By Ed Farrell

Herald Assistant Sports Editor

IT’S SAD. Another area coach may bite the dust, and not of his own volition. Attribute it to peer pressure. That’s not referencing teen-agers; rather, it’s adults with an agenda.

Mercer High boys basketball mentor Mike Williams recently was notified his position has been opened. And although the prideful Williams won’t let the door bang him on the butt on his way out, neither is he ruling out a return, contingent upon July’s school board vote. That’s because Williams maintains his involvement in coaching is not to appease his peers — parents, applying pressure for playing time for their sons.

Williams recently related his ouster is the result of “ a petition in which 17 people signed, asking for my removal.”

Unashamedly, Williams related, “In my 9-year tenure (97-121), my varsity teams captured three conference titles and advanced to the District 10 tourney in each of those seasons. The 2002-03 and 2003-04 teams won back-to-back conference titles, the first Mercer teams to do so since the 1981-82 and 1982-83 teams,” he noted, continuing, “I am leaving the new coach with eight returning letterwinners, and the Mustangs should be a playoff team next season, as well as contend for the region title. Numbers are way up from when I took over the program in August 2000, when I had to move up the entire freshmen class just to fill out a varsity and JV roster, and inherited only one letterwinner (and finished 3-21).”

Williams shares a sentiment with numerous other coaches at the scholastic level: Too many parents perceive their children, not as they are, but as someone they see on ESPN “SportsCenter” highlights.

“I had two parents this year upset with me, thinking I was holding down their ‘(NCAA) Division I recruit’ son with my style of coaching,” Williams related, rhetorically asking, “Division I? Please. I don’t know too many coaches that make the contacts with college coaches that I did. I’m constantly trying to promote my kids to the next level. Division I? Where did (Farrell’s Marsell) Holden and (Kennedy Catholic’s Kyle) Randall sign this year? And no disrespect to them, as they are the best players I’ve seen in the past 5-10 years. But neither of them are headed to Duke or North Carolina, are they?

“Yet I had one at Mercer ... and I didn’t even notice?”

Earlier this spring, Brian Hoover (Sharon), Marlon McGaughy (Kennedy Catholic), Gary Steele (Sharpsville) and Tom Roskos (Brookfield) either left of their own volition or were notified they were not being retained. Ironically, Steele’s successor, Jim Smiley, experienced his own parental-pressure problems in his previous post at Neshannock.

Another interesting tidbit, also involving Mercer. According to Williams, boys’ soccer coach Brian Livenspire also has come under attack from parents.

“A better coach? Maybe. A better man? No way,” Williams said in praise of Livenspire.

“Nobody gets into coaching, particularly basketball and football, to make friends,” Williams noted. “My goal never included being friends with parents. My goals included building lasting relationships with my players, producing a competitive basketball program from top to bottom, and mak(ing) friends within the coaching fraternity in Mercer County and District 10, which, for the most part, has been realized.

“I want to thank those scores and scores of great kids and parents who supported me through the years at Mercer,” he related, “The good times and great memories have been many — almost too many to remember,” he continued, later adding, “For those detractors who went after my job, mostly due to playing (time) issues and wanting to strong-arm me and my coaching style — and there might have been two-dozen of those unhappy parents — it is what it is.