Joe Popich ready to move on to next step after Lindbergh | Wrestling

Published 10:27 am Wednesday, March 31, 2010

For Joe Popich, the end to his time as the Lindbergh wrestling coach came as a shock.

In his second season as head coach, the program was growing and improving. But mid-way through the 2009-2010 wrestling season, Ray Garcia, a parent of three Lindbergh wrestlers, changed everything with the assertion that the Lindbergh coaches mentally abused wrestlers and Popich, 27, gave pills to wrestlers.

“I honestly thought it could be interpreted as a hoax,” Popich said. “That’s how far-fetched all those accusations were.”

While an investigation by the Renton School District quickly found the abuse allegations were false, the pills – later established to be pre-natal vitamins – were a different story. Popich was placed on administrative leave while the district investigated further. Renton School District policy is that coaches are not allowed to give students any sort of vitamins or pills.

“It was devastating, not being able to talk to them, not being able to go to leagues (Seamount League match) and watch them,” Popich said of the Lindbergh wrestlers. “I was just basically like being excommunicated out of your kid’s life. … Some of them I’ve been with for three years. It was very difficult.”

Meanwhile, the district determined six students who said Popich gave them vitamins during the 2008-2009 season.

Popich found it odd the district didn’t make an attempt to thoroughly interview his coaching staff, which included volunteers who were students on the previous year’s team. But Renton School District spokesman Randy Matheson said it simply wasn’t necessary.

“I think when we have an adult who we’re asking a question, then he admits to doing something wrong, we’ve got one piece of evidence we need,” Matheson said. “Then we talk to eight students and six of them say the same thing independently, I think our investigation has concluded.”

The disagreement between the two sides seems to be with some of Popich’s comments while the district was interviewing him. According to the district’s dismissal letter to Popich Feb. 19: “You stated that you gave one student a bottle of pre-natal vitamins when the father was present during a tournament. … During this same interview, you changed your statement that you gave the vitamins to the student’s father, and repeatedly stated that you did not give any pills to students.”

Popich said he never said he gave pills directly to students and used the example of giving vitamins to a parent as an illustration of how he would go about it. He did once give vitamins to a parent, but it was three years ago when he was an assistant with Lindbergh.

Popich felt like the district was going to measures to quickly end the situation and avoid further conflict, regardless of the validity of the outcome.

“It seemed like they were just trying to quickly sweep me under the carpet,” he said. “This is my passion and my reputation is on the line. I’ve spent so many hours on this and the kids are like my family. There was no other choice than to fight it in my mind.”

After finding the school planned to terminate him, Popich hired a lawyer. Before a planned pre-termination hearing March 15, the district, Popich and his lawyer agreed that Popich would resign in return for a letter of recommendation from the district.

He still disputes the results of the district’s investigation.

“If I were to hand out pills to a team of 15 kids, I think more than one parent would complain and they wouldn’t wait an entire year,” Popich said.

Up until the incident, Popich had a good relationship with all of his wrestlers, including the Garcia brothers.

There was friction between Ray Garcia and Popich, which started in the 2005-2006 season when Popich was the head coach at Tyee, where he also wrestled as a student, and Garcia the head coach at Lindbergh. Popich eventually replaced Garcia as Lindbergh head coach.

“He never came to one match to watch his sons in the two years I was coaching,” Popich said. “I have no idea where this personal attack came from. The only logic I can think of is that it wasn’t me personally, it was my position. He was out for blood and he got blood.”

Garcia did not respond to requests to be interviewed.

The team and supporters signed a petition when Popich was placed on administrative leave, praising everything from the team’s improvement under Popich to his conditioning methods and coaching style, as well as their desire to have Popich back as coach.

“We do not want another head coach,” the petition reads. “We want Joe Popich to be the head coach for the Lindbergh wrestling team; we do not want to wrestle for any other coach.”

After the investigation concluded, some of the students who admitted Popich gave them vitamins signed another petition stating, “The investigation pertaining to Coach Popich was more of an ‘interrogation’ that the school dictated and influenced our answers when interviewed.”

Matheson said these claims are hard to understand because the students were all familiar with their interviewer.

Matheson also reasserted the district was happy with Popich’s coaching, other than this situation.

“We didn’t go at this as a way to rid of Coach Popich. We investigated it as we do any other complaint,” Matheson said. “We know him to be a good coach. This was just an error in judgment.”

Though the majority of his time at Lindbergh was positive, Popich is left with a sour taste about how things ended. He plans to take time off from coaching to focus on being with his 5-year-old son but expects to coach again in the future.

“The Garcias were fantastic kids. … I wish the kids the best of luck and I really hope they do well,” he said. “I’m extremely hurt by all these accusations, even the ones that didn’t stick.”