Editorial: Supt. praises work of football coach suspended by state

At the end of the Jan. 17 meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education, School Supt. Pete Kudlak praised the work of the BHS football coach who was suspended for two years of coaching in Michigan for “undue influence.” That charge involved promising football players from Detroit and other districts to come to BHS as schools of choice students.
Supt. Kudlak said Coach Jermain Crowell resigned from the head position of Belleville High School varsity football coach in December. He has been replaced by DeJuan Rogers, who Crowell said he had groomed for the job in a Twitter post.
Kudlak said usually the Michigan High School Athletic Association suspends a coach for four years for undue influence and Crowell only got two years. He said a student from Detroit said Crowell gave him rides to Belleville football practices, but then recanted his story.
Kudlak said Crowell had a target on his back because he was winning. BHS had won two state football titles the last two years he was here. Kudlak said Crowell impacted hundreds of kids and some wouldn’t be in college if not for him. And it wasn’t big colleges that sought out his football players, but smaller schools, too.
“He’s going to be missed,” Kudlak said.
Kudlak did not say that the school district’s MHSSA probation, levied from a different “undue influence” penalty last spring, was extended to two years. He also did not mention other evidence, the 2018 video the MHSSA found where two students told of living with Crowell.