Hodge and Gates-Chili

[supercramp]

Can someone please explain to me what is going on over there ? Is this a witch hunt , a vendetta or a case of where there's smoke there's a fire ?

[coachstew]

Can someone please explain to me what is going on over there ? Is this a witch hunt , a vendetta or a case of where there's smoke there's a fire ?

what are you talking about?? Can you give some more details please??

[distancerulz]

I think that he is talking about their AD who was forced to resign as of June 30th last night at the board meeting.
I don't know why or what the rumors are either.

[WU.Gorlok27]

Does anyone know if Chris Hodge actually ended up resigning?

[distancerulz]

Link to D and C article......

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009904150334

[supercramp]

Somethings seems a little fishy here . I just wonder what , if anything , did the transfer of his son to Aquinas from Gates-Chili have to do with this situation .

[RochesterCCPhotography]

His son is back and on the varsity baseball team.
There are alot of rumors swirling, heard some parents do not like him. Personally I think he is a good guy and I never had a problem with him.

[DaddyBear]

Gates-Chili seems to be a school with alot of unhappy parents and players. I wonder if it's got something to do with who's who and playing time in sports. Hodge is a nice guy but there is no way you can keep everybody happy.

[UNCTarheels]

Chris Hodge pitched a no-hitter last night but it wasn't nearly enough to save his job.
All nine residents addressing his status spoke glowingly of the work Hodge has done as athletic director at Gates Chili, but it was too little and too late. Meeting in executive session earlier in the night, the school board had already accepted a resignation that Hodge says he submitted under protest.

Hodge, who was instrumental in the construction of Gates Chili’s new field house and coordinating the associated logistics issues of keeping the affected teams running smoothly, will serve out the the fourth year at the suburban Rochester school and then be replaced July 1.

It ends, for now, what have been a relatively chaotic couple of weeks in the community. More than 350 people turned out at the school board meeting, though many of them were there to plead against proposed budget cuts. The meeting was nearly 2½ hours old before speakers had a chance to show their support for Hodge.

One of them was a man who started a Facebook group in support of Hodge, and membership grew from 65 to about 225 in the 72 hours leading up to the meeting. He was cut off by board President Mary Frances Johnson as he began to speculate about inappropriate behavior by other district employees, and that was as close as the audience got to a possible explanation about the resignation.

The board did not issue a statement regarding Hodge; like most organizations it has a policy against commenting in public on personnel issues.

Whatever the cause of his departure, Hodge insisted be has done nothing wrong and has nothing to hide. He's consulted with a lawyer, and the board's next dealing with him may be in court.

"If they had the dirt I wouldn't be looking to try and fight it," he told supporters in a hallway as the board meeting crept on into its third hour.

Hodge, a former Buffalo resident and Cortland State graduate who returned to upstate New York after working as a school administrator at Calvert County High School in Maryland, was the Monroe County League's first black AD when he arrived at Gates Chili in July 2005, but he said he does not believe race was an issue.

More than anything Hodge, who is married with two children attending the high school, is disappointed that he made it through all the hassles related to construction and won't be here in the fall when the athletic program starts its first "normal" year since 2006.
I'm disappointed," he said. "For the years that I've been here I've met all my goals. I've received merit pay and never been on an improvement plan. So it's kind of hard take."

After many years as a lumbering giant, Gates Chili has been on the upswing in sports in recent years. The current senior class leaves with Section 5 championships in football and basketball, the launch of lacrosse and field hockey programs puts Gates Chili on a par with most of the area's other larger districts and the new field house drew rave reviews from fans attending Section 5 girls basketball tournament games.

"We ran a very successful program," Hodge said. "That's what we did, and nobody has ever told me to this day that the administration of the athletic program was not done well. It's not in writing anywhere, it's not on the evaluation. That's the disappointing part."-John Moriello

John Moriello's NYSSWA blog (http://www.newyorksportswriters.org/blog/blog-2009-04-15.shtml)

[timmy4]

I think the wheels were set in motion with his firing of the last basketball coach. It's unfortunate, especially considering how well that move turned out for this season.

[DaddyBear]

It sounds more and more like politics. They obviously did not consider what success he has brought to Gates-Chili. It's a tough place to manage, but he brought in some good positives. As far as the dirt on him, I never heard anything but good. His son, who is a nice kid, has been in the middle of this because some say that he only plays because of who his father is. That's not true because this kid is a good athelete. Mr. Hodge must have made some enemies on the school board and someone's son on the board didn't play.