North Attleboro High’s girls’ soccer coaches resign after drill
North Attleboro High School. (Staff file photo by Mark Stockwell)
Posted: Thursday, October 6, 2016 1:53 pm | Updated: 6:41 pm, Thu Oct 6, 2016.
BY RICK FOSTER, PETER GOBIS and JIM HAND SUN CHRONICLE STAFF | 0 comments
NORTH ATTLEBORO — The entire coaching staff of the North Attleboro High School girls’ soccer team has resigned after criticism following a drill that apparently had one player blindfolded and performing a tough exercise called a “bear crawl.”
School officials were tight-lipped Thursday, issuing only a terse news release without details and declining to return calls or even identify the coaches.
However, a North Attleboro player told The Sun Chronicle a coach was working with another member of the team, and it apparently angered parents.
The player did not identify the coach.
A parent of one of the players said the coach who initiated the exercise was varsity coach Glen Pasquel, that he meant no harm and later apologized to the team.
Superintendent Suzan Cullen issued a press release Thursday afternoon, saying that the practice drill on Sunday caused “confusion and concern” for some players and that an investigation judged it to be inappropriate. The official news release did not name the coach or give specifics on what drill caused alarm among the players.
While the nature of the drill was not officially disclosed, posters to The Sun Chronicle’s Facebook page who are familiar with the team, indicated at least one player was forced to do a “bear crawl.” Others corroborated that.
The grueling move, used to strengthen an athlete’s core, consists of crawling a distance on hands and feet, much like a bear walks.
Pasquel did not respond to calls from The Sun Chronicle, but emailed a statement to NBC 10 News that read:
“While, in my view, I have done nothing illegal or immoral, I certainly don’t want to be a distraction to the players or the soccer program at the High School. Unfortunately, my good intentions of using a motivational exercise that I saw have been misinterpreted by some.”
At least four coaches are believed to have resigned, but that was not officially reported by the school district.
In the superintendent’s news release, Cullen said: “The district fully investigated the incident and concluded the situation did not reflect the core values of the district. Because of this incident, the soccer coaches have resigned. We are in the process of filling the coaches vacancies to ensure our soccer program for the students continues.”
Meanwhile, former girls’ soccer coach and current Rocketeer softball coach Bill Wallace told The Sun Chronicle he’s been tapped to guide the Big Red girls’ soccer program for the remainder of the 2016 season.
Wallace was named as the Rocketeers’ “interim coach” on Thursday in the wake of the resignations.
“What happened, I have no idea,” Wallace said of Pasquel quitting after the training and conditioning session over the weekend became an imbroglio with players, parents and staff.
“This all happened in the last 24 hours, I had no idea that this was coming,” said Wallace, who had served as the North head coach before ceding way to Doug Weldon after the 2012 season. Pasquel took over the program in 2015.
Dan LaBonte, the parent of a varsity player, called Pasquel a “good man” who made an error in judgment, recognized it and apologized to parents and players. He said many of the players are disappointed their coach is leaving, but he does not fault parents and players who were upset by what they viewed as inappropriate treatment.
“These are all good people here,” LaBonte said.
He said the drill involved a single player being blindfolded while she performed a bear crawl. LaBonte said the bear crawl was used as a motivational tool, not an attempt to humiliate or bully the player.
LaBonte said the coach realized the drill was a mistake and apologized, both during practice and at what he called an assembly at school Tuesday attended by players and their parents. The discussion apparently did not satisfy everyone, and the coach resigned the next day. Two other coaches and an assistant also quit, the parent said, apparently in protest over Pasquel.
One player leaving school Thursday who did not identify herself also said a coach tried to “motivate” a player and “did it in the wrong way.”
She went on to say she greatly admires the coach, and wishes he hadn’t resigned.
“I’m sad to see him gone,” she said.
A few other North Attleboro High students said they had heard rumors the coaches had quit, but didn’t know the circumstances and there was no announcement at school.
The North Attleboro team was supposed to have played Attleboro High at Attleboro Wednesday night, but the game was canceled without explanation.
Wallace had been serving as assistant coach with the Walpole High girls’ soccer team this fall.
“I am the interim coach and we’ll go from there,” Wallace said of the latest development. “I’ve always had a great rapport with (Athletic Director) Kurt Kummer and (Superintendent) Sue Cullen.”
