EXETER -- Linda Wachter is funny, interesting, entertaining. She smiles well and glares better. Her sarcasm could ring the Liberty Bell from 100 feet. She's an eye-roller with flair.
She's going to make a great witness.
Some people would give the former Exeter High girls basketball coach a description with far less positives.
Some are former players, the six who refused to go to a regional playoff game in March, a game Exeter and Wachter lost with mostly backups. Some are those players' parents who helped their kids put out a statement claiming Wachter had "mentally and verbally abused" her players.
After the players' walk-out, the school did an investigation and Wachter was fired in April. She still has her full-time job as recreation director for the city and her desk is on the first floor of a converted two-story house.
Her statements are now made by a Fresno attorney, Warren R. Paboojian, who doesn't have much experience with coaches, but that hardly matters when you're the guy who won former Fresno State women's basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein many millions in a gender-discrimination lawsuit.
"A lot of people think Title IX is just for college, but it's not," Paboojian was saying this week. "It's for high schools, too."
Paying attention, high school administrators?
On March 13, on the recommendation of the principal, the Kerman School Board voted not to extend the contract of 28-year-old Kristin Hurt, a physical education teacher and girls basketball coach. A few parents spoke in her defense, but the vote went against her, four to one.
It wasn't long before she was calling Paboojian, too.
"I went to him because I was fired," said Hurt, who went by "Andrews" before her recent divorce. "I didn't know if I had any rights under Title IX."
Hurt is waiting to see if the school replaces her with a male coach, but Paboojian told her that she had no case because she didn't have tenure.
A source at Kerman said Hurt was mistakenly under the impression that her PE job was being given to new football coach Marty Martin, who was forced out at Clovis West this season. The source said Kerman is creating a new PE position for Martin, and definitely hiring a woman to replace Hurt, possibly this week.
Martin is, of course, contemplating a lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District, and you've probably already guessed which attorney he hired.
Keeping up? We're in a lawsuit world, folks, which is not necessarily good or bad, just the flow of the current. A lot of lawsuits waste time and money. Many produce change.
High school sports have become the perfect soil for growing lawsuits. Parents are more involved than ever. Schools have booster clubs that raise millions.
The Wachter case will be complicated. Last summer, many of the same parents went to the Exeter School Board and tried to get Wachter fired. They even had the recommendation of then athletic director Jim Bennett. The board voted to keep Wachter. Bennett ended up leaving before the school year.
Wachter has a group of parents who are loyal to her, so there's a Thanksgiving-size helping of awkwardness in Exeter these days. Old friendships are strained. Wachter smiles at people who called her abusive as they sign up their kids for rec sports.
One of the key witnesses will inevitably be Oren Hartley, who was an assistant for Wachter for seven seasons. Before Wachter was fired, he agreed to an interview as long as it was made clear that he had not contacted me. He is also a Wachter detractor, but is in an odd position because she fired him a few years ago, and admits that he wouldn't mind having her old job.
Amy Carter, a parent of player Caitlin Carter, says the accusations are lies. Of course her desk is next to Wachter's at the rec department.
There's no drama like small-town drama, huh? So many good issues could come up, though. What should parents' involvement be in high school sports? Where is the coaching line between motivation and abuse? Maybe the lawsuit will be a waste of time. Or maybe it will be important. It definitely will not be the last.
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