Coulter resigns; Rams baseball in flux
The immediate future of the Ringgold baseball team is in limbo because of problems that occurred during the team’s trip to Orlando, Fla. the last week in March.
Rams head baseball coach James Coulter resigned, but did not admit any wrongdoing. Instead, he said he was stepping aside so the program can move on, “like any good leader,” he said.
Apparently, the team was under-chaperoned on its booster-sponsored trip to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. Reports of player hazing and alcohol consumption are being investigated by the school district, according to sources.
A letter from the high school principal allegedly said an unidentified teacher overheard players talking about the trip last Wednesday and reported the incident. The next day, administrators interviewed players and coaches.
Athletic Director Laura Grimm did not return a phone call from the Herald-Standard, but previously said that, according to contract language, all assistant baseball coaches also were dismissed when the head coach resigned.
The Rams (1-0, with a few rainouts) are supposed to open Section 3-AAAA action Monday at West Mifflin, host Keystone Oaks on Wednesday before traveling to Uniontown on Friday.
A report said some games already had been postponed, while the district tries to put an interim coaching staff together.
“We are in the process of our investigation,” school board president William C. Stein Jr. said. “Allegations of hazing or any other kind of misconduct, we take very seriously.”
The hazing apparently involved some voluntary wrestling matches, where losers vowed to do certain things for winners.
Coulter said he heard that alcohol may have been provided by players from another team also in Orlando to play baseball.
“How is that on me to stop that?” Coulter said. He noted that he made random spot checks of rooms throughout the stay.
Coulter was accompanied by assistant coach Josh Chambers while a second assistant, Dean Burge, did not make the trip. “Two people, 28 kids, you do the math.”
Grimm noted that the proposal presented to the school board seeking permission to make the trip called for four chaperones, noting that had the district known only two chaperones were available, the trip would have been denied.
Coulter was an assistant coach with the program last year.