Benefield: Coaching changes in high school getting people too worked up

Two years ago I was sitting in Windsor High School principal Marc Elin’s office. Football coach Vic Amick had been let go and I had some questions.

I’d covered schools for just about the same number of years that Elin had been principal at Windsor, so we knew each other in another context. He respectfully answered my questions but he had one of his own for me.

He asked me if I would have been in his office if we were talking about an English teacher’s contract not being renewed. He and I both knew the answer.

I reminded him of that exchange this week when we talked about another coaching change at Windsor - the one in which Cardinal Newman football coach Paul Cronin accepted the job last week, met with players, then announced Tuesday that he had changed his mind.

He wouldn’t be leaving Newman.

I recall Elin’s question of two years ago often as I cover certain stories. It often helps me put things in perspective. And it often makes me wonder if we don’t all get a little breathless over sporting things that certainly matter, but perhaps should not cause us to suffer a collective apoplectic fit.

A good deal of that breathlessness has erupted over the recent storyline surrounding Cronin - will he or won’t he, is he or isn’t he leaving, staying, changing his mind.

This saga was a string of daily dramas the likes of which I haven’t seen surrounding high school sports.

First, Cronin, the Cardinals’ super successful coach for the past 14 years, was linked by rumor to the head coaching vacancy at Windsor High. Then it was no longer a rumor; he was going. He met with players and officials at Windsor.

Then he changed his mind and was staying at Newman.

Behind the scenes, there was even more back and forth than that, with confirmations followed by changes of mind.

It was all only slightly less dramatic than The Decision and a good deal less resolute. When LeBron James said he was taking his talents to South Beach, he actually went.

The uncertainty about which sideline Cronin, 43, will stand on next season was thrown into overdrive last week not just by sporting gadflies and newsies, but by Cronin himself.

All of which I find a little exhausting. It left me wondering about our collective priorities.

Yes, Cronin is the best we’ve got.

St. Bernard’s Academy head coach Matt Tomlin said as much before his team faced Cardinal Newman in the North Coast Section Division 4 final last fall.

“Without a doubt, in my opinion Paul Cronin is the best high school football coach in the state of California,” he told The Press Democrat’s Phil Barber.

And that was before Cronin’s Cardinals gave St. Bernard’s a 44-21 beatdown.

In 14 seasons, Cronin has led the Cardinals to seven North Bay League championships or co-championships and five North Coast Section titles, including last season. Cardinal teams under Cronin have twice advanced to a CIF state championship game, losing both times, in 2006 and 2008.

Clearly, where Cronin coaches is important. And as it seems with all things related to Cardinal Newman, the drama surrounding where he will or won’t go is tinged with the stink of jealousy and mistrust - and any of the other slew of emotions that seem to follow Newman’s exceedingly successful athletic program.

So it’s in that context that we were all hyper-interested in Cronin’s comings and goings. I am guilty. I got caught up in it too. I walked into the newsroom at 2 p.m. Tuesday and was immediately accosted with the news: Cronin changed his mind. Again. He’s staying. I clamored for the details, too.

But there was also a piece of me thinking, “Seriously?”

A piece that knows how important high school coaches are, but also feels that if a mom is undone because she enrolled her son at Cardinal Newman specifically to play for one man and now that son’s dreams are dashed, there are probably larger issues afoot.

And none of that addresses Windsor, a team that lost two talented coaches in one fell swoop.

Windsor officials were criticized for seemingly actively going on a hunt for a full-time teacher and coach without informing current coach Tom Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick, a veteran (and previously retired) coach, had stepped into the breach two years ago after Amick was let go, all the while saying he would not be the long-term coaching solution. Kirkpatrick, considered by many a gentlemanly gridiron legend, guided the Jaguars admirably until stepping down two weeks ago when it became clear to him Windsor was going full-tilt on a coaching search.

So with Kirkpatrick gone and Cronin no longer showing up for a first day this coming Tuesday, it leaves Windsor High deep into second semester well below its staffing needs in physical education, Elin said.

“I’m in need of a teacher. That is what I’m looking for. If that person is a skilled coach, that is bonus,” he said. “Paul was hired to do health and P.E. and join the teaching staff. Obviously he has natural talents for coaching. I was getting exactly what I needed.”

The principal took pictures of Cronin meeting with Jaguars players last Friday.

“It was wonderful,” Elin said. “I stood there and took a picture of Paul - a coach and a group of boys standing around him, enthralled, listening to their coach.”

If Elin is bitter or feeling publicly jilted, I didn’t hear it in his voice or his words. He was incredibly diplomatic.

“Life is uncertain until you are on stage,” he said. “This is a life lesson. It happens all the time. There are lots of factors that people use to make their decisions.”

Regardless, Windsor’s P.E. teachers will continue to work overtime, the football team will continue their spring workouts under the guidance of assistant coaches and Elin will continue to try to find the school’s missing piece.

Yes, a coach’s movements are important and Cronin’s more than most. And coaches can be, without a doubt, key role players in a young athlete’s life.

But even with all the pro-and-con interest in Cardinal Newman, even with Cronin’s undeniable success, I can’t help but think it’s all too much.

Watching the rise and fall of hopes of scores of kids - and their parents - over this past week has left me wanting something better.

Like perhaps that kind of passion directed at the nomination and confirmation of an education secretary who thinks guns have a place in schools because of the threat of grizzly bears.

Coaching vacancies are important. It’s news and that 24-hour news cycle has seeped from the pros to college to prep sports. But it’s not life or death. I wonder if there aren’t more important things to worry about.

After all, Tom Brady’s jersey is still missing.

You can reach Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes and SoundCloud “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”