Parent asks school board to stop verbal abuse from coaches

OREGON – A parent of a senior basketball player asked the Oregon School Board on Monday to hold coaches to the same standard as teachers and not allow abusive or insulting comments to student athletes.

Seth Gelander of Oregon told the board that his son, Joey a senior, had recently quit the basketball program because of degrading comments made by the head coach about the team’s performance.

“Once he [Joey] explained all of the issues to us, it became clear that he needed to remove himself from that toxic relationship,” said Gelander. “Was this hard coaching or is this bulling? What would you do if your coach, teacher boss, or employer insulted you on a daily basis? How would you react if you received consistent degrading comments?”

Gelander claimed that head coach, Nathan Green, a second-year coach who is employed outside the district, used profanity on multiple occasions telling team members they were “the worst ... team in the conference” and were “soft” and “didn’t care about losing”.

Gelander said when he and his wife met with Green following an incident during summer league, Green did not report the incident to the athletic director as required by school policy.

“In other words, the process as outlined did not work for the victim in this event,” Gelander said in a written statement he read to the board during the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting.

He said his son decided to “give up the sport he loves” in order to maintain a “healthy mental status and move forward free of abuse”.

“While it is likely too late for for our son Joey and his teammates, we ask that you work to prevent this poor experience from haunting future athletes,” said Gelander.

“Leadership starts at the top,” he continued. “We ask that you reconsider your current complaint procedure. We believe that this process could be improved by including a new provision that would allow a student athlete to reach out to anyone in the chain of command to report possible abuse, rather than having to face the coach directly first.

“This type of behavior would certainly not be tolerated in a classroom from a teacher and should not be tolerated by a coach. Educate students to be lifelong learners who are productive, responsible citizens. Is it too much to ask that our coaches and school employees he held to that same standard?”

School board members typically do not comment following public comments made at meetings.

After the meeting, Oregon Superintendent Tom Mahoney declined to comment on Gelander’s statement or accusations and none of the coaches or athletic director Mike Lawton were present at the meeting.