SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Hundreds of parents, players and alumni showed up at a Paradise Valley Unified School District school board meeting Thursday in a last-ditch effort to save their head baseball coach’s job.
They were recently left wondering why, after 38 years, the coach was unceremoniously shown the door.
Eric Kibler started the baseball program at Scottsdale’s Horizon High School nearly 40 years ago.
His team has won six state titles and more than 800 games – more than anyone in Arizona history.
So when news trickled out last month that the coach was getting let go, the backlash was significant and swift.
It’s why Kibler was fired that’s raising red flags.
“My evaluation was two things. One: ‘Very inadequate on coach-player relationships.’ And two: ‘Inadequate on supporting school sports and multi-sport athletes.’ Those two are the furthest from the truth that could ever be possible,” he said.
The district told 12 News it can’t comment on personnel matters.
“The Horizon High School administration decided to go in a different direction … We cannot cut corners in the interest of public curiosity,” the district said in a statement.
Kibler claims Principal Linda Ihnat told him his program has a “negative culture.” He said she admitted that she didn’t consult with any players.
“Immediately I was just wondering why – How do you know that it’s negative if you never go to a practice, never talk to any of the players? When they throw around ‘negative culture’ and I look back on my four years in this program, it doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Kibler said he only wanted to coach one more season.
“None of this would be happening right now if they had just agreed to that,” he said.
The coach does acknowledge small disagreements, like when parents posted a petition to keep varsity games a 7 p.m. after the school eliminated night games.
But with no public allegations of any wrongdoing, many say it doesn’t make any sense.
Kibler said his staff has also been told they’d be let go.
Meanwhile, the school board meeting on Thursday was largely symbolic. Coaches are considered at-will employees, and it’s up to individual principals to hire and fire them.