After five successful seasons as head coach of the St. Joseph High School girls’ basketball team, Ron Barba won’t be coming back for another run at the California Interscholastic Federation sectional championship.
The dismissal, Barba claims, came after school principal Joseph Myers received complaints from a small group of players’ parents about Barba’s aggressive coaching style.
“They went through this back door that I didn’t know was there,” Barba said. “This was a headhunt. It was a coup.”
On May 1, Barba said, he and Myers had a meeting at which the coach requested a face-to-face conference with the parents. Later that afternoon, Barba said, he received a phone call from St. Joseph athletic director John Osborne, letting him know he was being let go.
When contacted, Myers refused to comment in detail, saying only that the dismissal was a confidential “personnel issue” and that reports describing the situation as “a parting of ways due to philosophical differences” were “probably pretty accurate.” Repeated attempts to contact Osborne were unsuccessful.
According to Barba, two weeks after the last season’s conclusion, some parents who felt Barba had been “too hard” on their children in practice lodged complaints with Myers. Barba said he didn’t know what the school had discussed with the parents until the meeting with Myers, when Barba made it clear he wouldn’t be back to coach the team if the players in question returned next season.
“In my exit interview, I told Myers that this whole thing was skewed,” Barba said. “Why have a complaint procedure if you’re never going to use it? Those parents can say anything they want to you in private and [you] never get a chance to look them in the eye and make them tell the truth.”
Parents whom Barba identified as those filing complaints against him either didn’t return calls from the Sun requesting comment or refused to comment on the record.
During an emotional press conference from his home on May 5, Barba showed reporters e-mails and text messages of support from numerous parents and players.
He leaves St. Joseph with an impressive track record behind him. He compiled a 115-23 overall record over five years as coach of the Lady Knights, including 54 wins against just six losses over the past two seasons.
His team lost in the CIF quarterfinals in 2007 and 2008 before finally breaking through and taking home the CIF Southern Section Division V-AA championship in March of this year. Competing most of the year with just eight players, the Knights went a perfect 12-0 in Los Padres league play—winning their second straight league title—and finished the ’08-’09 season with a 29-3 overall record.
Following the season, Barba was named CIF Southern Section Coach of the Year and the Lee Central Coast Newspapers Girls All-Area Basketball Team’s Coach of the Year.
Despite the accolades and past successes, including 34 consecutive inter-league victories, Barba is now uncertain of his coaching future.
“This is a hard pill to swallow,” Barba said. “You build something—and I just didn’t build it, I have it deep on the backside—and the goal was to get youth to come and play for you. You can’t be that bad of a coach when people want to come and play for you.”
Barba called the entire situation “trumped-up B.S.” and said he would never consider returning to coach at the school as long as Myers remained principal.
While he said his ouster at St. Joseph has left a bad taste in his mouth, Barba said he would like to keep coaching, possibly at the junior college or college level.
“I love basketball,” he said. “I had fun with the experience of coaching these kids.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas looks people in the eye. Contact him at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 7-14, 2009.
