By By ANDY HAMILTON and SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
NILES – A lawsuit by parents against an Indiana high school basketball coach and school system may have been avoided if there was better communication, sports officials in Niles and Brandywine said Tuesday.
"Unbelievable. Why weren't there steps taken prior to the lawsuit coming out?" Dowagiac Union High School varsity boys basketball coach Greg Blomgren said. "How did it become this big issue? It seems like steps could have been taken. You don't want to speak to this particular situation because we don't know all the details, but you would have to believe that it shouldn't have gotten this far."
Similar comments came from Niles High School head coach Todd Pawielski, who said his first reaction was shock.
"Obviously, I think without being around the situation it's tough to understand the dynamics. I can tell you being around teaching and coaching for 10 years my initial sympathies lie with the coach," Pawielski said.
Don and Shirley Ross, the parents of Mishawaka High School senior Jim Ross, filed a lawsuit recently against School City of Mishawaka and its varsity boys basketball coach, Robb Berger. The parents claim in the suit School City was negligent in its supervision, training and hiring of Berger, who allegedly since 2005 harassed and psychologically abused the 6 foot 9 inch senior.
Pawielski, a three-sport athlete at Niles, is in his first year as the Vikings' head coach. Before coming to Niles he taught for10 years at Portland St. Patrick in Portland and coached boys varsity and girls junior varsity basketball. Pawielski's father Bruce was a teacher and coach in Watervliet for 37 years.
He said he remembers being in junior high and watching Berger play at South Bend Riley High School for his father, Bob Berger, who was also a longtime coach.
"[Robb Berger] was certainly born in to the profession," Pawielski said.
Dowagiac Athletic Director Greg Younger said his school system has plans in place to insure that communications between parents and coaches take place, such as Meet the Coach Night and other opportunities for parents to work with the program.
"It does raise some concerns in terms of how did it get this far? I would hope there would be some communication between our coaches, the parents and the kids, so that something like that wouldn't come to a head," Younger said. "In any good relationship there is good communication. I would hope that it wouldn't take until the senior year for the parents and coaches to communicate what is expected of a particular player.
"At each level, there becomes a gap in the talent and a parent may have trouble coming to that realization," Younger added.
Pawielski too said, like most parents, the Rosses had high expectations for their son. But he also questioned what they were trying to accomplish with the lawsuit.
The suit alleges Berger used verbal abuse against Ross. Pawielski said Niles does not support coaches using profanity of any kind with their players.
"The coach is somebody you certainly respect as a mentor and an authority figure," Pawielski said. "Sometimes as a coach you say something you may regret and you make amends for it later. It doesn't sound like amends are being made at Mishawaka."
Blomgren added, "We are not without issues here in Dowagiac, but we have kind of developed a proactive approach to dealing with problems. It's an on-going challenge to try and work those policies and procedures so that things like this don't happen.
"In team sports, the common core all boils down to one thing and that's the amount of playing time the individual gets. That's probably the hardest thing for parents and coaches to communicate about."