When Kurt Becker walked in to the athletic director’s office for his annual review on Dec. 1, he knew there would be a good chance he’d not leave that Friday meeting as head coach of East Aurora High School’s football team.
The former offensive lineman for the Chicago Bears maintains tensions had been building between him and District 131 for much of 2017. And long before this meeting, Becker had talked about resigning at the end of the current football season because he felt district officials had disrespected him over issues regarding fund-raising and construction of the new stadium.
But giving up this varsity coaching job he took on five years ago for his alma mater was not easy. And in the end, he told me, the decision was really made for him.
“If I didn’t resign,” Becker said, “they were going to fire me.”
The former head coach maintains his biggest frustrations were aimed at the school board, which put him in charge of stadium fundraising, then “turned on me” because of those efforts that included raising money for a veterans memorial plaza and a tomcat sculpture. Both turned controversial and failed to materialize as stadium costs rose.
Frequently acting as point person for the construction project, which he believed was necessary in the absence of another leader, Becker, who also publicly took the board to task over the naming of the stadium, claims he was told he could no longer represent the district. It was a directive that did not sit well with him, he added, especially after he’d put so much time, energy and money into the football program.
“I was hurt,” he said. “I had a lot invested here.”
District 131 Superintendent Mark McDonald vehemently denies Becker’s version, claiming there was never any intention on the part of the board, principal or athletic director of letting him go, nor was Becker ever asked to step back from the stadium project.
It was his understanding, the superintendent said, that Becker did not feel he could continue with fund-raising because “he wanted to focus on coaching.”
McDonald said the only time there was a cautionary discussion with the football coach was when the superintendent advised Becker to refrain from making any statements about the controversy surrounding the release of another head coach this summer.
McDonald said he only asked Becker to avoid making comments for his own good because Becker was angry about the backlash he was getting from supporters for then-basketball Coach Wendell Jeffries, particularly on a blog that was “disparaging of (Becker) and a friend.”
“Honestly, I’d be furious myself,” McDonald said of the hits the football coach was taking on social media.
Describing the situation as “long and complicated,” Becker — whose varsity team had only one win this season — claims he holds no animosity toward the district and hopes to continue to work in the community, particularly with the youth football program.
“I never said we would win state championships,” said Becker, repeating a mantra he used frequently throughout his East tenure. “Our goal was to restore the program and to change kids’ lives, not just through football but through all sports there.
“We may not have had the victories on the scoreboard, but what we accomplished is big … including the fact 98 percent of our varsity players have gone on to college.”
Becker is also proud of the sophomore team’s impressive two-year winning record, predicting their continued success at next year’s varsity level will only build on the pride that is rebounding within East athletics. Included in those successes is, of course, the new stadium, which he said he talked about five years ago during that initial job interview.
School Board President Annette Johnson called Becker “the visionary” of that $7 million project “who worked hard to get community support for it.” But building a strong youth program was also an important piece of the puzzle, and even the former coach’s critics would have trouble disputing his impact on the Tomcats Youth Football Program that is enjoying unprecedented success.
The feeder program started with 20 players in 2011. And while similar youth leagues are struggling because of the concussion controversy, trustee and coach Jaime Castaneda said the little Tomcats this season had a roster of 80 athletes. Castaneda also points to a winning season for all five teams — the bantam-weight made it to the championship game — and perhaps most importantly, a support system that is “180 families strong.”
According to Johnson, prior to Becker’s involvement, “considerable time and money” had gone in to futile efforts to get more families involved. The parents in this youth program, she said, are not only engaged in their kids’ sports activities, they are involved in their academic lives. And that can’t help but be a big win for the district.
Castaneda, who is also an East Aurora alum and parent, credits Becker with “building a culture” of “family, Tomcat pride and hard work” that is beginning to create “real change.”
“We are used to winning now,” he said, adding that when these same athletes begin having success at the high school level, “Kurt Becker’s fingerprints will be all over it.”
Added Castaneda, “I can’t say enough good things about what he has done for this program. Those kids really respect him … whatever we needed, he was always there for us.”
McDonald, who said he’s not spoken to Becker since this summer when he asked him about signing off on an NFL grant to the district, was equally effusive in his praise. He described the All-American and ’85 Super Bowl Champion as the “greatest athlete in the history” of East who’s had a “long and lasting positive effect on young lives.”
Insisting that any bad feelings can be repaired, McDonald added that Becker “will always be welcome with open arms at East.”
Becker said when he took his coaches out to dinner on Monday night, he thanked them for all their hard work and expressed confidence the program will only grow stronger. His name has been tossed out for a role in the city’s youth department, but he says that no matter what decision comes out of City Hall, he’ll always be involved with football and the kids on Aurora’s East Side.
Even though Becker insists he’s “not going to let the negativity take away” from his experience at East, he’s still “walking away with mixed feelings and a heavy heart.”
“As much as we got accomplished,” he said, “I don’t think we got it over the goal line.”