Josh Buffington has resigned at Helias nm
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Written by Rod Smith, KRCG 13
May 10, 2018
krcgtv.com
JEFFERSON CITY -- Josh Buffington has resigned as head basketball coach at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City.
The surprise announcement was released Thursday morning by Helias President Father Stephen Jones.
The 41-year old Buffington spent the past ten years leading the Crusader basketball program, winning 195 games and seven district titles. He also guided Helias to three appearances at the Final Four.
"I love the game. I love to coach. I love to compete. I will still find a way to stay involved in sports," Buffington wrote in his resignation letter.
His choice to leave coaching is a family decision, something he's been thinking about the last few years.
"I love working with young men. However, I am ready to focus purely on my own 3 children. The world ahead of them is not easy socially, athletically or educationally. Life has become so advanced and accelerated for young people these days, and I want every minute I can have with my wife and three children."
Buffington also said he does not support a trend he sees in high school sports.
"I was coached and taught to show tough love, intensity, and no politics...In my strong opinion, in this era of parenting styles, leadership styles, guilty until proven innocent philosophies, and social media addictions....it will continue to be a grinding task to coach and mentor with a certain style."
Buffington spent 17 years as a basketball coach, beginning his career at New Bloomfield High School. He also served as an assistant coach at Missouri Baptist University and then head coach at School of the Osage before his tenure at Helias.
May 10, 2018
krcgtv.com
JEFFERSON CITY -- Josh Buffington has resigned as head basketball coach at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City.
The surprise announcement was released Thursday morning by Helias President Father Stephen Jones.
The 41-year old Buffington spent the past ten years leading the Crusader basketball program, winning 195 games and seven district titles. He also guided Helias to three appearances at the Final Four.
"I love the game. I love to coach. I love to compete. I will still find a way to stay involved in sports," Buffington wrote in his resignation letter.
His choice to leave coaching is a family decision, something he's been thinking about the last few years.
"I love working with young men. However, I am ready to focus purely on my own 3 children. The world ahead of them is not easy socially, athletically or educationally. Life has become so advanced and accelerated for young people these days, and I want every minute I can have with my wife and three children."
Buffington also said he does not support a trend he sees in high school sports.
"I was coached and taught to show tough love, intensity, and no politics...In my strong opinion, in this era of parenting styles, leadership styles, guilty until proven innocent philosophies, and social media addictions....it will continue to be a grinding task to coach and mentor with a certain style."
Buffington spent 17 years as a basketball coach, beginning his career at New Bloomfield High School. He also served as an assistant coach at Missouri Baptist University and then head coach at School of the Osage before his tenure at Helias.
Man, talk about gaining a lot of respect for a guy after reading that article. Good luck Coach Buffington!
I totally get being there for the family and coaching today's kids is so difficult. Best of luck to Coach Buffington.
For sure. I coached my fiance's son's 6th grade team this year. I've coached nothing but basically HS level for 20 yrs. Have never been a fan of youth league stuff. Always did the camps and stuff because that's obviously how you build programs. But never really enjoyed doing them. BUT...I had more fun coaching that 6th grade bunch than I have in a loooonnnng time. I totally understand where Coach Buffington is coming from.
..........Coach Buffington is a class guy..!
We wish him and family all the best. Enjoy your kids, they will be grown up way too soon...
Josh is one of the hardist guys in the business and MO high-school ranks will miss him bunches... Good luck, my friend..!
C (dogpa..=)~
That dude is smart! Not only in terms of basketball but simply keeping things in perspective!
I am willing to bet he will love his decision and have 0 regrets when he looks back on it in the future. Family #1 everything else a distant second in my book!
Couldn't help but feel he took a chance to throw some shade at some people with that quote about what its like coaching today. even in that regard he did it in a fairly dignified way, no names just hey there are people who are involved in athletics that suck and make it suck for the people who care about all the kids and the entire program, and don't have an agenda!
I am willing to bet he will love his decision and have 0 regrets when he looks back on it in the future. Family #1 everything else a distant second in my book!
Couldn't help but feel he took a chance to throw some shade at some people with that quote about what its like coaching today. even in that regard he did it in a fairly dignified way, no names just hey there are people who are involved in athletics that suck and make it suck for the people who care about all the kids and the entire program, and don't have an agenda!
Super Class Guy - gave 100% every day - We will miss him big time!
He seriously did that in a way that was classy as could be. Not easy to do.
But yet still needs to be said everyday! It is running a lot of good coaches out the door these days!
I agree totally! He said what needed to be said in the perfect way.
To be honest I really feel people are trying to treat high school sports like college or the pros. I am just waiting for a coach to have an undefeated regular season, win districts and then come up 1 game shy of a Final Four birth at some little bitty school in the middle of no where, just to get fired because well they didn't make the Final Four and someone else would have gotten them there. Or even better some crazy B.S. reason that has nothing to do with anything at all!
OK I agree with all previous posts RE the trend toward running coaches out of this business. Now I pose this question: What needs to change to stop this trend? (assuming it can be stopped)
I'm not sure it's any different than it really ever was from a parent/BOE perspective. Parents have always had their bat crap faction. Same for BOEs (lets face it, most are made up of bat crap parents with agendas). I think the biggest difference now is people don't protect the people under them. Supts won't challenge BOEs. Principals won't challenge supts. ADs won't challenge parents. Not much protection and a bunch of people looking out for themselves. IMHO, obviously.
Train future admin on the importance of having a conscience? And actually caring about the people they hire??? But on a serious note, just freaking support the people you hire. MSHSAA could help out by not regulating what school coaches can do in the offseason. It would reduce the cesspool of club/AAU sports. Some can be great at the youth levels, but they're almost all detrimental to what HS athletics are all about. Or should be about.
Very solid insight. Admin need to step up and say enough is enough! Stop giving parents an audience to "gripe" about a coach. When you open that door & allow that to happen it becomes a flood wall & will never end. Going to have to start somewhere. Just had a thought that is troubling a lot of Admin are former coaches.
Bradleyville fired their girls coach after leading the team to 2nd place in state this year. The town was split over the issue, but ultimately wound up bringing her back for next year after an emergency board meeting. I believe the initial firing occurred because parents said she did not know how to coach and felt they should have taken home 1st place.
Marshfield fired Gary Murphy. No, seriously. Fired Gary Murphy. Had a 595-198 record at the time.
After 22 years, eight Final Fours, and Four state championships, the Marshfield school board voted 4-to-2 Monday night to terminate girls basketball coach Gary Murphy's contract.
The board reportedly was concerned about low numbers turning out to play.
They said the numbers were down because of Murphy's intense coaching style.
That was copied from an article about it. 36% of his seasons ended in a Final 4 trip. 18% in a championship. 75% of the games he coached, his teams won. And they fired him. Because they didn't like his style. Too tough on kids. If that can happen, ANY high school coach can be fired.
Your right. I guess I should say for the most part parents think this is the NCAA D1 and the NBA. Ad d in your point about nobody wanting to challenge other authorities and you get a crap system.
I am split on summer thoughts. I know some people will say if coaches don't do as much then they are lazy. But what if Coach A does 20 days and has a great season but no Final 4. Say they win 25 games. Don't you think people will call for that coaches head and say hey he should have done 30 days over the summer and they would have went to a Final 4 or won a state title. I also see the point of having coaches do however much they want to do in order to grow a program. But like Buffington said he retired to spend time with his family. Unrestricted days I think could lead to even fewer coaches once they start a family.
I'm in the other camp on summer. Free marketplace of ideas I say. The best will find the perfect balance of what is right for their program and their players all while maximizing the time spent. The worst won't do anything or will over schedule, do too much, waste time, and not many will show. Those in the middle will do enough, and use their time wisely. And parents will pi$$ and moan about all of the above types. Some will be valid, some will be nutso. And darned near none of those coaches will get the support they probably deserve from those above them. Just seems like that's the way of the world now. When states are literally fighting to make/keep laws in place where men use men's bathrooms and women use women's bathrooms...just for an example...and there is outrage everywhere about it...I'm not sure I see much hope for these kinds of issues. Our judicial system has failed us along the way. About the time Stella Liebeck won her case, the snowball started rolling. Ok, ok, I'll step down now.
St. James did that to Brad Conway in the mid 2000’s. Winning % north of 80% and let him go because of parents and BOE. St. James has politics in their sports extremely bad. He now coaches a successful Jeff City varsity girls team.
What a great article! Thanks for the link DF. Everyone that reads this thread needs to read this article!
I read it and it is spot on. One part scares me though, and that's the part of kids haven't changed. That's pretty much true (at least in my experience the past 46 school years), but at the same time today's parents are raising tomorrow's parents. And there's just enough parents out there - and yes, I deal with some here in beautiful central Mercer County - that need to find a proctologist pretty damn quickly. That's my not-very-humble opinion, anyway.
This just happened with Fort Zumwalt South girls basketball. Apparently the coach wasn't interested in off season workouts, yet won 15-20 games every year. Now he's been replaced in hopes of someone else that will put the time in.
Then again-in a few years parents will complain that they are working their kids too much in the summer.
Then again-in a few years parents will complain that they are working their kids too much in the summer.
I remember that. I think a board members daughter wasn't happy.
They fired him from basketball because he was too demanding but rehired him for softball. Guess the softball girls were tougher, or didn't have mom's on the school board.
They fired him from basketball because he was too demanding but rehired him for softball. Guess the softball girls were tougher, or didn't have mom's on the school board.
This is a great discussion you guys have going here. A little background on me, I coached 18 years at the high school level with 12 of those years being a head coach. The past 6 years I have been a school administrator and actually a basketball official. I miss coaching everyday, but decided to get out of coaching when I came home one night after getting beat in OT by a far better team and my 4 year old daughter had tears in her eyes asking me "why do they hate you Daddy?" I had no answer to that question and I decided that night that I was going to make a change for my family. My wife would not let me resign right then, she knew how much I loved to coach and simply told me to wait until I was not so angry. Anyway, I did resign and have not looked back. The person cussing me in the stands where he knew my daughter would hear is was of course a deacon in the church and a board member. His wife actually was my daughters teacher. I still to this day want to throat punch him lol.
My perspective is this: Look at the Presidential election, no one thought Trump would win because the people who were going to vote for him kept silent because of the backlash. Many parents that support the coach now also keep silent because they are afraid of the backlash from the others. I have seen administrators support coaches and it still not matter. I think that happens more times than not. I also think that people are given WAY too much say in things. Not everyone gets to have an opinion on things. I know this goes against our society now where we all are super important and should have our opinion counted, but you do not see this in the military and it runs better than most anything in the world.
Coaching is hard and it is made harder by ignorant people that do not understand the dynamics of coaching.
On a side note I worked under the Superintendent at Marshfield that spearheaded firing Murphy. He tried to do the same thing with me, but I was lucky and had some people stand up for me and it did not happen. He was an administrator that would do anything a board member wanted, no matter how bad it was for kids.
My perspective is this: Look at the Presidential election, no one thought Trump would win because the people who were going to vote for him kept silent because of the backlash. Many parents that support the coach now also keep silent because they are afraid of the backlash from the others. I have seen administrators support coaches and it still not matter. I think that happens more times than not. I also think that people are given WAY too much say in things. Not everyone gets to have an opinion on things. I know this goes against our society now where we all are super important and should have our opinion counted, but you do not see this in the military and it runs better than most anything in the world.
Coaching is hard and it is made harder by ignorant people that do not understand the dynamics of coaching.
On a side note I worked under the Superintendent at Marshfield that spearheaded firing Murphy. He tried to do the same thing with me, but I was lucky and had some people stand up for me and it did not happen. He was an administrator that would do anything a board member wanted, no matter how bad it was for kids.
Bird_4_3: Greatly enjoyed those comments . Sorry that stupid parents drove you out of coaching, but totally understand. Somehow we have to stop this trend or in short time schools will have no qualified experienced coaches left.
Funny, and fitting, that this is about the tenth time Marshfield has been mentioned in this thread. The same school fired its coach this year in the middle of the season, yet coaches were falling all over themselves to get their application in knowing full well the circumstances there both current, recent and years past.
I have a lot of sympathy for coaches in the current climate, it certainly is not easy and there is a reason a lot of good people have gotten out. But ... at some point coaches need to stop taking jobs at places that have a history.
It's kinda like that old saying that relationships that start by cheating always end by cheating.
If you apply at a school that fired its coach in the middle of the season, then you shouldn't be surprised when something similar happens to you.
The current situation will not change unless or until coaches get organized and start holding schools -- and themselves -- accountable. In theory, if a school unjustly fires a coach, then the association would refuse to supply a coach within its ranks for a two or three year time period.
Such organization might force districts to think a little about their decision before allowing parents and administration to run amok. As it stands right now, there are no consequences because hell, the guy they fired ten years ago and every other coach within earshot has their resume updated and application in before the ink dries on the current coaches resignation letter.
I have a lot of sympathy for coaches in the current climate, it certainly is not easy and there is a reason a lot of good people have gotten out. But ... at some point coaches need to stop taking jobs at places that have a history.
It's kinda like that old saying that relationships that start by cheating always end by cheating.
If you apply at a school that fired its coach in the middle of the season, then you shouldn't be surprised when something similar happens to you.
The current situation will not change unless or until coaches get organized and start holding schools -- and themselves -- accountable. In theory, if a school unjustly fires a coach, then the association would refuse to supply a coach within its ranks for a two or three year time period.
Such organization might force districts to think a little about their decision before allowing parents and administration to run amok. As it stands right now, there are no consequences because hell, the guy they fired ten years ago and every other coach within earshot has their resume updated and application in before the ink dries on the current coaches resignation letter.
Truth. You would've had to have given me about 3 times the normal salary to take that one.
I like the idea from an association's standpoint too. Anything that would add a little job security and protect from the knee jerk/crazy BOE firings would be a good thing.
MoWestern you have brought up an interesting idea that is worth some discussion. Coaches getting organized and taking a stance against some of these unjust firings & dismissal. Like to hear some other folks thoughts on this.
All well and good until somebody needs a paycheck. The premise is great. My guess is follow through would be a huge struggle.
I would imagine there supply vs demand is not in coaches’ favor.
I have a lot of sympathy for high school coaches. Seems like a pretty miserable existence unless you get lucky.
All the Marshfield stuff has nothing on the Al Runge-Parkview-SPS-gate of 1962! Boy, that was a barn burner for weeks in the news.
