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Following allegations that he verbally and physically abused players, Highland Park High School head football coach Rich McGlynn will not be on the sidelines for Thursday’s annual Thanksgiving Day game against Metuchen.
Citing a “personnel matter” that precludes him from discussing with the media McGlynn’s status, Schools Superintendent Scott Taylor said in a prepared statement that “there is an ongoing investigation” and that the veteran mentor “will not be coaching” in Thursday’s game.
McGlynn’s attorney, Edward Cridge, said the allegations against his client, the most serious of which is punching a student in the face and leaving him with a black eye, “are comprehensively denied” and that McGlynn “will be vindicated at the conclusion of this process.”
READ: Storied Highland Park football program keeps striving despite low numbers
Owner of a 47-66 record during 11 seasons at Highland Park, McGlynn, whose peers voted him 2016 Greater Middlesex Conference Blue Division Coach of the Year, is a tenured physical education teacher at the high school.
Asked if he believed the allegations regarding McGlynn’s conduct were true, senior Kyle Hagin, a four-year letterwinner interviewed with parental permission and in the presence of his mother, said “absolutely not.”
“I’ve been with McGlynn for four years now,” said Hagin, adding he has known McGlynn since middle school. “He never to me has been abusive in any of those years, and I’ve never seen him be abusive to anyone else. Knowing him, he wouldn’t be abusive to anyone else. It’s not in his personality. I see there is going to be an investigation. I know they are not going to find anything. I know (McGlynn) is a good person.”
Hagin said he believed that “everybody on the football team currently does not believe the allegations” and that hearing of them “made me mad.”
An investigation commenced after four students from the high school, three of whom are former football players, made the allegations of physical and verbal abuse during the public comment portion of Monday’s Board of Education meeting.
The students identified themselves before addressing the board, but MyCentralJersey.com is withholding their names because the students are believed to be minors.
The students presented to the board a petition, which more than 80 of their Highland Park classmates allegedly signed, asking the district to investigate McGlynn’s conduct because, the students said, repeated attempts to have Taylor and high school principal Michael Lassiter look into the allegations were unsuccessful.
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School board president Darcie Cimarusti told the four students during Monday’s meeting that the board can’t discuss personnel matters in public, but that the board was “listening and hearing” their concerns.
In addition to punching a student in the face, McGlynn is alleged to have:
- Constantly cursed and used offensive language on and off the field.
- Thrown a chair in the direction of a player who arrived late for a game.
- Grabbed players by their face masks and smacked their helmets together.
- Cost a student-athlete his job when that player was fired for arriving late to work after McGlynn kept the student too long at practice.
Former Highland Park assistant coach Mike Warnock, who left the Owls after seven seasons to become the head coach at Metuchen earlier this year, said McGlynn is a "high-character person."
“I coached with him for seven years but I’ve been friends with him and known him even longer than that,” Warnock said. “There is nobody who cares more about the kids and the sport of football than him. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He is willing to help any kid he can. I’ve been so honored to work with him.”
Robyn Decicco, the mother of a Highland Park player, said during the public comment portion of Monday’s school board meeting that her son, who is now a junior, suffered a concussion while playing football as a freshman. When her son missed a subsequent practice, Decicco said McGlynn told her son that being concussed was no excuse.
“Obviously, he’s not looking out for the well-being" of student-athletes, Decicco alleged, adding she attempted to have school officials investigate McGlynn’s conduct. “I spoke to the administration. They didn’t say anything. They just let it go. I really hope somebody does something.”
READ: 2017 Highland Park football preview
Lorraine Poku, the mother of a Highland Park student, told the school board McGlynn "harassed" her son to play football.
"I have told my son numerous times tell (McGlynn) I said no," Poku said. "If (McGlynn) approaches him one more time — and this will be the last time— (McGlynn) will not hear a very good no from me."
A program with a rich and storied tradition that dates back to the 1930s, Highland Park, whose roster in recent years has averaged around 35 players, struggled to field a team this season.
The Owls forfeited their opener to Bishop Ahr due to limited manpower and will enter Thursday’s game against Metuchen with approximately 17 players. The meeting is the 83rd between Highland Park and Metuchen, whose rivalry began in 1937.
"I feel sorry for (McGlynn)," Hagin said, "because he’s been dealing with the hardest season of his life, just trying to get kids to play, and now he has to deal with" the allegations.
The Owls, who are 0-9, have not had a winless season since Highland Park first played a complete season schedule 80 years ago.
“We are just trying to survive,” McGlynn told MyCentralJersey.com earlier this year. “I feel if we can find a way to make it through the season, that would be an unbelievable accomplishment.”
Highland Park has groomed several outstanding college players, the most notable of which is L.J. Smith, a 1997 graduate of the high school who went on to enjoy a successful NFL career including a Super Bowl appearance with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Former NFL Most Valuable Player Joe Theismann, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, was impressed with the perseverance of Highland Park while watching the Owls play a game last month against South River, his high school alma mater.
“I admire the living daylights out of every one of them,” Theismann told MyCentralJersey.com on the day of the game, which Highland Park lost 49-20. “It doesn’t matter what the score is. The score is insignificant in my opinion in this particular game.
"It’s the fact that these kids just keep on playing and going and going. And I admire them tremendously.”
The allegations against McGlynn begin at the 58-minute mark in the video below.
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