The beat goes on at Duarte High School where boys basketball coach Wil White called this morning to say he was fired, disputing principal Eric Barba’s assertion that he quit. White’s credentials are strong, he was head women’s coach at East L.A. College, San Bernardino College and coached the boys basketball team at Blair prior to joining the Falcons last year, where they won three games, which actually was an improvement from previous years. White was about to begin his second season in a couple weeks, but according to White, he had a disagreement with principal Eric Barba and the two parted ways. “I just want people to know that coach White didn’t walk out, I love the kids, I love the community, and I am confident we were getting close to turning the corner. Without going into everything, I was let go and not happy with the reasons or the way he (Barba) spoke with me. I spend way too much money taking these kids around and putting in my time to be demeaned for a $1,500 stipend. I felt I had to put that out there.”
Principal Barba sent an email in response. I won’t share all of it, but his message was clear. Here it is. Wil White was called in Friday, November 5th to discuss an issue. Within 5 minutes of the meeting he took his school keys off his key chain and put them on my desk mumbling nonsense. I have no doubt he cares for the young men on the team but you can’t quit on your team weeks before the season starts. We had to quickly come up with plan B coaching wise. Luckily we had several great applicants last year. We will announce a new coach soon. Had Wil White called me or the athletic director that first weekend after he quit we would have been able to work something out. No one wants to replace a coach this close to the start of the season.
