Editorial: Supt. Kudlack: Newspaper charges never happened

Over the past few weeks, The Detroit Free Press’ story of a student claiming BHS head football coach Jermain Crowell used “undue influence” to try to get him to join the Belleville team has been discussed throughout the media.
Crowell is the head coach of the BHS football team that won the state championship last year and is headed that way this year. He’s been producing winning BHS teams for the eight years he’s been there.
The alleged accusations of a Detroit Martin Luther King football player, now a senior, said Crowell gave him rides to workouts in Belleville between his eighth grade and freshmen year.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association is reportedly investigating the allegations that Crowell recruited players from other teams to enroll at BHS, a schools of choice district.
School Supt. Kudlack said on Monday that the district has investigated and asked questions of the coach, the school, the kid, and the kid’s dad who all say it never happened. The coach said the dad brought the student or a youth coach drove him to Belleville that summer.
He said they gave that information to the MHSAA and the MHSAA wanted another signed statement from the kid, so they got it. “Never happened,” Kudlak said. He said the coach was suspended for last week’s game because of the accusation. He said a lot of people don’t like Coach Crowell and, “It’s a witch hunt.”