The mailbox burst at its seams since July 7 with letters in response to Jerry Snodgrass being fired by the OHSAA. Too many to share them all, here’s a sampling of what we received.
In three weeks we’ll embark on our 11th season of Press Pros – our eighth year of the regular monthly posting of the ‘Reader Speaks’ column.
But in those eight years we’ve never had the kind of response of comments that our July 15 column attracted singularly (The OHSAA’s Side of Things), following the July 6 firing of popular Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass. In total, more than 179,000 people read and shared the story. On a given topic we might normally receive a half dozen emails or Facebook messages. On the Snodgrass story…almost seventy, Facebook and emails combined, from all points of the state.
Many were redundant, and many were dissatisfied with the OHSAA’s choosing not to share more facts. Given its speculative and sensitive nature, there were many expressing concern who wanted more – separation of rumor and fact.
Can’t post them all, here’s a cross section of what we received:
“Appreciate that Press Pros made an attempt at getting the facts of his firing. And it doesn’t look like they got much cooperation. Disappointing.” … Ken Marko
“Literally NOTHING in this article says why the OHSAA removed Snodgrass. A lot of redirecting, deflection, and passing the responsibility on to someone else. The fact that they’re anticipating future litigation is enough to conclude that something went wrong – i.e., a wrongful termination suit.” … Brian Wical (Via Facebook)
“What’s disappointing in the OHSAA’s response is the lack of accountability, something they stress in their agenda to young people.” … Chuck DeSantis
“The description that stands out is your sentence from the July 7 post. ‘Jerry Snodgrass didn’t even get a handshake line.’” … Joyce Lentz (Via Facebook)
“It’s irresponsible when you tell kids to respect the game when you don’t respect each other. I’ve known Jerry for a long time and will not embarrass him by attaching my name to this email. But Jerry has always been responsible for seeing a situation and improving it through commitment to a proper game plan and hard work. There’s a very good reason why this happened. Read between the lines.” … Name Witheld
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“From my experience issues with personnel is never a good thing. The tail wags the dog. Very sad.” … Gerald Recker
“Here come the attorneys. Shouldn’t cost more than a half million!” … Brad Rantz
“As to the board having one direction and Snodgrass another, I’ve met him and was impressed with his willingness to answer questions and his command of facts regarding areas of concern, like competitive balance. If being accessible and willing to address the public is the wrong direction, what is the alternative?” … Jack Riess (Via Facebook)
“There was nothing really helpful from this article to help you understand why he got fired. But I do wonder about the difference in direction, and did he inherit a bad situation? Were there too many fat cats? Why was the football tournament held in a stadium with 100,000 seats? And why they made it so easy for people to stay away from the tournaments? These were decisions already in place when Snodgrass took over. And wasn’t there a board of directors then, too? ” … Michael Berman
“I noticed that there was very little mentioned about Covid-19 in either of the articles. Why?” … Wm. Boecker
“Hey kids, are you paying attention? Wouldn’t you rather be playing fall sports?“… Jim Kuechly
“Apparently high school sports is about much more than respecting the game.” … Dennis Zelinka
“This stood out to me. ‘I wouldn’t call it damage control. I know what you mean by your question, but I would phrase [answer] the question as an effort to refocus – a restart plan for school sports.’ If he knew what you meant by your question, why not just answer the question? Or this. ‘I certainly understand people’s desires for answers, but right now we’re moving forward with the things we can control.’ Really?” … Mitch Holbein
“Old Buckeye and frequent reader. Had hoped for something better. As to the title of the article (More Questions Than Answers) my concern would be that the current culture makes it impossible for the OHSAA to ever answer those questions.” … James Starner
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