Goshen situation nears potential resolution

Goshen is a step closer to hiring a football coach and athletic director after disputing parties resolved their differences Friday, opening the door for the Pike County Board of Education to resume its intent to hire the positions.

Both the plaintiffs, “The Concerned Citizens of the Goshen Community,” and defendants, Pike County Superintendent Dr. Mark Bazzell and Goshen principal Dr. Al Griffin, reached an “amicable out of court settlement” in their dispute, according to a court document of a joint motion to dismiss all legation. The motion was signed by attorneys from both parties.

The Pike County Board of Education appeared set to hire former Geneva coach Mike McCombs at its Monday night board meeting, but 12 members of the Goshen community sought and received an injunction from Pike County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Head III to prevent the hire.

In the injunction, the group said Bazzell and Griffin violated Alabama Open Meeting Laws by holding meetings with board members to influence the votes for the hiring of the coach.

On Wednesday, Bazzell and Griffin filed opposition to the group’s motions and allegations.

On Thursday, Judge Head ruled the parties to mediation to resolve the issues, but the groups came to an agreement before mediation.

“It is important to put this to rest and move forward,” Bazzell said late Friday afternoon. “We will do everything we can to find a quality football coach for the
program out there, which is something that we will start working on next week.”

The 12 members of the Concerned Citizens of the Goshen Community issued a statement, exonerating Bazzell and Griffin of wrongdoing and expressing a
desire to move forward. The statement was signed by all 12 members.

The statement reads: “After extensive dialogue with school officials, we agree and publicly state that Dr. Mark Bazzell and Dr. Al Griffin and the members of the
Pike County Board of Education did not participate in any illegal acts or wrongdoing relating to the potential hiring of a new football coach, including but not
limited to, any violation of the Alabama Open Meeting Laws or the Alabama Sunshine Laws.

“We have settled our differences and are hereby putting this matter to rest. We fully support the Board of Education in their efforts to secure the next head
football coach of Goshen High School and are excited about the bright future of our football program, our school and our community.”

With the court issues now resolved, Bazzell said the school system can continue the process of hiring a coach / athletic director.

McCombs may not be a part of Goshen’s future, according to Bazzell.

“He didn’t say (he was no longer interested), but it sounded to me like he had other opportunities and wanted to move forward and investigate those,” Bazzell
said.

The Pike County Superintendent said he was going to take a couple of days to figure out where the system will go in trying to pick up the pieces.

“There are different routes we could go,” Bazzell said. “I want to give it a few days to reflect on the situation and see what is the best way to go about getting
the best coach we can.”

He said he would like to have a person in place by the board’s next meeting on July 13. He said waiting until the July 27 meeting was probably “too late” of a
time frame.

Goshen is trying to find a replacement for Joe Thornton, who resigned last month to take an assistant coaching job at Enterprise.

Bazzell said he had no problems with the Goshen group despite what had become an intense, heated issue.

“I have said throughout this and I will say again that there is no finer group or finer community than the Goshen community,” Bazzell said. “They support their
schools passionately. As a community, they have always been passionate about their school, and that’s the way it should be. We are blessed to have people
that are interested in their school like that. There are schools where that is not the case.

“Most of the major people involved in this, including me, have been friends for 20 years or more. I still will call them friends. I hope we can work through this for
the betterment of the kids, because that is what this is all about.”

Bazzell added, “This situation was unfortunate, but I think everybody had the best interest of the school in mind. We just had differing opinions on how to get
there.”