Prep football: Ex-Capital Christian coach Casey Taylor files lawsuit against school
Casey Taylor is suing Capital Christian High School for breach of contract, according to a complaint filed Oct. 30 in Sacramento Superior Court.
After an enormously successful 15-year run as Del Oro’s football coach, Taylor in January of 2017 signed a 10-year contract with Capital Christian, according to the lawsuit filed by the Webber Law Group of Sacramento.
Taylor’s aim at Capital Christian matched the ambition of Pastor Rick Cole, the senior pastor of Capital Christian and the man who hired Taylor. Taylor’s run at Capital Christian lasted just more than three years. It included three league championships and a Sac-Joaquin Section Division III banner, but he was laid off by Capital Christian in January, one of a sweeping number of such moves on a campus that was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, as were schools across the state.
Taylor is now the head coach at Inderkum. He said he could not comment and referred The Bee to his lawyer, Kelsey A. Webber.
Capital Christian has not responded to the complaint as of Tuesday afternoon. Cole, who hired Taylor from Del Oro, wrote in an email to The Bee that he was advised not to comment by “our legal advisors.”
Webber said to The Bee on Tuesday, “We believe that Casey Taylor is owed compensation for the agreement he signed with Capital Christian. We’re in such early stages of litigation. He is one of the best high school football coaches in Northern California, and here’s Capital Christian saying we can get him for a 10-year guaranteed contract. Casey could have gone to another school, or stayed at Del Oro. He uproots his life, goes to Capital Christian, kicks butt there, did what he was hired to do, and then he’s laid off. The facts of the case speak for itself. It’s a breach of contract.”
When Taylor and nine other teachers were laid off in January, Capital Christian Head of Schools Tim Wong in an email to staff wrote, in part, “I am sorry. This is not what we were hoping for. It is difficult to predict the future. ... It’s okay if you are angry. I am angry, too. It’s okay if you are sad. I am feeling that weight on my heart as well.
“We are in a war (with coronavirus). We are fighting an enemy that is ‘unseen’ yet can and has caused a great deal of damage. As such, we need to continue to fight the good fight, to press on together, and to pray for each other.”
Wong and Capital Christian athletic director Aaron Garcia in April hired Saul Patu to lead the Cougars football program.
In the lawsuit, Taylor says he was “heavily recruited” by Capital Christian to leave Del Oro. When Taylor signed on with Capital Christian, the contract stipulated, according to the suit, “Though Capital Christian is an at-will employer, as with any teaching position, this Memorandum of Understanding maintains that employment at CCC/CCHS and the head coach position is guaranteed for a minimum of 10 years at which time can be reviewed by all parties.”
The suit added “the Plaintiff substantially performed his duties under the contract.”
Ten-year contracts are unprecedented in California for coaches, and Taylor has long maintained that it was that sort of job security that left him to leave a sure thing at Del Oro. Coaches are otherwise under year-to-year “at-will” contracts, meaning they can be relieved of their coaching duties at any time, regardless of how long they have been a teacher.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.