Coaches an endangered species?

Here we go again.

For the second time in as many years, a Columbia County school has chewed up and spit out a football coach. And once again, many parents are rallying to the side of the coach, while the school principal gamely tries to dance away from controversy.

Last year it was Lakeside High School in the hot seat. Then-principal Victor Lee and athletic director Ed Koester got caught hiding some unpleasantness in Koesters background, and both got sacked. Jeff Carney was quickly made principal, and cleaned up the mess by promoting assistant Randy Hill to the head coaching slot.

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Hills debut season wasnt pretty; his Panthers lost every game this past year. Across town, Evans Highs program wasnt doing much better. Its coach of two years, Lee Chomskis, lost all but one game his first year. Last season Chomskis team doubled its wins - beating only Lakeside and a Dekalb County team (also, coincidentally, named Lakeside).

So last week, following several days of twisting in the wind, Chomskis handed in his resignation when Evans Principal Don Brigdon asked the coach to step down.

Was it the back-to-back losing seasons? Or was it Chomskis often rough treatment of players? Dont hold your breath for an explanation from Brigdon. Boosters backing Chomskis will never know the whole story, and Ill never tell them, Brigdon says.

The Evans High family is still sorting all this out, and tight-lipped or not, Brigdon ought to at least come up with a better suitable-for-public-dissemination answer than Ill never tell.

Most of all, Brigdon should back off his plan to shut boosters out of the search for Chomskis successor; without parental support, no high school coach can be successful.

And as Chomskis and Hill prove, its hard enough to win with parents on your side.