Parents dished assist for coach’s ouster

Emails to activities director Hansen show pressure to fire young hoops coach Hatfield

They did what they set out to do. They ousted a young coach early in his career.

Instead of nurturing 27-year-old Hayden Hatfield and helping him grow professionally, a contingent of Jackson Hole High School parents, enabled by Teton County School District administrators, sent him packing, forcing him to resign lest he be fired.

There was the upset mother, fuming after her cold-shooting son rode the bench toward the end of the season. There was the venture capitalist booster, who helped the athletic director devise anonymous surveys for the student-athletes to help the administration build its case. There was the president of Jackson Hole Youth Basketball, whose wife works at the high school and whose son played varsity this past season, spying on the young coach for the AD when he couldn’t be there, then erasing his texts so his family wouldn’t know.

Except they weren’t erased. They were on Jackson Hole High School Activities Director Mike Hansen’s phone, revealed in a News&Guide public records request.

“I know letting a coach go that just had our best season in 7 or 8 years is tough but it’s warranted and necessary,” Broncs basketball parent and youth basketball president Paul Wetzel texted Hansen on March 12, a day after the Broncs lost their final game of the season at the Wyoming 4A State Basketball Championships in Casper.

“I also know that the hiring process is hard but I think there could be some pretty good options,” Wetzel wrote. “I am erasing this after I send it as always.”

Hatfield, in just his second season with the Broncs, led them to their first-ever 4A state tournament in school history. But the 14-12 overall record just wasn’t good enough for a group of parents and players hungry for more in an age of win-at-all-costs high school sports.

Hatfield, however, has landed on his feet, recently accepting the head basketball coaching job at St. John Paul Catholic High School in Huntsville, Alabama, just 25 miles from where he grew up in Decatur.

“We’re going home, and we’re excited,” said Hatfield, 27. “We’re relieved to be going to a new school,” Hatfield said of he, his wife, Lily, and their first child, Henry, born on Jan. 11, right in the middle of basketball season. But Hatfield only missed one practice.

Hatfield wouldn’t talk on the record about being forced out after just two seasons, saying only that he’s ready to move on and “everything happened for a reason.”

But the emails and texts to Hansen during the last months of the season, and in the weeks after it ended, reveal concerns among a handful of parents that Hatfield wasn’t the guy to take the program to the next level, despite leading the Broncs to their best record in 13 years and that aforementioned first 4A tournament.

‘Deep concerns’

“I hesitate to write as I’m not into parents and agendas or pitchforks — as a lifelong coach and dad I understand the issues that can come from ill-informed activism,” wrote parent Keith Johnson, whose son played on the freshman boys’ basketball team and who’s also an assistant football coach and major booster for the Broncs football program, in a Feb. 28 email to Hansen.

“Still, I’ve observed and learned enough that I have deep concerns (which I suspect many others share) about the state of our boys’ basketball program. In short, I believe Coach Hatfield is ill-suited to be a coach to the basketball team,” wrote Johnson, CEO and founder of Sequoia Heritage, a venture capital firm with offices in Wilson and Menlo Park, California.

A few of Hansen’s responses to Johnson’s emails end with references to the “locker room conversation,” referring to the $7 million effort by Hansen and the Bronc Backers, the school’s booster club, to build locker rooms, a virtual golf center and banquet hall on the east side of William T. McIntosh Stadium where the old grandstand still stands.

“As a side question, are you planning to go to regionals? I wanted to update on the locker room conversation,” Hansen responded to Johnson. “If you are not there we can try to connect when you are at school with [football] Coach [White] the next time.

“I won’t make regionals … on locker room conversation happy to elaborate,” Johnson responded.

“The rec district mentioned in a meeting I was in with them that they wanted me to get them some numbers on what it would cost to get locker rooms at the stadium,” Hansen responded. “Using the rec district has always been a plan of mine however that process would just take much longer but they may be able to help with some parts of the project.”

While Hansen and Johnson were emailing back and forth about the booster’s concerns about Hatfield, the coach was getting his team ready for the 4A West Regional Basketball Tournament in Afton the next day. The Broncs would need to win twice to advance to their first-ever 4A state tourney the following week, but things didn’t go well in the opener against Rock Springs on March 2.

Jackson lost to the Tigers, 73-53.

Sometime after the early afternoon loss, as the boys and coaches were eating in a team-only area adjacent to the gym at Star Valley High School, parent Nicole Fowler, who coached eighth grade girls’ basketball at Jackson Hole Middle School last season, approached Hatfield about her son’s lack of playing time that day, sources told the News&Guide last month after Hatfield was forced to resign. Their conversation became heated, those sources said.

After the Broncs won their next three games at the regional tourney to advance to state, Fowler’s husband, Ryan, got in Hatfield’s face outside the Broncs locker room, those sources said, on March 10 in Casper when Jackson lost its last game of the season, 65-51 to Star Valley. Broncs assistant coaches said Fowler was so angry he was shaking and pointing a finger at Hatfield, and they had to get between the two to keep the confrontation from becoming physical.

The Fowlers apparently had meetings with Hansen and Hatfield about the situation after the season.

“Thank you again for taking the time to sit with us during last week’s meeting,” Nicole Fowler emailed Hansen on March 26.

“Hayden claimed that he turned [redacted] into a shooter and did us a favor by playing him,” Fowler wrote. “Over the past two years [redacted] and I have been in the gym together around 300 times. Hayden has never once … worked with him personally on ANY skill, much less shooting. Likewise, it’s hard to claim you did us a favor by playing him when he set the school shooting record.

“Frankly, I think Hayden is a terrible coach who has absolutely no idea what he’s doing — not on offense, defense, how to teach skills, inbounds plays, last second strategies, 3rd quarter adjustments, or any other general leadership qualities,” Fowler continued.

Contacted by the News&Guide, Nicole Fowler said she didn’t want to speak on the record but did issue a statement:

“I cannot speak about Coach Hatfield’s departure because I do not know anything other than we were not involved,” she said. “Whatever issue we had with Coach Hatfield, we intended to deal privately with Coach Hatfield. This is a fantastic group of young men who have been playing basketball together for a long time. Supporting them, as well as all of the student-athletes at JHHS should be the focus.”

Ryan Fowler is affiliated with 7 Brews, a rapidly expanding drive-thru coffee franchise that began in the Fowlers’ home state of Arkansas and now has multiple locations in as many as 14 states, according to online reports.

“Taking over a winless program and turning it around into its first-ever 4A State Tournament appearance is something I will take with me forever,” Hatfield wrote in his April 17 resignation letter. “I would have loved to finish what we started here as a program. Unfortunately, we live in a community where the 1% outweigh the silent majority.”

Deleted texts

Johnson expressed in emails to Hansen a desire to allow all players in the program — varsity, junior varsity and freshmen — to fill out anonymous surveys as a way to see what was going on inside the program without jeopardizing the players’ future standing or playing time.

“In parting, one concern I have is regarding the end of the season survey,” wrote Johnson. “I suspect that most players at this point fear Coach Hatfield and will have a hard time answering that survey unless they can be assured that their responses are (a) anonymous and (b) won’t come back to affect their playing time or standing with the coach.”

Wetzel, after asking Hansen for a meeting at the bar and restaurant Eleanor’s on Feb. 15, started sending texts to Hansen on March 15 about Hatfield’s behavior at the regional tourney in Afton.

“So for the last 4 games that was some of his best behavior of the season and look what happens!” Wetzel wrote. “Yesterday he was particularly good. Supportive and encouraging. He also allowed his assistants to actually coach … Still think he’s over his head but we were able to get in [to state]. I don’t trust that what we saw this weekend is who he really is. I saw too much negative and think that is more of who he is as a coach.”

Wetzel ended that message with: “Again erasing this and have a great day.”

A week later, after the state tournament, Wetzel sent another message with his “last text assessment.”

“We regressed as the season went on in all aspects of the game … the communication with the players was terrible. They don’t trust him. Relationships with the players is not there … knowledge of the game is severely lacking. We are out-coached every game … His sideline behavior is terrible.”

Contacted by the News&Guide, Wetzel said he didn’t want to comment on the record concerning his messaging with Hansen.

Asked if he and Wetzel had any sort of “arrangement” that Wetzel would send him information about Hatfield and then delete it, Hansen said this in an email response: “I am aware and respect that nearly all communications to public employees are considered public records. I have not nor would I enter into any agreement to attempt to circumvent that legal requirement. The fact that I was able to provide you the texts related to your public records request should clearly demonstrate that.”

Hansen replied to few of Wetzel’s texts, according to the text history provided by the school district under the Wyoming Public Records Act, with the exception of the initial agreement to meet at Eleanor’s and Wetzel’s final text on April 14 in which he said: “I am hearing that Hatfield is going to resign on Monday but he’s saying he’s fired? So wait for that.”

“Yea, that was my plan,” Hansen replied.

Mixed priorities

Johnson listed various concerns in his letter to Hansen, including what Johnson saw as a lack of maturity, leadership and skills.

“My observation of Coach Hatfield is that he uses constant anger, disappointment, and distain [sic] as his primary motivators,” Johnson wrote. “I walked into chat with [football] Coach [David] White at halftime of a game a week or two ago in his office, which is adjacent to the boy’s locker room. I could hear, very clearly, coarse, berating language being spoken to these boys. I am all for the occasional verbal enema, but shaking your head, yelling F-words, demanding that boys be immediately pulled out of games (at every level) for mistakes, and angrily and embarrassingly berating kids in front of officials, fans, parents, and their peers does little to get the best out of a player.”

Johnson also submitted a photograph with his email to Hansen of a picture that he took of Hatfield sitting next to one of his assistants during a freshman game in which Johnson said Hansen’s body language was not that “of an engaged leader or mentor but an all too familiar picture.”

In the photo, Hatfield sits casually, somewhat slumped in his chair, with his legs stretched out and his arms crossed as he chats with assistant Pete Hoffman.

Hansen responded to Johnson’s letter by saying he, too, was “concerned about the direction of the program” and outlined “the next steps” as he saw them, including wishing a parent, or parents, “would speak to Coach Hatfield himself. It is really hard to have a meeting with a coach after a season and my own conversation is the first they have heard about concerns and yet I know it is a common sentiment among parents and yet the coach never knew and couldn’t change in the season.”

Hansen also mentioned how he heard Hatfield reacted poorly when a Jackson player got a technical foul during the last regular-season game at Evanston on Feb. 25. Hansen asked Johnson if he knew where to get a copy of the video of the incident. “I’d love to see that if I could,” Hansen wrote, adding that he would be at the Broncs’ opening game at the 4A West Regional tourney “to watch for many of the things in your letter and what we discussed previously.”

Asked if he considered it a conflict of interest to allow a football booster to have such influence in ousting a basketball coach, as well as how much Johnson had contributed to the football and basketball programs, Hansen replied: “In my time at TCSD I have worked to identify the facilities that would best meet the needs of all the activities we offer to students. The construction of a new locker room facility has been a goal for many, many years. That said, such a facility is beyond the district’s available funding and would require fundraising and private donations. All fundraising efforts are managed by the Fund for Public Education and as such, I am not involved in any donations that may be made to any specific project. All projects would require approval of the TCSD Board of Trustees.”

Johnson responded to a News&Guide request to comment but did not want to speak on the record.

‘Heart and soul’

While some parents wanted Hatfield out, and were more than willing to put pressure on Hansen to do so, other parents with boys in the program have nothing but good things to say about Hatfield.

“We felt really sad,” said Jennifer Scott, whose son Connor played on the freshman team. “It was clear that he cared tremendously about the program. He was building it from the ground up for years to come. Hayden put his heart and soul into that program.”

Connor Scott decided to focus solely on basketball during the winter instead of hockey because of Hatfield, said his mother, who was disturbed to hear that some parents put pressure on Hatfield and Hansen.

“I don’t feel coaching decisions should be made by parents,” she said.

Mary Katherine King is another parent with a son who played on the junior varsity team. She said in April that her son’s experience with Hatfield was nothing but positive.

Her son, Will, learned hard work, responsibility and how to be respectful from Hatfield, King said.

“We should shout from the rooftops the good work Hatfield did for the basketball program,” King said. “We should applaud the hours upon hours he poured into coaching the kids. No coach is perfect, and no coach can win the favor of all players and — in today’s sports environment — parents.”

‘We did this right’

Perhaps Hatfield didn’t align well with the current culture inside the Broncs’ athletic department that appears to be set by Hansen, White and boosters such as Johnson.

Hatfield reportedly didn’t want his basketball players playing football because of the time involved, conflicts with June workouts and risk of injury.

As for parental pressure about Hatfield, Hansen said “there are many layers that impact all staffing considerations. Parent input would be a factor, but it is not the only factor, and would be a minor factor; staff observations would be a factor; adherence to school policies would be a factor; ability to change after direct feedback would be a factor; but the biggest factor is the impact the staff person has on students.”

Asked why he didn’t immediately address concerns with Hatfield toward the end of the season instead of encouraging parents to go directly to the coach, Hansen said: “I give timely and direct feedback to coaches about things that are going well and things that we would like/need to see changed. Our job as a district is to serve the best interest of students and that will always be the biggest factor in all staffing decisions.”

But instead of helping Hatfield during his confrontations with the Fowlers, Hansen appears to have merely apologized to the family after mediation meetings with them.

“Nicole, I apologize for waiting until now to respond but I wanted to wait until I met with Hayden at our end of season meeting,” Hansen wrote to Nicole Fowler on April 15. “As I suspect you have heard by now Coach Hatfield is not returning as our head boys basketball coach next season. I am truly sorry that we didn’t communicate better with [redacted] last basketball season, we will do our best to be better in the future. Let me know if you have any further questions of me.”

Fowler claimed in emails that her son’s lack of playing time was “absolutely retaliation” because of an incident during a game in which “Hayden talked about people yelling from the stands in the locker room after the game, and immediately brought it up when I went to talk about [redacted] following the Regionals game.” The person yelling from the stands at the bench about Hatfield’s coaching was apparently Ryan Fowler, according to sources.

Nicole Fowler also mentioned four starters “that have either quit or intended to quit in Hayden’s two years. There have been three fathers that have come to physically confront him. I’ve never seen that before with regard to a HS coach, especially in a place like Jackson.”

She also said that she and her husband “are actively searching for another team for [redacted] to play on his senior year. Of course, we would love to stay with his team, with whom he’s played and grown up for the past 7 years, and graduate from this high school and with his friends. But he wants to play basketball more — playing for a bad coach, mentor, leader, friend and person just isn’t what he needs.”

After the News&Guide ran a story on April 19 about Hatfield resigning under pressure, Fowler emailed Hansen to ask if the school district would be issuing a statement saying her family “has no impact on coaching decisions at TCSD, or something along those lines,” according to an email Hansen sent to Teton County School District Superintendent Gillian Chapman that day. “I told her we can’t issue anything like that unfortunately, and she understood …

“I know we did this right,” Hansen told Chapman. “I just hate how the paper puts out articles like this and sets us back as a school and makes our jobs harder. It creates mistrust in the community where there doesn’t need to be. I know you know that already but I just hate it when they do it.”

Second-place award for best sports story in National Newspaper Association annual contest.