Uproar Follows Replacement of Track Team Coach

MOORPARK —  For 13 years, Dale Smith has taken awkward, gangly teenagers and turned them into runners. And hurdlers. And high jumpers.

As coach of Moorpark High School’s track and cross-country programs, Smith has taught students the sports he loves while ingraining in his charges a sense of discipline their parents admire.

Now Smith, a retired junior high school principal and teacher, has lost his post as head of the track team, the apparent victim of a recent appeals court decision that forces school districts to offer coaching jobs to staff members before considering walk-ons.

The move has angered parents who credit Smith with carrying the program through years in which the team didn’t even have a real track. It has also alarmed school district officials, who say the court decision could have larger and more damaging implications.

While expressing their respect for Smith’s replacement, freshman football coach Rob Dearborn, Moorpark school board members fear that districts could be compelled to hire staff coaches who may not be as qualified as the walk-ons they replace, leaving administrators open to litigation in case a player gets hurt.

“I read this [decision], and it just boggles my mind,” said board member Gary Cabriales. “The most important thing is to get the most qualified people.”

Two board members will review Smith’s situation and consider overturning the high school’s decision to replace him, although board member Greg Barker cautioned that such reversals are rare. And Supt. Tom Duffy said he will meet with the county’s state lawmakers to discuss introducing legislation that would reverse the appeals court decision.

To complicate matters, the court decision has, in turn, been appealed to the state Supreme Court, where arguments for both sides were presented earlier this month. A decision from the high court could change the process of hiring coaches for districts throughout the state.

The uproar comes several months before the start of the track team’s inaugural season on the school’s new track, a project Smith pushed for years. Smith, who receives a $1,500-per-season stipend for his work, said he wanted to coach that first season and host the team’s first home meets since the 1960s. He was thinking of retiring at the end of it.

“My whole contention was, I only wanted to do this one year and give it over to someone else,” he said. “The transition would have been smooth.”

However, when Smith’s year-to-year position came open, Dearborn applied for the job. Dearborn had been one of Smith’s assistants and had also coached track at Newbury Park High School.

“The job was open, I interviewed for it, I came in prepared and I got the job,” Dearborn said. He has assembled a coaching team that includes former Simi Valley head coach Tom King and Dearborn’s wife, Denise Ball-Dearborn.

Smith, who still coaches the school’s cross-country program, also interviewed with Principal John McIntosh for the post. McIntosh declined to comment on the decision to replace Smith, but said he was pleased with the new coaching staff.

According to a court decision handed down last December, the school’s administration may not have had the option of keeping Smith.

The case involved a teacher in the Rialto Unified School District who was passed over for a coaching position in favor of a walk-on. The court decided that school districts must first offer coaching spots to district staffers who have expressed interest in the positions. If a staffer rejects a job, or if none expresses interest, then the district can hire a walk-on coach--someone not on the district’s full-time teaching staff.

Bailey Dodson, the Rialto district’s director of personnel, said the district appealed to the California Supreme Court on the argument that school officials should only be required to make positions available to staffers and not give them the right of first refusal.

Districts need to be able to hire the most qualified candidate, regardless of staff status, he said.

“Let us suppose this guy was Magic Johnson, and the teacher was a kindergarten teacher who didn’t know the shape of a basketball,” Dodson said.

To some Moorpark High School runners and their parents, the legal questions are beside the point. They see Smith as an outstanding coach whose long service to the school should be honored.

“He’s a good coach, and they should give him a fair chance,” said Donny Johnson, 17, who runs both cross-country and track. “He inspires us, reminds us of our goals. He follows us on our runs to make sure we’re doing everything right.”

Robert Moran, president of the Moorpark Running Club, said Smith has earned the respect of parents whose children run for him. Moran said the district should allow Smith to lead the team into its first season on the new track.

“Dale has been the mainstay of the program, he has done it single-handedly . . . and he’s done it for virtually no pay,” Moran said. “He’s done it for his love of track and his kids.”