East & Denfeld

[ryguyMN]

Two majors and a misconduct for Duluth East in their season-ending loss to Grand Rapids last night . . . they can't conscionably let this coach return next year, can they?

I think he'll get one more year to show improvement, but he'll be on a short leash. DE's reputation is on the line...it can't turn into a clown show.

[Dog]

Two majors and a misconduct for Duluth East in their season-ending loss to Grand Rapids last night . . . they can't conscionably let this coach return next year, can they?

I think he'll get one more year to show improvement, but he'll be on a short leash. DE's reputation is on the line...it can't turn into a clown show.

My perspective is one Denfeld perspective:
Don't be fooled that it's the coach. An East parent actually had the gall to post asking what type of punishment Cooper McClure got... seriously..(apparently for receiving blows to the head). Pit's in a bad spot here. He was very highly graded and regarded as a bantam coach year for around 20 years. He had about a 95% positive rating which is hard to do in this day and age. Could he have done more during the game to calm things down? Probably. But I'm afraid he's got a few apples whose trees that they fell from are rotten. A group of these parents were actively involved in removing Randolph. Think they don't gloat to their kids about it? Unless he minimizes them, there's a lot of good kids there that are going to be dragged down.

The worst part is that, I believe that the player in question voluntarily stepped down for the year so I don't think there was ever any official punishment dealt. Rumors, but if true... it's very, very wrong. It should go to state review so that there is some type of official suspension for the player for if they try to play another sport again. Hopefully that happened or does happen. There's no excuse for that in any sport at any level.

And now every coach at every sport in the district has to go through training... because there's a few dopes who feel like they can get away with whatever they want. There's already rules for bad actions and punishment that goes along with it. Use them. Don't waste every coaches little time they have because a few kids don't have parents who've taught them or demonstrated civility.

Pit is a good person and coach who's mentored and helped many kids in the north (and not just East kids). I've personally seen him help Denfeld kids. He doesn't boast about it, he does it quietly, like Scott Pionk does. He doesn't deserve this but IMO Randolph didn't either.

[goldy313]

A leader, fair or not, is only as good as the ones they lead. If you do not lead well, then you are not a leader. Is one year enough? Probably not, but it is a tell. If next year goes the same way…..

High school sports are less about wins and losses than creating students to succeed as life goes on. A kid beating an unconscious kid is criminal. It needs to be treated as such, wins be damned. A leader who excused such behavior needs to be removed. If it is that the MSHSL or school stepped in before the coach, then there is a significant issue those in charge needs to resolve

[headsupsticksdown]

Two majors and a misconduct for Duluth East in their season-ending loss to Grand Rapids last night . . . they can't conscionably let this coach return next year, can they?

I think he'll get one more year to show improvement, but he'll be on a short leash. DE's reputation is on the line...it can't turn into a clown show.

My perspective is one Denfeld perspective:
Don't be fooled that it's the coach. An East parent actually had the gall to post asking what type of punishment Cooper McClure got... seriously..(apparently for receiving blows to the head). Pit's in a bad spot here. He was very highly graded and regarded as a bantam coach year for around 20 years. He had about a 95% positive rating which is hard to do in this day and age. Could he have done more during the game to calm things down? Probably. But I'm afraid he's got a few apples whose trees that they fell from are rotten. A group of these parents were actively involved in removing Randolph. Think they don't gloat to their kids about it? Unless he minimizes them, there's a lot of good kids there that are going to be dragged down.

The worst part is that, I believe that the player in question voluntarily stepped down for the year so I don't think there was ever any official punishment dealt. Rumors, but if true... it's very, very wrong. It should go to state review so that there is some type of official suspension for the player for if they try to play another sport again. Hopefully that happened or does happen. There's no excuse for that in any sport at any level.

And now every coach at every sport in the district has to go through training... because there's a few dopes who feel like they can get away with whatever they want. There's already rules for bad actions and punishment that goes along with it. Use them. Don't waste every coaches little time they have because a few kids don't have parents who've taught them or demonstrated civility.

Pit is a good person and coach who's mentored and helped many kids in the north (and not just East kids). I've personally seen him help Denfeld kids. He doesn't boast about it, he does it quietly, like Scott Pionk does. He doesn't deserve this but IMO Randolph didn't either.

I know nothing about Pit, so that could be the case. But it wasn’t a one game thing. You had the Superior game, the Champlin game and even the Rapids game a few days ago kind of got out of hand as far as playing clean goes. I’d like to think a coach who has his finger on the pulse of the team draws the line, but it just seemed to continue or some say get worse throughout the season. A lot of the East kids are still young so a lot should be familiar with him no?

Pionk is one of my favorite coaches; I’ve seen him first hand jump on bad apples and literally send them home immediately. I’d let my kid play for him any day, any time.

[karl(east)]

My Duluth East season postmortem: https://apatientcycle.com/2022/02/26/we-are-who-we-are/

I'm not going to call for Pit's head after one season. He has a strong track record and got handed a very difficult situation. He can only control so much, and deserves at least two years to really mold the program in the way he'd like.

That said, the buck does still stop at the top and there needs to be some improvement. The disciplinary issues were consistent and embarrassing all season long. Bad apples will be bad apples, but it's the coach's job to either contain it or cut out the rot. Randolph wasn't having much fun trying to manage these groups the past few seasons either, but at least he tried to rein things in, and had some success doing so with arguably even tougher groups. That was probably one of the things that cost him his job.

And since the cat seems to be out of the bag on this, the kid in question was suspended for three games as a result of the Denfeld incident, but yes, the subsequent decision not to play the rest of the year was voluntary. I would actually not lump this player and family in with the aforementioned rot, though the overall environment certainly creates conditions where these sorts of things can happen.

Fortunately, I do think there are somewhat clearer skies on the horizon. But it's amazing the amount of damage a few bad actors can do, and the more I learn, the more disgusted I get.