By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Like all students and staff in the Crestline school district, Lee Hurst is preparing for the end of the school year. Unlike most of them, Hurst won’t be back in the fall. The outgoing Crestline football coach and athletics director’s sudden resignation caught many off guard last week when it was approved and announced by the Crestline school board.
“We’re an emotional family. The decision wasn’t easy,” Hurst said of leaving after one year at the school. “Just like coming here (Crestline), we sat down and talked.”
Hurst’s lone season as the Crestline football coach had its ups and downs. Although the Bulldogs went 1-9, that lone win which came in the game’s closing moments against South Central, broke a 19-game losing streak for the Bulldogs.
“It (leaving) has nothing to do with the kids, our won-loss record. It doesn’t have anything to do with football,” Hurst said. “It comes down to differences in beliefs administratively.”
Hurst, who is certified to teach math, originally was hired at Crestline as the football coach and athletics director. However, when Randy Endsley left the district to go to Fredericktown, Hurst instead filled the director athletics director position instead of teaching.
Superintendent Noreen Mullins has already gone on the record stating the two positions, football coach and athletics director, will be filled by two people and not one. They will be the fourth football coach and athletics director at Crestline in four years.
Hurst said he believed things were looking up for the football program as it prepares to enter the inaugural season of the new Northern 10 Athletic Conference. He said the numbers were improving with 40 players signed up at the high school level for the 2014 season and another 35 in junior high.
Crestline is also preparing to play somewhere else other than Hutson Stadium for the first time in decades. The new home field will be located on the high school campus and will also be called Hutson Stadium.
“It’s tough. We’re still uncertain where everything will lie for us,” Hurst said. “But we are definitely going back to Stark County.”
Hurst came to Crestline from Massillon and said he would not immediately be returning to coaching or education. His oldest son, also Lee, will be a junior in the fall. He played football, basketball, baseball and ran track at Crestline this year.
“The people of Crestline treated us great,” Hurst said. Then he repeated, “It was a tough decision.”
An open letter from Hurst to the Crestline community at large can be found blow.
To the Village of Crestline from the Hurst family we would like to say thank you for having us. When we arrived here last year we were welcomed very warmly by many of you and we treasure the friendships we have been able to make and keep. We don’t take that for granted.
Over the school year there have been blessings and challenges as to be expected. I watched young men and women grow as people and some focusing on growing athletically. It has been my pleasure to work with your kids and getting to know them as well. I believe that myself and the coaches we have at Crestline are quality people and really understand what a good coach needs to do and be.
Many times I was asked the question, how long are you staying? My response was I came to help fix things or as long as I can be effective. As this past year progressed I realized I may not be able to do everything I set out to do because of different philosophies of where and how to get things done. I only know of one thing to do which is give my best and that’s what I have tried to do. So it simply has come down to administrative differences that I took the path to resignation.
I have learned in life everyone has an agenda whether they say they do or do not. I also believe that men and women in positions of power who do nothing in dealing with wrong doings place others in trouble. So when people of integrity are presumed wrong they let time prove them right.
In conclusion to the young men I have lead for this short time, measure up. Many of you have committed to academics and your own physical development in the weight room, continue. Play because you love the game not the coach, play. Do what you have learned to do and continue to be unselfish. For it is then when the team becomes first and the individual becomes second you will truly be playing for the name on the front making that name great again, “Crestline!”.
Always remember you can be who want to be, become anything you want to become. You are a thoroughbred made for greatness. God Bless!
Many thanks from
Coach Lee Hurst & Family.