The only hope he has is that the community rally, I guess you would call it, works.
<font color="#FF0000">There were probably 20 cars at the so-called rally to save his job. Most of those people were family friends and not player's parents.</font>
This sounds kind of like Hoosiers.
<font color="#FF0000">Hester has been in trouble more than this time with both confrontations between him and other coaches (specifically football and basketball). On two occasions he has had physical confrontations with a couple of the football coaches over the years that cost him some time in "time out." He's notorious for approaching a kid in a class or PE and badgering him about quitting the other sport only to play baseball. Last year he got into a chest bumping contest with the new football coach over a kid who wanted to kick for the football team. It could have been avoided had Hester just let the kid play what he wanted to and left the situation alone.</font>
My honest thought- Hester had to win 4A this year for this to totally blow over. He didn't do it, and he might be done.
<font color="#FF0000">No, even a state championship this year would no have prevented this from happening. He was already on his way out after the event that happened in the dugout at Hernando. When the administration asked each player to write on paper what they saw in the dugout, that pretty much did him in at New Hope. </font>
I'm not going to defend Hester's actions- especially since I have no doubt that he did some things that he really probably shouldn't have done. But at the same time, I think it's even more dispicable that someone is going to get his head mainly because they didn't agree with his coaching style. For some reason, people don't understand the competitive side of sports. They seem to think that it should be like YMCA where everyone goes out and has a good time. To me, the beauty of sports, and baseball in particular, is getting a group of guys together, putting forth hard work, and in the end have a season that you can be proud of for doing said hard work. To me, it's the thought and dream that you can work hard and maybe if things work out right, you can win a championship and be proud of it. It's not about making sure everyone has a good time.
<font color="#FF0000">Disagree with his coaching style? You are reading an article that Hester approached the Sport's Editor to write for him. This is his last attempt to try and stir up support for him but you can consider it a FAIL. Most parents and fans will agree with his coaching style but can't handle his anger problems. Putting your elbow up to a kid's throat is unacceptable and that is exactly what the kids wrote when they told what happened in the dugout. The tripping on the step is just his version of what happened. They had to grab one of the senior starters and restrain him from jumping on Hester when he pinned the Tice kid up against the wall. That's how serious it got down in the hole.
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<font color="#FF0000">If Hester would have just coached baseball and let the kids do like he did in high school, play all the sports he wanted too, things would have been much easier for him. However, if a kid played multiple sports there was always Hester continously confronting the player to quit the other sports. He would do this everytime he ran into that kid and constantly throw up the other sports in practice. Many of his followers would tell you that he would never do this, but he did. I know this for a fact because my son played more than just baseball. He constantly was harrassed by Hester because he didn't dropped the other two sports and spend his life on the baseball field. He tried not to let this phase him and we stayed as positive as possible during the whole ordeal from the 8th grade up.
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<font color="#FF0000">My son survived, as many others have done, and is currently playing in the NAIA World Series this week.
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Having been apart of the New Hope community for a very short time, and a long time ago, I can tell you that even then there were people with a vendetta out to get Hester. He always had, ironically to me, Halford of all people backing him up. Now, let me say this- this was 10 years ago, a lot can change in that amount of time, and this seems to be a case where Halford may very well have his hands tied. I did notice that the principal backed up Hester.
<font color="#FF0000">You are right on this. Mr. Halford did do a lot for Hester like routing extra money to his program ($50,000 from the money they got to build the new football stadium which he used to build the new pressbox and offices). I won't go into any of the other many things he did to help baseball. I was totally thrown for a loop when I read the articles in the paper. I don't know exactly what he has said to the superintendent, but something has changed. I do know that Hester told Mr. Halford and Mr. Wright (principal) that they couldn't fire him because of what he had done for New Hope school and that the people would never stand for it. I am betting this is what changed the way Halford is thinking.
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I will back up what some have said in this thread in that he is a great coach, and he will get scooped up very quickly if they get rid of him. As a Madison Central fan, I would welcome him even as an assistant, as I see no reason to fire Gregg Perry (Hey! Gregg! Thanks for the 5A Championship. Uhhh....now we want to move in another direction). I also think that the New Hope job is a good one- I would be willing to bet that they go after Chris Chism at Hernando, if they aren't doing so already.
I also feel badly for the player that was involved, no matter what happened or happens. Talk about getting caught in the crossfire.
<font color="#FF0000">I just don't understand why the Tice family crawfished on this. They were ready to sue the man at one time and then they just turned 180 degrees. That's for them to deal with but doesn't wipe the slate clean for Hester.
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<font color="#FF0000">Here are some events over the years that have happened with Hester at the helm:
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<font color="#FF0000">Hester was playing kids who were in the 8th grade up on the 9th grade team and then playing them again in 8th grade games. The rule said back then that once they moved up they could not play back down. The school was sanctioned, FINED and Hester was suspended from coaching for so many games. He thought he could do what he wanted and no one would touch him.
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<font color="#FF0000">Hester has been caught more than once and slapped on the hand by the MHSAA for practicing after school during the Fall. The rule says you can practice 7th period if your school has one but when the final bell rings, you have to leave the field and fieldhouse until the next day. As one of his assistant coaches said once, he's not doing it to necessarily practice more in the Fall, but to prevent the football players from getting to practice on time. Sad, but true because this is the way the man thinks. He was always notorious for moving the younger players up to the varsity squad after regular season in the Spring so that they could not go to Spring football practice. Again, trying to kill another program anyway he could. It would have been alright if those players were going to contribute, but probably one or two did over 15 years.
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<font color="#FF0000">Hester's actions after that Petal playoff game was very very embarrassing for the school. He did act like an *** to the other team and coaches and should have been suspended then but Mr. Halford did nothing. It didn't have to happen and just because you get your *** handed to you on the field doesn't give you a right to do what he did.
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<font color="#FF0000">Hester and Coach Byrd have been up in each other's face more than once over basketball players who played baseball. Also, Byrd got pissed when all the money he had raised from ticket sales during the time they had those good teams got put into the baseball account so that they could bring baseball out of the red. Things like that done by the administration really kept the friction going between baseball and other revenue producing programs. This happened more than once over the years.
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<font color="#FF0000">Hester played a player who had moved to Sturgis for almost two years. The kid's mom was working in Columbus and would bring the kids back to New Hope each day. They had built a home in Sturgis but wanted to go to New Hope. Again, he got caught by the MHSAA and yet another embarrassment to the school. He held a special meeting and chewed out the parents because someone had turned him in. He always blamed someone else.
Hester teaches drivers education as his classroom activity. About 5 years ago he came riding up in school traffic in the morning and his 6th grade daughter was driving the car in heavy traffic. He was reported and put on probation by the school principal. Again, he thinks he is untouchable.
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<font color="#FF0000">That same year he had parked his truck in front of the school and was blocking traffic along where buses pulled into the school. The county deputy who was on duty at the school that morning went in and asked him to move his truck. He got smart with the guy and it took a two hour meeting to calm the deputy down who was about to haul Hester off to jail. Again, move the truck and you have no problem but he thought he was that important. It definitely created a hazard with the road being very narrow at that point.
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<font color="#FF0000">Then there was the chest bumping incident with the current football coach at the school in front of all the kids. He thought he would intimidate Coach Bradley and the little bulldog didn't back down. Both were suspended for a few days without pay.
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<font color="#FF0000">This is by far not all the things that Mr. Halford had to handle that Hester caused. But for you saying this is a witch hunt, I just wanted to outline some of the things that have led up to this point. I hope you take note that not once have I said anything about his coaching. I won't do that. Didn't always agree with him but that's his job and I got mine. I will say that he doesn't work well one on one with the players. That is where the program misses people like Chris Chism and Coach Dowdy. Those guys were the ones who constantly spent many many hours in the fieldhouse with the kids and made sure the kids worked hard when the fieldhouse was open. Hester doesn't have the patience to spend that time with individuals because he thinks it is below him. He stays on the kids for not living in the fieldhouse, but all he does is unlock it (most of the time he doesn't have to do that because the kids have copies of the keys) and go work with his landscaping business in the summer. He never spends time there with them.</font>
