For a brief moment this spring, I actually felt sorry for Harrisburg’s new mayor, Linda Thompson. She was getting pounded almost daily (and appropriately) by The Patriot-News for lack of transparency, although it must be noted that former mayor Steve Reed had his transparency issues, too. And Thompson, while whiny, is correct about inheriting a terrible fiscal mess (that she helped to create).
But that moment has passed. Thompson has flexed her political muscles in the only way she knows how, with a fascist reflex, by firing Harrisburg City Schools superintendent Dr. Gerald Kohn (um, stupid!) and slapping a gag order on Harrisburg school officials. It is the latter that washed away what little sympathy I was stirring up for Thompson.
Here’s why.
About the same time that Kohn was fired by Thompson, Harrisburg High School principal Roma Benjamin held a meeting with Harrisburg High School football coach George Chaump, Harrisburg athletic director Kirk Smallwood and, for some reason, an assistant track coach who was there to “observe.”
Now, my math isn’t the greatest, but I call still add 2+2 and come up with 4. There is no question that Chaump lost all of his political cover when Reed lost his primary run against Thompson and Kohn was fired. Both were steadfast supporters of Chaump; Thompson, based on her public carping about Chaump’s hefty salary, is questionable.
So when Chaump has an administrative sitdown with the school at the same time that Thompson erases the superintendent and gags the district, the question is pretty apparent: Is Chaump’s football head coaching post in jeopardy?
Based on what very little rodfrisco.com has been able to ascertain, the answer is no … for the moment.
That’s the good news for Chaump. The bad news is that due to that odious gag order, Harrisburg, both the school and the city, is now more silent than a cloister.
Rodfrisco.com called and spoke with Chaump; he steadfastly refused to divulge details of the meeting because of both the gag order and the concern that anything he said in public could boomerang.
Likewise, Smallwood had no public comment. Far worse were Benjamin and Thompson’s office. All calls to both were not returned.
But here is what we do know: The meeting did not go particularly well for Chaump, according to a source close to the football program. Benjamin and Smallwood brought up several football issues, putting Chaump, entering his 8th year as Harrisburg’s head coach, on the defensive. None of this is disputable.
As noted, Chaump would not speak to specifics, acknowledging only when pressed that the meeting was negative in tone. He only said that he’s still the football coach, expects to remain the coach (for now) and is moving forward on that basis.
Fair enough. Indeed, on that basis alone, I wasn’t going to write a post on the matter. Based on what little confirmed information I have, this matter is still pretty much in the dirty laundry pile, although it bears watching because of the current political climate in Harrisburg. In fact, Chaump said he’d prefer that nothing be written.
That’s pretty much where it stood for a few weeks. But what prompted this post is the insolence of the mayor’s office. I called with a simple request: Could a representative of the mayor’s office please speak to the situation regarding George Chaump in light of the March meeting and the fact that school is not permitted to speak for itself?
Still waiting for that return call.
And another Harrisburg school official, speaking on the condition of anonymity (can any Harrisburg official speak other than anonymously under the current circumstances?), said that a meeting like the one that occurred in March was highly unusual.
“If I were George,” the source said, “I’d have an attorney ready. It sure sounds to me like they’re getting ready to fire him.”
Well, no one knows that for sure. It could be that Thompson and her allies have that in mind, although it would be a public relations disaster, no different than the daily operations of the mayor’s office. Or it could be that they have merely set the stage for making Chaump’s life miserable, hoping the 73-year-old (he’ll be 74 at the end of the month) finally says no mas.
Either way, putting the heat on Chaump is just nonsense. Anyone who has observed Harrisburg’s football program over the last three decades knows that Chaump is imperfect (his name is George, not Jesus), but his formidable experience and presence has taken an erratic, problem-plagued program and once again made it a source of pride in the community. Now, if he would just not call that damn option play, everything would be fine.
