There is still a lot of talk going around these days about the Grimsley baseball program. In my opinion, anyone who thinks Grimsley needs a new baseball coach, needs to have their head examined.
Grimsley now has a winning program that the school and their students/graduates/alumni can be proud of and this team is headed in the right direction toward a possible state championship with the current young talent they have coming back next year.(George Carter, Lay Lay Brown, etc….)
To go out and hire another coach or to make Alan Ashkinazy re-apply for his current job would be insane and I can not believe this is something that Athletic Director Lewis Newman would institute. This would have to be coming from someplace in the upper administration and all of this type of talk and action is totally wrong.
I started not to write anything about these rumblings but Coach Alan Ashkinazy has our full support and any parent with a kid on his teams should thank him for the coaching he is providing for the kids in our community.
Alan is tough and we live in a tough world, this is what the kids need. Look around and face the music and you will see the Swan Song is the WRONG selection at Grimsley.
*****Any personal-attack negative comments on this subject will not be tolerated. I’m getting sick and tired of the direction some of our topics have been going. I was called to lead this community and I will not take the people down a wayward path. This web site serves as Holy Ground to many here who follow the local sports scene.*****
A M E N
Walk away while you can Alan. You don’t need this. Brooks/Kiser/Grimsley trio is one of the most difficult places to work in Guilford County, because of the meddling parents. Ash is a good coach, and has a very good business. he doesn’t nee the grief.
It’s ironic that this is coming up now so shortly after the recent thread here in Greensboro Sports that involved a lot of dirt being thrown towards Coach A. from upset parents and/or players (mostly from other schools I would guess). Surely the administration would investigate those allegations to see if they had any merit before they started the process to force out Coach A.
If Alan is/was breaking rules then he needs to be let go. Simple as that. I know him, I like him, but integrity in high school sports should be the priority in this situation. I don’t know if that is the case here or not. There are a lot of players’ families and other local coaches that have a very strong opinion of what is going on at Grimsley. I am curious as to why Andy is taking such a one-sided stance instead of actually looking into some of these allegations. Perhaps b/c this is his friend, which is entirely understandable. Hopefully these are just grumblings and nothing more. Alan is a good guy who loves to win, I just hope that it hasn’t been done at the expense of the rules.
Andy IF you want to be a leader in this community get ALL of the facts on this program on your web site, I feel like I am only getting one side of the story here.
Andy, “…you know not what you speak”
Here we go again getting ride of a an other coach that the record should show what kind of Coach he was. To make a team is just the first step of a team. The second step is to work hard and earn a possition to make your team better. Some players make the team and think they sould play without working for an possition. If you have never played a sport nor coached a sport you need to let your child learn from the Coach and cheer them on playing or not. What are we teaching our children. Yes Coach A love to win. The parents need to cheer there players on and leave the rest ot the Coaches .
The kids that moved to Grimsley did so on their own. If a school has good coaching and good academics, people will follow. Alan doesn’t need to recruit. People go to him. We looked at going there for the two reasons I stated above. Alan never encouraged or dicouraged us. he simply told us to see the principal. he totally stayed out of it. Many of us know what is behind scrapper.
I’m not too happy about what I’m hearing regarding parent involvement at Grimsley.
I will not specify.
It is so funny, that the parents that are complaining and trying to get Alan fired, there kids would not have made the team for other coaches. Al kept players cause he new it was an honor to make your high school team and now it will end up costing the other kids at Grimsley. It really doesnt matter either way except that the kids that care about baseball at Grimsley will be hurt, the ones complaining will get him fired and then several players will leave, then all the non talented players will get to play one more year of baseball then their careers will be over because it is not Al’s fault they cant play!!! Hope you parents feel good and I hope when you little boy gets turned down for job one day – you can go complain to the courts or file a lawsuit, they will be fine adults one day – way to hurt the kids, even if Al gets to stay admin has told him to lower numbers to keep from having this problem in the future – so you complaining parents will end up keeping a kids from making the high school team even though it may have been an honor for them.
Andy if you are a leader in Greensboro sports reporting you will have a interview with the Grimsley AD Lewis Newman on your web site. Lets here from the the man that should have all the answers about the Grimsley baseball team. Please let everyone know what you find out from the AD.
The AD will not talk to anyone because he does not want to let everyone know what a _ _ _ he really is himself. One other things you will not get him to admit is that if you are a senior and a non talented play at any sport you will make the team over a 10th grader that is 10 times better the he is and the senior will start and play. What are we really telling our children. Raise a little hell and parents will pay or complain and get you out of trouble. This is what is helping the lawyers in this country. It is not going to cost some of these players it is costing the true players that want to play.
Let’s be careful about the calling out of individuals here in our comments.
I am not so much worried about the adults, they can usually take it but no matter what we do, we have to respect the kids, because they are again, just kids, and they can’t help the mess the adults can create.
I am going by the school today and see if Lewis Newman is in. The teachers, coaches, AD’s, etc. usually stick around at least a week after the students get out…..
Andy you are a good one to talk about not calling out individuals,,, you said “no matter what we do, we have to respect the kids, because they are again, just kids”. You need to remember that!
I’m confused. I thought that these discussions about Grimsley were just a by-product of an earlier thread that had many people voicing their opinion about the school’s liberal position on allowing athletic transfers within the baseball program which is a direct violation of GCS policy. Now the implication is that Coach Al is under scrutiny because of complaints of made by Grimsley parents about gosh knows what. It would seem that we’re again seeing where someone is informally charged, tried and convicted on this thread without benefit of being allowed to give their side of the story. GET OVER IT PEOPLE AND LET THE COACH DO HIS JOB!
Speaking of transfers…word from my friends at Northwest is that Logan Self, NW’s rising senior baseball star, is transferring from there to a new private sports academy/school being planned for Kernersville. If that’s the case I wonder who else will be moving there from our local high schools. Any word from others out there on this topic?
if coach A leaves grimsley the new sports academy could be inudated with applications, Mr. Self may have some company
Andy,
I am surprised you deleted my comment. Read it again–I had no rancor in my comment. I simply think that there is an inherent conflict of interest that should be addressed with Alan and Tony. To say there is a conflict of interest does not automatically imply wrong actions on their part. Many organizations have rules about nepotism and working jobs on the side without accusing someone of wrongdoing. Why is it a problem to discuss this rationally? Why is this a taboo subject?
Andy,
Thanks for finally letting a comment on conflict of interest stick. I am glad someone finally said it. Grimsley players sure spend a lot of money at GBC and Carolina Acceleration. Sure seems like a conflict to me. At times it feels like Grimsley central over there, and it ain’t free. Always seemed strange to me, but no one dares say anything. Its one thing when its a private trainer, but for Grimsley its your head coach. Gotta support the program = use GBC and Carolina Acceleration. Maybe you guys can talk about it.
as far as training at GBC, if a player is going to improve he must train and get pro instruction. it just so happens that GBC has been the nearest such facility to be found within the grimsley district. many of these same grimsley players took lessons at GBC before coach A was a coach at grimsley. they saw results and kept coming back.now that prolific is in town some of the players may move over there. some grimsley players elect to go to ncba. if you will randomly visit GBC you will find baseball players from many high schools, ie ragsdale, nw, sw, ef, mc michael, page, se, ledford, and so forth.conflict of interest, LAME.
Hey, DR, You would be a fool not to want Bankhead or Proehl to coach your kid. Learning from two of the best, and as an added bonus, it would be free. No conflict of interest because you are not forced to attend their facilities.
People can spend their money where they want to and parents can send their kids to whatever school they want to.
I again think Alan and Tony have done a good job.
I have deleted several posts that have been coming in because the name calling is not healthy and it usually ends up getting out of control before it stops.
I am going to go ahead and close out this topic and there will be no more posts on this one.
As my minister said in church this morning, sometimes you have to move on.
I hope all of you will keep on reading at this blog site and I will spend more time looking for some positives. I know they’ve got to be out there somewhere.