The Millstones of Coach Millspaugh

[XLFD]

In the 2-16-2018 article Delay of Game and Blocking by LHS we observed the resignation of the Ludington Girl's Varsity Basketball Coach Matt Millspaugh and a variety of questions that arose after what can only be called an enigmatic press release came out from the school's superintendent.  

The Ludington Torch has always maintained that the fields of public ignorance are fertile grounds for rumors and fallacies, so we dig in those fields using our handy gardening tool, the FOIA request, and root out the weeds that block the sunlight so that our knowledge can grow of how public bodies operate.  In situations like this, it's sometimes hard to round-up the right request so as to remove the foliage.  I asked the Ludington Area School District (LASD) Superintendent for:

"Any records of the last six months that deal with any of the variables that led to the resignation of Matt Millspaugh as the girl’s varsity basketball coach. As the reason behind the resignation has not been made public, this would include written records discussing any of the reasons (orally or formally) transmitted between other school officials and Mr. Millspaugh before or after the resignation."  

This was my first FOIA request to the new superintendent, so I expected some problems due to the 'incompleteness' of my knowledge of what specifically I was looking for.  In the past, I have had some conflicts over the Open Meeting Act (OMA) and FOIA with the school, but I was pleasantly surprised by the response made by the superintendent that I sent him a thank you e-mail for doing a very commendable and professional job in the balancing act of responding to my indefinite request, following FOIA rules, and respecting the privacy of the students involved.  Here was his cover letter explaining what was withheld and released:  Response to FOIA .pdf  He added:

"As you can see from Matt Millspaugh’s attached resignation letter, no reason was given for his resignation. Additionally, Mr. Millspaugh has not communicated to me any reason for his resignation. In compliance with FOIA, the District is providing you with records from the last six months involving Mr. Millspaugh and the girls’ varsity basketball program."  Those records are here:  2018 Millspaugh Resignation Records.

The most cogent records seem to be towards the beginning of the response.  The records indicate to me a disturbing narrative of too much politics being involved that was out of Coach Millspaugh's hands to control.  The roster of his team reveals some of the difficulties he may have had to weather and some of the factions that he had to appease; all of which seemed to not gibe with his coaching style which had been fairly successful. 

He may have dropped the ball on occasion, but it looks like he may have been fouled just once too often by what should have been teammates and would-be coachers of the coach.  When the team dropped to a 9-5 record by losing to an unimpressive Traverse City West team (record 3-16) on January 29, the final buzzer for Millspaugh's Ludington coaching career was set to be pressed.  The millstone put around Millspaugh's neck had become too much to bear.

[Willy]

I don't get it. Perhaps I'm missing something since I have no access to facebook.

[AQUAMAN]

Everyone has access to FB, just register in with your email and password is all it takes.

[Willy]

I should have said that I refuse to access facebook because they are a leftist owned company that is doing it's best stifle conservatives. I refuse to have anything to do with them.

[XLFD]

The .pdf file was too big to upload directly on the LT, but small enough to load on the FB page.  If you or anybody else has problems with access, I will try to put it somewhere else, or send you the file to the E-mail you signed up with.

[XLFD]

Millspaugh had a long letter explaining the reasons why he resigned published in tonight's COLDNews on the editorial page, continuing on page 5.  His story seems reasonable, and I can't refute it with any of the records I was given by the school.  It was as you might think, too much micromanaging and interference by parents and administrators that wanted their girl to have more playing time.  

It ain't rocket science: a coach is there to win games by establishing the best team he can.  I will reprint Millspaugh's letter here for the edification of the public when I next fuel up the scanner.

[Barney Reinberg]

I got the chance to read the article tonight. Maybe I'll write something more later. But, what I would say now is millspaugh is correct  (relating to editors note) there is no better definition/job description of an assistant coach than what LHS was requiring him to do. Basically, assist the team but make no "in game" decisions.  Very sad situation.

[Brad]

Most school functions and the board, especially in LASD, is highly political.