A preseason Montezuma-Cortez swim team meeting on Friday evening turned into an impromptu and passionate discussion about the recent departure of former head coach Ian MacLaren.
The meeting had been scheduled for administrators and coaches to go over eligibility and school policy with perspective swimmers and their parents.
High school principal Jason Wayman opened the meeting in the library, saying: “If you have individual concerns about the program or the school or the athletic department, I’ll be downstairs as long as needed, and I’ll set up an appointment with anybody who wants to meet.”
And after the group went over eligibility and school policies, received handbooks and schedules and were addressed by new head coach Gayle Earley, senior swimmer Tifiny Mills stood up and asked if anyone wanted to join her in speaking with Wayman about MacLaren’s departure.
Wayman later met with about 25 swimmers and parents in the library, where they asked him questions and raised concerns about MacLaren’s departure. Activities director Stacey Hall didn’t join the group.
Wayman took notes of the questions asked, saying that he intended to answer all of them, but that if he was unable to answer any at the time, they could schedule a follow-up.
He and members of the group ended the discussion by agreeing to schedule a follow-up meeting with Superintendent Alex Carter.
Wayman said that he offered MacLaren the opportunity to resign and he and Hall believed MacLaren intended to resign, but that after the two spoke again on Thursday they agreed that he would not resign but would not be retained.
MacLaren said on Saturday that he had no intention of resigning, and never said that he would, but that after speaking with Wayman again on Thursday, they agreed that he would not be retained.
Wayman claimed that under MacLaren’s watch, two violations of Colorado High School Activities Association regulations occurred.
Wayman said that he could not disclose the violations, but after a parent mentioned one of the alleged violations, he confirmed that a parent-volunteer who coached on the pool deck had failed to fill out the necessary paperwork or obtain certification to coach. The other alleged violation was undisclosed.
On Monday, Wayman said that the alleged violations occurred in the 2014-2015 season and were reported as recently as a few weeks ago. He said the school is in the process of filing the violations to CHSAA.
Speaking about one of the alleged violations, Wayman said the parent-volunteer, Candi Duran, passed a background check and qualified to drive the team bus, Wayman said, but did not complete the paperwork and test required of coaches. Duran said she did not know she needed to complete any additional step in order to coach.
MacLaren said on Saturday that he viewed Duran as a volunteer-assistant, similar to Kevin Ketterer or Jeanne Garbesi, who were volunteer-assistants for the swim team in previous years, and that he was unaware that she needed to obtain additional credentials.
“I did not know that. I don’t handle that paperwork,” he said. “I was under the assumption that that was handled by our athletic director.”
Duran and MacLaren both claimed that Hall sat in on practices and was aware that Duran was coaching.
“I did not know that Ms. Duran was coaching,” Hall said on Monday. “She had filled out a volunteer application, and it was my understanding that she was going to help drive the buses and that she would help with the supervision in the motels.”
Wayman acknowledged that other programs have volunteer-assistants, such as wrestling, but that the coaches had passed the required tests and completed the necessary paperwork.
“We made our decision, and now the swimmers and the parents that are in support of coach MacLaren will be scheduling a meeting with the superintendent to appeal this decision,” Wayman said.
While there will be continued discussion, both parties are prepared to move forward.
“I think that the most important thing is for the girls to focus on their upcoming season,” MacLaren said Saturday. “We’ve had a lot of girls who worked super, super hard. They need to focus on their upcoming season, they need to rally around their new coach, Gayle Earley, and we’ll move forward from there.”
