[/media-credit]Mullen's press box displays a banner lauding its success under Dave Logan.
Mullen sparked the ire of its football community in the wake of firing legendary coach Dave Logan.
Stunned players called it “ridiculous,” “a shock,” and “crazy.” Wide receiver Guy Johnson said he felt the school publicly humiliated Logan.
On Twitter, Mullen alums let loose.
Connor Healy, a huge part of Mullen’s 2010 title who is now at the Air Force Academy, wrote, ”I played football at Mullen, (and) I will be forever proud of (that), but I have no affiliation with the school anymore.”
“I honestly am shaking with rage right now,” he added minutes later.
Then, about an hour later, Healy wrote, ”The state championships that we won, they (weren’t) for Mullen, they were for the players and the coaches, never for the school, those are ours.”
Austin Colaizzi, another former Mullen football player: “Completely dumbfounded.”
Brady Daigh, now a linebacker at CU: “R.I.P Mullen. Ur dead to me” and “Beyond mad. Can’t even sleep.”
It was an outrage that extended to the school’s community as a whole.
9News reported that “irate” parents met at a local restaurant where they talked in support of Logan. This morning, some students symbolically broke the dress code by wearing jeans. Others refused to go to class.
“Hardly anybody’s in class right now,” Johnson said this morning. “It’s crazy. I feel like they just fired Nick Saban around here. That’s really what it feels like.”
There was even an organized protest in the school’s parking lot this morning.
The anger over Logan’s firing was expected. But it has been especially sharp because of what the Mullen community has perceived as a lack of reason for the firing.
Yes, Mullen released a statement thanking Logan for his time as coach. Yes, school president Ryan Clement talked with The Post’s Neil Devlin last night, giving token answers about the dismissal. Yes, on the surface, it appears as if firing Logan was a difficult decision.
But if you really read into what Mullen’s said, you’ll find something doesn’t add up. Clement thanks Logan for his “commitment and dedication” in his statement, but then, talking to Neil, says, “We decided the best interest of the school in the long term was someone who can be a full-time member of the school community and be engaged in every facet.”
In other words, Logan’s “commitment and dedication” — something unquestioned by everyone in the program — wasn’t enough. He wasn’t “engaged”?
“I’ve never had a coach, and a coaching staff, that just cared so much and put so much work into game days, film — just everything,” quarterback Cyler Miles said yesterday.
It seems the new administration, which includes new principal Jim Gmelich, wants their own man.
Gmelich, for his part, has made impressive efforts to duck any type of public comment. Mullen had aides kick reporters off of campus yesterday, the school is ignoring voicemails and emails today, and Johnson said students haven’t seen Gmelich, a former Regis Jesuit administrator, around campus this morning.
“At the beginning of the year,” Mullen wide receiver Ty Young said yesterday, “you kind of had a feeling that it was going to be different because we have a new principal. ”
“This new Regis administration is just tearing up things,” added Johnson, the fellow wide receiver. “A lot of people are transferring, even people that are going to be seniors. They just don’t want to be there. I can’t blame them, really, because Mullen has made it not enjoyable to go to school.”
Why was Dave Logan let go? Until Mullen steps up and answers that question, we’re left with this: he wasn’t an on-campus coach. So he was fired.
Oh, yeah, and this: Logan wasn’t the only off-campus coach at Mullen.
