CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Supreme Court is being asked to overturn a judge’s ruling and send an age discrimination case involving a successful high school basketball coach back to circuit court to be considered by a jury.
Attorneys for former Capital High boys basketball coach Carl Clark argued before the High Court Tuesday that Kanawha County Circuit Judge Charles King was wrong when he ruled at a November 2016 trial that Clark did not prove his cause and entered a summary judgment in favor of the Kanawha County Board of Education.
“All of the people involved in the decision making were under 40. All of the people who were hired for that basketball program were under 40. We think that alone should have gotten to the jury to find out what was in their hearts when they made the decision,” Clark’s attorney Todd Mount argued.
Clark was 68 when he lost his job as Capital’s coach in April 2015. He retired from teaching in October 2014 but signed a contract the following month to coach the 2014-2015 season and planned on coaching beyond that. Mount said the contract was good until June 30, 2015 but Capital’s new principal, at the urging of the school’s athletic director at the time, posted the coaching job as vacant when the season was over because Clark was no longer a certified teacher, neither was he on the sub list. Clark applied for the job but a school committee chose certified teacher Matt Greene, who was 35 at the time, for the position. The county school board agreed with the choice.
School board attorney Charles Bailey told the Court Tuesday at the time of the interviews Greene and another candidate, who was also a teacher, were in preferential positions because they were teachers.
“There were two certified, qualified professionals who applied for this job and therefore, the only way that Mr. Clark could ever obtain this position was for either one of those gentlemen to have declined the position,” Bailey said.
Mount said Capital officials knew the preferential rule for certified teachers was ending in June 2015 and they accelerated the hiring process to keep Clark from getting the job. He said the jury seated in the 2016 trial should have been allowed to deliberate the case.
“Those kind of disputes are the kinds of disputes a jury is there to decide,” he said.
Bailey said Clark testified he knew about the preference rule but didn’t think it applied to him. Bailey added all Clark had to do was put his name on the sub list and he would have had the same standing as Greene and the other candidate before the hiring committee.
Clark coached at Capital for more than 20 years with several seasons before that at the former Stonewall Jackson High School. He won state titles in both boys and girls basketball.
The Supreme Court is expected to reach a decision on the summary judgment appeal later this year.