Mark Madden: From Pine-Richland to Robert Morris, fighting the power is futile

Pine-Richland school district fired Eric Kasperowicz as its high school football coach almost three months ago.

Kasperowicz won four WPIAL championships and two state titles in eight seasons as Pine-Richland coach. The excuse for his dismissal was vague, inexact hazing allegations. Personal resentment of Kasperowicz by certain Pine-Richland administrators seems the real cause.

Kasperowicz’s dismissal had zero to do with football. His record speaks for itself. He is highly regarded by everybody in every way — except those who fired him.

The pushback was strong. Players and parents protested. Petitions circulated. The media took Kasperowicz’s side. (Me included.) Kasperowicz reapplied for the job. He filed a defamation suit. An email circulated asking coaches to not apply for the Pine-Richland job.

But it’s 11 weeks later, and Kasperowicz is still fired. Despite that email, a dozen coaches applied for the Pine-Richland position. Kasperowicz’s successor got appointed. His Pine-Richland coaching staff has scattered to other schools. Pine-Richland’s players still will play.

Kasperowicz’s coaching future is uncertain. He almost certainly will get a big-time job in the future, but not for the 2021 season. Rumor has him coaching junior high football at North Hills, where he teaches, or becoming offensive coordinator at Mars.

Kasperowicz got hard done by. Pine-Richland made a bad decision for all the wrong reasons.

But Kasperowicz had no chance to regain his job once he got axed. That decision didn’t belong to him, or his players, or their parents, or the media or popular opinion. His dismissal was permanent the moment it was made. The aftermath was just flexing and time-wasting.

Robert Morris dropped men’s and women’s Division I hockey a month ago. That inspired a similar groundswell to Kasperowicz’s termination.

Current and former players protested. The media went nuts. Members of the eliminated teams have retained the lawyer who represented Tom Brady in “Deflategate.” Private funding has been sought to keep the programs going.

RMU hockey has created more interest dead than it ever did alive. Most of the media campaigning for its survival never attended a game, let alone covered one. More seats were empty than full at the games I went to. The Pittsburgh Forge Junior A team preceded RMU hockey at the Island Sports Center rink on Neville Island and drew far more spectators in its two years.

Private funding won’t work because it can’t be guaranteed in perpetuity. Anyway, how many players will commit to a team that clearly is not backed by its university?

Colleges eliminate athletic programs all the time. I’d prefer that Robert Morris had kept hockey going, but economics dictated otherwise. This is just more flexing and time-wasting.

Many of RMU’s hockey players have transferred elsewhere. The ice time those teams used will be sold to amateur hockey for greater financial gain. RMU still will have club hockey.

Life goes on.

There’s a moral to these stories: Every situation has a boss, and you’re not it. Passion and right might be on your side. But fighting the power rarely gets you anywhere.

The Pine-Richland football situation provides proof. The RMU hockey situation ultimately will provide more. Bob Nutting won’t sell the Pittsburgh Pirates, either.