Court order delays Goshen football hire

The open head football coach and athletic director positions at Goshen High School are in limbo after a bizarre chain of events resulted in court action.

The Pike County School System planned to announce a hire at its Monday night meeting, reportedly to name former Geneva head coach Mike McCombs as the new football coach/athletics director at Goshen.

McCombs had been coach at Benjamin Russell, but resigned in January. He was hired May 28 as head football coach at Etowah, but resigned that position on June 8.

A group of Goshen citizens raised issues, including allegations of school board violations of the Sunshine open meeting laws, and filed a motion with the Pike County Circuit Court which then issued a temporary injunction.

The injunction prevents the board from hiring a coach until a hearing can be held to address issues from the motion.

In addition to raising issues about the Sunshine laws, most of the citizens who signed the motion were in support of hiring another candidate, current Charles Henderson Middle School coach Robin Snyder.

Snyder is a Goshen resident with longstanding family ties to the Goshen community.

On Wednesday, the school system filed a response to the injunction, Pike County Superintendent Dr. Mark Bazzell told the Dothan Eagle.
Bazzell, though, refused to divulge the details of Pike County’s response or to comment on any part of the situation.

“We can not comment on anything related to this matter,” Bazzell said. “We have filed a response in the circuit clerk of Pike County, but under counsel’s advisement, we can not comment about it.”

Counsel for the Pike County School System is Richard Calhoun, an attorney based out of Troy.

Efforts to reach Calhoun Wednesday night were unsuccessful. Al Griffin, principal at Goshen, also refused comment when reached Tuesday.

According to an article posted on the Troy Messenger Web site Monday night, the motion, signed by 12 Goshen residents, including Goshen Town Clerk Traci Shaver and Pike County Sheriff Russell Thomas, alleges Bazzell and Griffin conducted secret meetings — in violation of the Sunshine laws — with board members in order to influence them into voting for McCombs.