DeSoto parents call for resignation of football coach

by Daphne Brown of DeSoto TODAY

DeSoto School Board members took no action in a request by the football booster club to release the district's head football coach and athletic director.

Terry Wilkerson, speaking as a district parent and head of the DeSoto High School Football Booster Club, called for the immediate release of Coach Dave Meadows. The call for dismissal comes after Meadows was named the District 8-5A co-coach of the year.

Addressing the DeSoto School Board Dec. 10, Wilkerson said his request for Meadows' removal was based on the mental and physical well-being of DeSoto athletes asked to play while injured, as well as retaliatory practices by Meadows toward students when parents complain.

Meadows listened to allegations that he played hurt players and called them untrue.

“I'm disappointed,” Meadows said. “It almost makes you wonder if they are really serious about what they are saying.”

Wilkerson presented the school board with letters from the parents of former and current players detailing their strained interaction with Meadows.

“Nobody ever forced students to play injured,” Meadows, who said he has heard the call for his resignation before, said. “They've never accused us of these kinds of things. It's almost sounds like it's personal.”

Meadows said he and Wilkerson meet regularly as heads of the football team and booster club, respectively, so he is not sure where the accusations are coming from.

At the meeting, two people spoke against Meadows and his alleged bullying tactics and three people spoke of how Meadows' athletic program has changed student athletes for the better. Joe Odom of Fellowship for Christian Athletes thanked Meadows and his staff for their work with athletes and evaluating their talent and striving to obtain scholarships for those with the talent to play football at the college level. David Stilwell, a DHS graduate and whose son graduated in 2006, said he supported Meadows because his football program was good for his “habitually underachieving” son.

Scott Galloway, the district's head athletic trainer since 1999, said he took what was being said about playing injured athletes personally.

“The care of injured athletes is ultimately my job and unfortunately when you begin across-the-board accusations like this you begin to insult me and my staff,” Galloway, who detailed for the school board what happens with injured athletes, said. “There's nobody in this district that take injured athletes more serious than me. I take it personally.”

He called Meadows a stabilizing force in a district that has had three superintendents, five high school principals and three athletic directors since his time in the district.

“I've never coached for anyone more committed, especially to the kids,” Galloway said. “He has the highest moral values and integrity.”

Meadows' detractors said the former promises, most recently from former superintendent Alton Frailey and former DHS principal Dr. Aubrey Todd, of removing him as head football coach and retaining him as athletic director are no longer acceptable.

“We're asking for his immediate release,” Wilkerson said.

Terry Orr, a DeSoto resident and the father of four sons, said he is a former athlete and never experienced some of the things Meadows is accused of.

“This is about our kids and what it really boils down to is an integrity issue,” Orr said.

He said if the information provided to the board from parent after parent is not enough to move the school board to action then maybe the community should look at the removal of its school board.

Meadows said he is most proud that students who graduate from his program go on to do well academically and athletically.

“Our players leave here prepared for life,” Meadows said.

DeSoto School Board President Janice Pettis Ingram thanked the parents and community members who attended the meeting and assured those who spoke that they would hear from the superintendent Lloyd Treadwell.

“You are our stakeholders and we take everything you say seriously,” Ingram said. “We are all here for the same reason, for our children, our students.”

She encouraged those cramped into the board room to come back to meetings, but told them the board could not legally discuss Meadows and the request for his removal because it was not a posted agenda item.

“All discussion will take place at a later time,” Ingram said. “We do listen and we do care.”