Parental pressure is clearly nothing new to high school sports.
More than 13 years have passed since Tom Powers resigned as Evanston’s football coach under pressure from parents. Powers decided to try a new, unheralded running back early in the season against Maine West, even if it meant his team might struggle. The move disturbed some players’ parents who already had been scrutinizing the coach’s decisions.
Maine West upset Evanston, and the Wildkits, ranked in the preseason, dropped to 0-2.
Parents organized meetings and suggested to the Evanston principal that the coach should change the way he ran the program. Powers’ family also had been hearing derogatory remarks at games.
That running back who was tested against Maine West, Yonel Jourdain, later developed into a backfield force for Evanston. He went on to play at Southern Illinois and with the Buffalo Bills for two years.
After the loss to Maine West, however, Powers became a spectator. He resigned after coaching football for 32 years, the last six-plus at Evanston.
“It was important for me to see if the kid was going to make it,” Powers recalled recently.
“I was implementing a plan, but impatient people don’t understand those things.”