Rumor mill spins on: Coach wasn’t escorted off campus ‘like I committed capital murder’
Rumors, myth, speculation.
None of it appeals unless the gossip has legs. Too often, conjecture is tossed around by adults like so many football delivered by 6-year olds with busted sprinkler-head arms, everyone tripping, stumbling, giggling.
We’re here to debunk or verify what is going on with big-name area high school football coaches because a good coach helps bind a campus, leads the most high-profile program on that campus and sometimes stands as the face of the entire athletic department. The mood of a school often is tied to the success of the football program and coaching turnover can rattle all of it.
Here’s a sampling of the speculation: Casey Taylor is out at Capital Christian.
We were peppered for not reporting that Taylor had been given the boot. Not true. Or that he accepted the Antelope job. False. Or that he’s headed to the new school in Roseville, West Park. Not so. Or that he’s joining the staff at Folsom. No.
I reached out to Taylor on Thursday. Said the coach used to speculation (such as a million-dollar contract with Capital Christian), “I’m in my office now, grinding. I haven’t applied for jobs or been called by anyone seeing if I am interested in an opening. I had weights at 7 this morning and have a coaching meeting at 5. I don’t know who is starting all these rumors. If they would stop worrying about me and worry about their programs, they might win a few more games. All of the gossip is ridiculous. TMZ society.”
‘I’m getting murdered by rumors’
Another doozy: How does The Bee justify not reporting that Cosumnes Oaks coach Andrew Bettencourt, fresh off a rousing playoff season, was terminated by the California Interscholastic Federation and ushered off campus.
He hasn’t been fired by anyone. First of all, the CIF — the governing body for high school sports — does not make it a habit of ousting coaches, nor does it have that authority to do so. The CIF and its 10 section offices across the state lean on school administrators to handle any concerns of coaches or athletic programs.
“I’m getting murdered by rumors,” Bettencourt said. “Things like paying kids, offering jobs to parents, retraining and scholarships. ... I had coaches call me to ask if the CIF escorted me out of weight room and fired me. People act like I committed capital murder or something.”
What has happened and what sparked the Bettencourt speculation is football-minded students from around the Elk Grove Unified School District have transferred into Cosumnes Oaks. Coaches within the district — any district, really — fume when they lose kids to rival programs. Some report their concerns to their administration. Section commissioners within the CIF will drop the hammer on programs tied to undue-influence tied to recruiting, but the CIF and sections do not chase rumors.
We will in the coming weeks dig into why players transfer, if it’s worth it, how coaches deal with it and if schools can block such moves, and how transfers can all cause ill will among programs when everyone champions the theme of sportsmanship .
Said Bettencourt, “I know some schools have issues with us. Winning promotes hate. Culture is always undefeated. Kids and families will go to where the culture is ripe and plentiful.”
Rumors with legs
And a rumor that is actually fact: Chris Nixon wants back in.
He is one of this generation’s finest coaches and people, having led Elk Grove to championship success as a coordinator in the late 1990s and early 2000s and then as head coach with a stellar run before his still-hard-to-fathom forced resignation. We jumped onto that story to sort through myth and fact. Nixon was squeezed out at Elk Grove in the winter of 2016-17 because the Elk Grove Unified School District concluded in a lengthy investigation that mistakes were made during the process of approving and then building a storage shed for the football program.
Heads rolled, tied to issues over permits and soil samples, including the removal of title for Elk Grove’s athletic director and the termination of an EGUSD employee connected with campus facility upgrades. Nixon told me then “I don’t have a background in construction and I don’t sign off on permits. I’m just a football coach.”
Nixon will get interviews. His name remains golden in the coaching circles. Principals know his name and his campus impact. He has looked into the Del Campo and Rio Linda openings, both longtime successful programs. The regional game is better with Nixon in it as a head coach. Nixon will be asked about his Elk Grove tour and end. He may even remind that he doesn’t even know how to operate a backhoe in or around construction sites and that he prefers a game-day visor over a hard hat.
Also true: Jody Sears wants to get back into coaching and has looked into area high school gigs. He’s a good man and coach who was named Coach of the Year at Sacramento State before the Hornets relieved him after five seasons, leading to the Troy Taylor hire.
What we do know
Travis Barker stepped down after a championship run at East Nicolaus to spend more time with family. He was soon replaced by Kramer Hagen. Matt Ray stepped down after a nice run at Antelope, also to recharge. That vacancy has not been filled as the job has not been formally posted.
West Park will open this fall in Placer County, a plumb gig for someone eager to start a program from scratch. There are a lot of names tied to that job. One that seems ideal is Jason Tenner, who coached at Ponderosa and recently at Sheldon. That decision could be announced early next week. It’ll come across as refreshing fact over speculation.
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 8:30 AM.