Three days after firing, Ayala basketball coach re-hired
Three days after he was fired, Kenny Donavon was re-hired as the Ayala High School boys basketball coach on Friday.
At a Tuesday meeting called by Donavon to review his first season as the varsity head coach -- the Bulldogs finished 17-12, third in the Sierra League and reached the second round of the playoffs -- Ayala first-year principal Diana Yarboi fired Donavon much to the surprise of the coach and athletic director Steve Martin, who had not been consulted about the decision.
Yarboi, who could not be reached for comment, offered Donavon his job back on Friday.
"She told me she made a mistake," Martin said. "She's a principal in her first year and I think she was trying to placate as many parents as she could. I think she's discovering, in athletics you can't placate everybody."
Though he expressed distaste for the manner in which he was fired on Tuesday, Donavon was happy to return to his position Friday.
"He just said he wanted all complaints from now on funneled through him," Martin said. "Just like in his social studies class, any complaints about the teachers run though the teachers themselves first."
Donavon was the second Ayala boys basketball coach in two years fired without explanation. On Tuesday, Yarboi wouldn't elaborate on her decision to "go in another direction."
"Mrs. Yarboi realized she had moved too swiftly and decided for the sake of the students, it would be best to offer the job to Mr. Donovan, who accepted," said Julie Gobin, director of media relations for the Chino Valley Unified School District.
2 Comments
Leave a comment
About Clay
Clay Fowler has been covering high school sports for six years in California and Texas. He was born in Dallas, attended the University of Texas and worked in Central Texas before joining the Daily Bulletin staff in 2006.
Email Clay here
Incredible. I don't know anyone involved, or even live in Chino Hills, but this should be the definition of knee jerk. Not even the atletic director knew? What was his offense? Not letting parent tell him how to run the team, I'm betting. Maybe Mrs. Yarboi needs to have her job at the whim of the parents' complaints. Nice one. Maybe Ayala should make this her first and last year as principal.
Forget about replacing the basketball coach, Ayala needs to fire the baseball coach.
0 and 6 in league.