Wall says taking his school to court 'was worth the fight'

JESUP -- Bruce Wall was asked if he felt it all was worth it, now that there was the benefit of hindsight. There was a pause before he answered.

"Yes, I think it was worth the fight," he said. "There were a lot of good things that have come from this. I think it was the right thing to do."

Late November provided a long-awaited endgame for Wall and the Jesup Community School District in their three-year legal wrangling. That's when the Iowa Supreme Court decided not to hear a school district appeal of an Iowa Court of Appeals ruling that said Wall was wrongfully terminated as head football coach in 2009.

He is to be reinstated and receive two seasons of back pay. Jesup Superintendent Nathan Marting was asked for a response from the school district last week.

"As reported, the Iowa Supreme Court has decided not to hear the appeal of the split 2-1 decision of the Iowa Court of Appeals," Marting wrote in an e-mail. "At this time, we have not received communication from Bruce Wall or his attorney regarding the matter."

That seemed curious considering the extensive fight. You get more pause from Wall when he is asked if he will indeed be the J-Hawks' head coach this fall.

"I love working with kids and teaching," he said. "I love coaching football, being on the sideline. But we'll see."

This case has a lot of people talking, wondering its possible implications statewide. What the courts have essentially said is it's not enough reason to fire a coach strictly because of win-loss record.

A former standout athlete at Maquoketa Valley, Wall began his Jesup football coaching career in 2000, helping the school to its first (and only) playoff appearance in 2003. But his last four seasons went poorly, with Jesup compiling a 2-34 record.

He was fired for what the school district said was "ineffective leadership of the football program" and "failure to maintain student interest and participation."

An adjudicator sided with Wall on an appeal of his termination. The coach claimed he had never had a written yearly evaluation, pointing out his implementation of an offseason weight-training program and that the overall number of participants in the football program had remained stable.

The school board filed a lawsuit, with a district court siding with it. Wall appealed to the Iowa Court of Appeals, which sided with him.

(See the ruling below)

http://www.iowacourts.gov/court_of_appeals/Recent_Opinions/20110427/1-106.pdf

"I'm no different than anyone else. I want to win as much, if not more, than the next guy," said Wall. "But I try to teach them more than just football.

"At least at this level, it's more than just about wins and losses. I want to try and develop quality people in my community ... I want them to become better people, better sons and brothers and eventually husbands and fathers. That's always been my goal."

Metro athletics directors Scott Kibby at Cedar Rapids Jefferson and Aaron Stecker at Cedar Rapids Kennedy agreed with Wall's overall athletics philosophies. They were asked if they were surprised with the ultimate outcome of his case.

"It's actually what they taught us in (athletic administration) classes, so it's not a surprise to me," said Jefferson AD Scott Kibby. "That's exactly what my law professor at Iowa would have told me would have been the case.

"I think what the (Iowa) Supreme Court is saying and what my administrative teacher was saying is that this isn't the NFL, this isn't going to be Black Monday. If you go 6-10 in the NFL, it's time for you to go. This isn't big-time college athletics, this is high-school athletics. Keep a perspective in your mind. These are educators first, they are not coaches first. My basketball coach makes $50,000 a year as a teacher and $7,000 a year as a coach. Keep your perspective about that."

Kibby's response is particularly noteworthy because of the struggles of Jefferson's football program. The J-Hawks are on a 22-game losing streak under head coach Jim Womochil.

"You're a sports guy, I'm a sports guy, my football coach is a sports guy. What does that mean?" Kibby said. "We're competitive by nature. We absolutely are. I get into a game of cards, I try to win the dang thing. You try to beat your kid on the driveway in basketball. We're all competitive. And that's the part that's hard to keep in perspective, keep in balance."

"The one thing I have learned ... is the importance of the annual evaluations and what you should base those on," Stecker said. "Base those on the things you're looking for from your program. The impact that we hope we have on kids. That's what we try to base a lot of our conversations on. I mean, sure, we hope some of our coaches win a little bit more than they do. But (Principal) Mary (Wilczynski) and I and our evaluation of our coaches here and our discussions with coaches is about what kind of a positive impact are you having on your kids?"

ADs have to deal today with what many would say is parent over-involvement and too much emphasis on winning and losing. Things are different than they were even five years ago.

But Stecker and Kibby say they always try to keep the proper perspective when it comes to their athletics programs.

"The win-loss part of it isn't a factor for me, but certainly there is an expectation for our coaches to do the things that are maximizing a kid's potential," Stecker said. "It's one thing to be a great character person, but if your program isn't challenging your kids ... There are two pieces. You are helping develop kids' character and being a positive influence for how to live the rest of their lives. At the same time, if you've got three potential all-state kids, and you're not developing that potential, that's a piece of it. So it's not wins and losses, it's about your program.

"I guess I'd hope I never get into a position where I have to tell a coach you're fired because you lost. You were 2-7 or 4-18. But because you've had conversations the past three years on areas you need to improve, and you're not meeting the needs of the kids. You haven't met the things we agreed upon."

Wall remains a teacher and the head baseball coach at Jesup. He said he hopes his battle with the school district will not be an overly divisive issue for a community he will continue to call home.

"I don't hold any ill will toward the school because of this," he said. "If I did, who would it benefit? Absolutely no one.

"My point was always that if you believe in something, you've got to fight for it."