VAL VOGELHEIM, who is believed to have spearheaded the effort, said there were six to seven sheets of petitions given to the board, along with the last five years of evaluations. He said Grambau would schedule practices at 3:15 p.m. but not get there until 3:50 p.m., because he was driving the bus for the district. Vogelheim also had concerns about players getting disciplined and the accountability of the coach. ?He was coming and going as he pleased,? said Vogelheim. ?There was a lack of mental and physical preparation for all the games. These boys deserved a lot better. You?ve got the signatures. That is not for me, that is not for this group here, that is for the kids that go out on that floor and shoot the baskets.?
Joe Fairbanks spoke about the basketball feeder program in Rogers City, the improvements the players have been making at the junior varsity level, but added that there seems to be a fall off when they get to the varsity. He also said there is too much ?B.S.? going on among players on the bench and the coach needs to make sure that is not going on. Another father of a player, Todd Curtis, believes a coach should instill winning enthusiasm in the student/athletes. ?Karl just doesn?t have it,? he said. ?It is simple coaching abilities that are not getting produced by this guy, and we need to do something about it. The kids deserve more, the town deserves more, the school deserves more.?
ED LALONDE, who has his youngest son on the varsity and has run the clock at varsity basketball games for 18 years, believes Grambau blames officials too much, especially when his team is down. ?I have watched him and I do see that this practice goes on a lot during games,? said LaLonde. ?I, myself, don?t feel a mentor or a coach of young people, should carry on that way.?
Paul Barrow served as an official scorekeeper for the basketball team this past season, and also scouted with Grambau, said the coaches and players have not been going all out from the opening tip. ?It seemed like it took them three quarters to get going,? said Barrow, who was disappointed with blow out losses against St. Ignace and Cedarville. ?I think our personnel was a little better than that,? said Barrow. ?We should have been a little bit more competitive. Is very demoralizing to watch. It was very demoralizing for the players to sit through?I don?t think he does a very good job, and I don?t think he is ever going to change.? Local attorney Mike Vogler, who also had a son on the squad this past season, said Grambau is dedicated to the youth of the community from the time they are young until after graduation.
?I was a Little League coach for a number of years and president of the Rogers City Little League,? said Vogler. ?Even now, parents tend to not be objective about the abilities of their kids as they perform in athletic events. Yes, coaching can improve those kinds of things to a certain extent, but the bottom line is that we often times lose objectivity.? Vogler continued, ?My feedback on this team is they were having a lot of fun together. That?s what kids at that age do. They are not so concerned about how much time they will play. They want to win the game. I think Karl, through his years, has earned an opportunity to show you what he can do next year. I think you should give him that opportunity.?
GLENN FERRIS, disagreed and said his son, who will be a senior on the basketball team next year, has been discouraged and confused for this first time in his career.
Marx read two correspondences. One was from Matt Quaine, who wanted his son?s name removed from a petition, but said it wasn?t. He also was enraged that ?parent-driven? student/athletes were circulating petitions at the high school and on the streets. ?Parents should not pawn a petition off on a child to obtain signatures. Kids innocently become involved, and I am confident that the majority of the students that signed the petition had no real understanding of what they were signing. The fact that students are involved in this lynching outrages me. If the current head coach needs some guidance and oversight, then so be it. Afford him the opportunity.?
Another letter from Richard Lamb, editor and publisher of Presque Isle Newspapers, who has worked with Grambau for nearly two decades, said the coach represents the game, the community and school well. ?In making comments about his teams, he is quick to spread the credit of a win and is always looking for the silver lining,? said Lamb. ?He never berates a player in public or uses
Board member Tim Horn said the board of education would be remiss if they didn?t allow the coach to defend himself. Smolinski said, ?he is not teaching our kids life lessons. It is not the first time this issue has come up. Unfortunately, it has never been documented. Something has to change. They don?t respect him.? Fellow board member Armand Loiselle was adamantly opposed to taking the matter out of the hands of the administration and added in his four years of serving on the board he has never heard a negative comment about the coach.
Marx said there may be some issues that need to be addressed, but he believes the board still needs to hear ?Karl?s story.?