Undefeated, ranked #1 High School coach fired

gobigblue812_rivals29381 · Tuesday at 12:02 PM

In mid-season... I'm guessing something bad behind the scenes happened.

High school coach fired in midst of undefeated start and #1 state ranking

Providence Catholic (New Lenox, IL) dismissed head coach Tyler Plantz on Saturday.

www.footballscoop.com

catfanlou · Tuesday at 12:10 PM

That is incredible.

Littlecreek10 · Tuesday at 2:35 PM

There might be stuff behind the scenes but nothing surprises me anymore. Our HS fired our basketball coach and he had the second most wins by a coach in school history. Some of the parents were upset that their kids weren't the star of the team or didn't get to play enough. I wouldn't be surprised if our football coach left after this season the way some parents are acting. Even one who's kid transferred to another school can't stay off Facebook taking shots at the coach every week. HS coaches aren't baby sitters. You couldn't pay me $100,000/yr to coach HS sports and deal with idiot parents.

CatBearPig · Tuesday at 6:39 PM

Not sure what happened but people need to learn that winning sports games isn’t the most important thing. Our society lost that somewhere and it shows.

Johnny_Jeepers · Tuesday at 8:11 PM

I heard he was bad at clock management.

Catlogic1552 · Tuesday at 8:49 PM

Johnny_Jeepers said:
I heard he was bad at clock management.

I‘m hearing it was more like cock management.

Son_Of_Saul · Tuesday at 8:58 PM

gobigblue812_rivals29381 said:
In mid-season... I'm guessing something bad behind the scenes happened.

High school coach fired in midst of undefeated start and #1 state ranking

Providence Catholic (New Lenox, IL) dismissed head coach Tyler Plantz on Saturday.

www.footballscoop.com

I live nearby and the story is that Father Merkelis told Coach Plantz he was done because of disorginization with the early season games (which Plantz had no control over). Father Merkelis also told him he didn't like the way Coach Plantz dealt with the families as well as how he handled recruiting. Evidently the money people and some teachers weren't getting their way with their kids playing meaningful minutes.

It appears to be political. Merkelis caved due to parental pressure. Got to keep that money flowing, eh, Father Merkypiss?

LineSkiCat14 · Tuesday at 10:39 PM

Littlecreek10 said:
There might be stuff behind the scenes but nothing surprises me anymore. Our HS fired our basketball coach and he had the second most wins by a coach in school history. Some of the parents were upset that their kids weren't the star of the team or didn't get to play enough. I wouldn't be surprised if our football coach left after this season the way some parents are acting. Even one who's kid transferred to another school can't stay off Facebook taking shots at the coach every week. HS coaches aren't baby sitters. You couldn't pay me $100,000/yr to coach HS sports and deal with idiot parents.

There has to be more to the story about your HS basketball coach. When your successful to that degree, you dont just get fired because some parents are unhappy about playing time.

Littlecreek10 · Wednesday at 12:57 PM

LineSkiCat14 said:
There has to be more to the story about your HS basketball coach. When your successful to that degree, you dont just get fired because some parents are unhappy about playing time.

Nope, and I had connections to the team. It's been building for a couple of years now. When you have families that think they can control everything, especially in a small town school, and the coach doesn't care who you are, this is what happens. He did have a temper but it's nothing compared to the coaches I played for. When daddys coach the kids in middle school and then when they get in high school the kids get exposed as not as good as daddy made them look, so they want to blame the hs coach instead of accepting reality. Now they got a coach they can control.( Sorry, just blowing off steam, I hate to see this happen. If I say much more people will figure out who I am talking about and who I am.)

cordmaker 74 · Wednesday at 4:32 PM

Happened in the county I live in, bunch of parents got together and went to the superintendent, then he was let go.

*Fox2Monk* · Wednesday at 6:31 PM

CatBearPig said:
Not sure what happened but people need to learn that winning sports games isn’t the most important thing. Our society lost that somewhere and it shows.

Our society is cooked. It keeps getting worse too.

KYAnywhereEverywhere · Thursday at 9:05 AM

The letter at the end of the article that the coach wrote in response to the firing makes it sound like there were parents that just didn't like him, parents that apparently have some leverage over the school's decisions. I'm guessing some "important" parents were upset that their little Johnnies and Jalens weren't playing enough.

kywildcat1021979 · Thursday at 9:11 AM

KYAnywhereEverywhere said:
The letter at the end of the article that the coach wrote in response to the firing makes it sound like there were parents that just didn't like him, parents that apparently have some leverage over the school's decisions. I'm guessing some "important" parents were upset that their little Johnnies and Jalens weren't playing enough.

The good old politics in high school sounds about par for course.... Seen this a lot when my daughter was playing sports in high school.

KYAnywhereEverywhere · Thursday at 1:54 PM

kywildcat1021979 said:
The good old politics in high school sounds about par for course.... Seen this a lot when my daughter was playing sports in high school.

My brother was a local baseball star in highschool. One year his team made a run at the state championship. I was young, can't quite remember, but they lost in either the semifinal or final. The coach of that team only coached that one year. After the year he quit, because he couldn't stand the chatter from parents, specifically parents fussing that their kids weren't playing enough. The next year the team was bad, but the previously disgruntled parents were happy because their kids were getting to play.

Littlecreek10 · 2026-09-18T17:21:47-0500

cordmaker 74 said:
Happened in the county I live in, bunch of parents got together and went to the superintendent, then he was let go.

We could be talking about the same school.

Littlecreek10 · 2026-09-18T17:24:09-0500

KYAnywhereEverywhere said:
My brother was a local baseball star in highschool. One year his team made a run at the state championship. I was young, can't quite remember, but they lost in either the semifinal or final. The coach of that team only coached that one year. After the year he quit, because he couldn't stand the chatter from parents, specifically parents fussing that their kids weren't playing enough. The next year the team was bad, but the previously disgruntled parents were happy because their kids were getting to play.

Some parents would rather the team stink and their kid play or be the star than for the team to be good and their kid be just a role player

cordmaker 74 · 2026-09-19T05:48:24-0500

Littlecreek10 said:
We could be talking about the same school.

The Berg?

Littlecreek10 · 2026-09-19T06:47:20-0500

cordmaker 74 said:
The Berg?

No, not the same

chroix · 2026-09-19T07:23:57-0500

Littlecreek10 said:
No, not the same

They’re all the same.

chroix · 2026-09-19T07:25:01-0500

You know how it works.

Littlecreek10 · 2026-09-19T12:09:33-0500

chroix said:
They’re all the same.

I mean not the same school that we were each talking about

chroix · 2026-09-19T14:42:54-0500

Littlecreek10 said:
I mean not the same school that we were each talking about

I understood that. I'm saying money rules all of them no matter what they say. When it comes down to it, they're all the same.

Undefeated, ranked #1 High School coach fired

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