At the Wichita Falls Independent School District’s Board meeting on Monday, community members voiced their opinions about an on-field outburst that took place last week.
Dozens of people showed up for the meeting and three spoke in front of the board about the incident.
One parent and flag football coach who saw the situation unfold between Scot Hafley, the WFISD Athletic Director, and Eric Ward, a former Rider football coach, told board members Hafley yelled profanity at Coach Ward, telling him to get his flag football players off the field and adding that, all this took place in front of about 200 parents and children.
However, the incident was not the focus of conversation. It was the aftermath that parents and many citizens are concerned about. One parent and flag football coach told board members the WFISD athletic director Scot Hafley needs to be terminated.
One mother agreed. She said those involved should be fired because they are leaders for the kids to follow, and their actions did not reflect that.
She said, “The field out there does not belong to the athletic director. I have 14 pieces of property, and I pay my taxes, so some of it belongs to me.”
Others showed up in support of another coach who was there that evening in hopes his job will not be on the line.
Coach Mark Bindel told Newschannel 6 last week he gave Coach Eric Ward permission to use the turf field at Rider High School. Bindel said he apologized to Coach Ward and is truly sorry this situation occurred, a statement many family and friends said shows Bindel’s character.
“He has never been one to not own up to a mistake. He has never been one to try to push the blame off on anyone else. That’s just not who he is as a person,” said Micaiah Lile, a former Rider Football Player.
Lile said he played for Bindel and has known him for years.
He said this is an unfortunate situation, but he thinks Bindel got caught in the social media crossfire.
“The tough part about situations like this, it gets blown up all over town based on one person’s perspective of what happened and that’s what happened here. Everybody saw Eric’s view. It was put in front of the whole town before a chance was even given for Coach Bindel to make a public response,” said Lile.
Officials with WFISD said no action has been taken regarding the incident.
The investigation is still on-going, and there is no word on when it will be completed.
At Monday night’s meeting, board members also approved the standardized dress code for Burgess Elementary and Kevin Goldstein, a WFISD board member, made an announcement.
Goldstein said he is not running again for his spot on the board after serving on the board for eight and a half years.
This opens up two spots on the board as member Trey Sralla also will not be returning.
District officials said they are also considering changing the term length from four years to three.
– Newschannel 6
