Malkowiak reinstated at Uniontown
Following a five-week suspension for alleged misconduct on a trip to Florida, Annie Malkowiak was reinstated Friday as Uniontown High School’s girls basketball coach. Whether Malkowiak will ever coach the Lady Raiders again remains uncertain.
“The union had filed a grievance on her behalf, asking that she be reinstated and receive full back pay,” Charles Machesky, Uniontown Area School District Superintendent, said early Saturday evening. “If we would have proceeded to arbitration, it would have cost the taxpayers x-amount of dollars. It could have ranged anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000. I figured it would give the taxpayers a break.
“I stress, however, that at no time were the allegations about Ms. Malkowiak discussed. This was done to avoid arbitration. I am going to the (school) board meeting Wednesday and I will recommend to the board to open the position. If she reapplies, I will not recommend her for the job.”
Which blindsided Malkowiak.
“This is coming from a man who made a public statement that he’s my biggest fan and that he supports me 100 percent,” Malkowiak said. “How can you make a comment that you’re my biggest supporter, then turn around and say I’m going to recommend the job be opened and not recommend you?”
The saga started after Uniontown returned from the KSA Disney Classic, where it captured third place, on New Year’s Eve. The team was originally scheduled to leave Orland International Airport for Pittsburgh at 7:30 p.m. on a Planet Airways charter. But tornado warnings, along with the possibility a flight crew wouldn’t be available, forced the team to wait four hours until a flight crew from U.S. Airways was assembled.
It was during the four-hour delay that Malkowiak was accused of improper conduct. She admitted to Machesky, as did assistant coaches Lisa Nesser and Scott Van Sickle, of having one drink with dinner, but adamantly denies any misbehavior.
“I had one drink with dinner and 12 Diet Cokes,” Malkowiak said. “But you never hear about the Diet Cokes.”
“That’s ridiculous,” said Dan Fisher, who wasn’t present on the trip but whose daughter, Emily , a senior on the team, was. “She should not be reinstated. She brought this team down. She did things in Florida that made every kid on the team call home crying on New Year’s Eve. Every one of the parents should be irate.”
Malkowiak was suspended initially for one game by Machesky Jan. 10, and three days later, was informed she, Nesser and Van Sickle were suspended for the remainder of the season.
On Friday, Malkowiak received a phone call from union representative Julie Grego, a teacher in the Uniontown School District, informing her of Machesky’s decision to lift the suspension and award her back salary of $1,100. Malkowiak received an official letter Saturday from Machesky basically reiterating what Grego had told her a day earlier.
“Honestly, I knew it was just a matter of time because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong,” Malkowiak said. “From the day I was suspended, I never knew why. Even in my suspension letters, there was never a reason given to me why I was suspended.
“They talked to people who were on the trip and they said “nothing happened.” They took allegations of a couple people who weren’t on the trip. They based their reasoning on that and suspended me.
“Is this a witch hunt? I think so. Are there people who were mad because their kid wasn’t playing enough? Yes. Were there parents mad because their kids didn’t go on the trip? Yes. But were there going to be other trips? Yes. Were the kids who missed this trip going to go on them? Yes. If anybody had any questions, they could have taken the time to talk to me. The parents who took the time to talk to me and find out what really happened, they don’t have a problem. But there were people who decided not to talk to me. They took a different route.
“My question is, and I probably won’t get an answer, is knowing what I’ve done for the past three years with the program, why would you want to open the position? Typically, when coaches get hired, they are granted three-to-five years to turn around a program. I’ve done that. I think it’s going where I want it to go and a lot of good things have happened.”
In 1999, Malkowiak took over a struggling program that had won only seven games in the two years prior to her arrival and guided the Lady Raiders to 11 wins. Uniontown won 13 games in Malkowiak’s second year before posting 16 victories and qualifying for the WPIAL Quad-A playoffs last season.
“She took them to the playoffs for one reason, loads of talent,” Dan Fisher said. “She had a team last year that should have gone further than it did. As far as what she did in Florida, it was all wrong. If a bus driver or any other teacher would drink, they would be gone. This has ruined the year for my daughter. They were highly ranked at the start of the season and all of a sudden, the team falls apart. She’s (Malkowiak) did that to the team.”
At the time of Malkowiak’s suspension, Uniontown was 8-7. Nesser was on the bench for a non-section win over Latrobe, then Jason Winfrey served as interim coach the remainder of the season and posted a 2-6 mark.
I think it’s marvelous she was reinstated,” said Paula Sanner, who accompanied the team to Florida and whose daughter Courtney started as a freshman this season. “She didn’t do anything wrong to begin with. I think a lot of parents had it in for her. We had a meeting with the parents when the team got back from Florida and there were so many other issues brought up other than what happened at the airport. Parents were upset because of the playing time their kids were getting.”
Machesky, however, said his decision to first suspend Malkowiak was based entirely on what allegedly transpired in Florida.
“I felt there was credible evidence presented while she was at the airport that warranted the disciplinary action I took. I have written testimony from students, and that’s what I based my original decision on. I have eyewitness testimony from girls who not only played, but started.
“This wasn’t about sour grapes.”
Malkowiak agrees. She said it resembles more of a witch hunt.
“I have the same written testimony that was given to Mr. Machesky,” Malkowiak said. “They are opinions of one or two players who were not with me or my assistants when we went to eat. They can’t tell you what we ate, or what we drank. Mr. Machesky is telling me that he has these written statements. Why didn’t he call me in and ask me my side of the story. If you want to do this right and have due process, why can’t you defend yourself when people make allegations against you. That’s not fair to me. And it’s not fair to a coach who comes after me if I’m not here next season.
“Was this a witch hunt? I think it was. A week before they suspended me, I was told by other teachers throughout the district and other coaches in Fayette County that they were called by someone in the district about being the coach at Uniontown. I received a phone call by a well-known coach who told me, ” I don’t want your job.” That person told me someone in the district talked to them about my job.
“Throughout this whole thing, I’ve never had a problem looking in the mirror. I’ve poured my heart and soul into the Uniontown program. I don’t coach basketball for the money. What coach does? I love the game, feel I have a lot to offer and that I give back to the game that has gave me so much. Nobody can take away my work ethic and my love of the game. I really couldn’t say much to the media before on the advisement of my attorney, but I think I’ve handled myself very well throughout this whole thing.
“It just really bothers me the way this whole thing was handled. If you want to open my job up, wait until the season is over and open it up. But don’t go through this whole episode of casting not only a negative shadow on me but on the team as well. These kids have had four or five coaches in the last seven or eight years. You’re never going to have a successful program, whether it’s basketball, football, baseball or softball doing that.
“I’ve had health problems, and I never let that affect my coaching. I could have, or maybe should have, took time off at the beginning of the season and dealt with the problems, but couldn’t do that to those kids. I was going to stick with them, suck it up and make it through the year. I kept coaching for them. That’s what hurts the most. I didn’t want to give up on them. That’s how highly I felt about this district. I left a job at California University, one which paid more, because they wanted me to be in this district around the kids. I guess I’m going to just have to put this behind me. Someone told me that tough times don’t last, tough people do.”