Former Noblesville High basketball coach Dave McCollough will have his day in court – not the one with hoops but a court of law.
McCollough’s attorneys, Cook & Cook Attorneys at Law of Noblesville, filed a lawsuit against Noblesville Schools and Jeff Bryant, high school principal, in Hamilton County Circuit Court on Sept. 4. It claims that Noblesville Schools breached its contract with McCollough and he should be reinstated.
McCollough, who still teaches at the high school, is Noblesville’s winningest coach with a 308-138 record. He was told that his contract as men’s basketball coach would not be renewed on April 16 and has been replaced by former Kokomo coach Brian McCauley.
In January, McCollough was suspended for a few days and was asked to make a voluntary statement about an alleged incident at a basketball practice by disgruntled players. After the statement was completed and without McCollough’s knowledge or consent, it was changed to include admission by the coach that he threw a ball and struck a player. McCollough claims this was not fact and was changed at the direction of Bryant.
The lawsuit claims Bryant and Noblesville Schools vowed to conduct a “thorough investigation” of the incident. However, many witnesses to the event, including adults, were not interviewed and the students that were interviewed were done so as a group and not individually.
Greg Salmon, video/basketball operator, was at practice and witnessed the incident in question. Salmon said he was one of the adults not spoken to and provided his account at the May 20 school board meeting when the public asked the board to reconsider McCollough’s release:
“To me, it appeared they cherry picked athletes to talk to and were very slow with approaching the adults,” he told the board. “Here’s what happened that no one in the administration that did their thorough investigation thought was important to include: The day of the incident I was in the gym at half court by the bleachers directly across the court from Coach Mac and Pete Dewars watching practice. The reason I was in there was because I do the filming for Noblesville. I’ve done it for almost 20 years and still no one wanted to talk to me about it. During the drill right across from me just short of half court, Coach McCollough called a foul on one of the players. The player proceeded to throw the ball back at Coach Mac with a little extra oomph as if he was upset with the coach. Mac threw the ball back. From where I was standing it did not appear that the ball hit the player, but appeared to graze his hand when he raised it. I had a perfect view looking across the gym. I was right under the basket where I had a half court view standing right next to the manager. Coach Mac said something like, ‘What’s your problem?’ The player responded with, ‘You threw the ball at me.’ Coach Mac responded, ‘You’re right, I did throw the ball at you. You threw it at me.’ And play proceeded without any conversation. From my perspective at the time it seemed to be a non-event and practice went on as usual.”
After the May 20 school board meeting, School Board President Pat Berghoff said it was Bryant’s decision to end McCollough’s contract and determination was not incident specific.
“He was a coach for 20 years. His years of service here are greatly appreciated. You would expect there to be support coming,” Berghoff said at the time. “It’s the right thing to do. Jeff came to the board with his decision and we told him we support his decision then and we still do. His (McCollough) contract expired in March. He fulfilled his terms, we fulfilled ours.”
In his lawsuit, McCollough and his legal counsel claim that Noblesville Schools did not follow their own policies and procedures and prior to his removal. McCollough had not received an evaluation for any of the five previous years or see any player and parent evaluations and discuss them with Bryant or the athletic director. In the lawsuit, McCollough claims Bryant specifically ordered that he not be allowed to see evaluations even for the purposes of responding to any assertions. McCollough also said he was not allowed to appeal his suspension at a hearing before the school board.
The suit also claims McCollough employment required a one-year notice prior to termination and he automatically received a contract extension through the 2014-15 season.
Superintendent Dr. Libbie Conner, Bryant, the Noblesville School Board and its lawyers, Church, Church, Hittle & Antrim, were informed on May 28 that McCollough filed a tort claim notice announcing his intentions to later file the lawsuit.
McCollough and his legal team has asked for a jury trial.
Read more: Noblesville Schools defends decision, comments on basketball coach’s lawsuit
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