Massachusetts high school football coach quits after parents harass him using 'vulgar language'
BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Cardinal Spellman High School's football Coach Kahn Chace resigned on Friday, October 7, after facing public harassment by parents following 34-3 loss to Bishop Fenwick on October 6. However, the 37-year-old coach said the harassment started in 2021 when he joined and it has gotten worse with time. He said, “Last year we had a guy follow our assistant coaches out of the booth. It’s just like personal attacks.”
Speaking to WCVB about the whole ordeal and the last match that forced him to take this call, Chace said, "I was on the verge of tears on the sideline as it was happening. The game ended and as I was talking, addressing our team, you know, 20, 30 yards away behind a fence is a group of parents yelling at us and trying to embarrass us. I've heard vulgar language. It's just like personal attacks, like threatening postures. They just think that you're a figure that they can yell at instead of a human being." He further told CBS, "The joy of coaching kind of gets ripped away from you. It's just general vulgar behavior. It's just nonstop whether it's the plays stink, I don't have the team ready, they're just yelling at us. Last year we had a guy follow our assistant coaches out of the booth. Now I can't have, I don't want my daughter to hear stuff like that said about her dad. I am a real person with real feelings too, and I care about their kids tremendously and that's why I'm there trying to help them do as good as they can."
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'Coaches are human beings'
Commenting on his resignation, Chace said “I don’t want attention but I think it’s important people realize, and you see it with the refs, that coaches are human beings. This is not the NFL, I’m not Bill Belichick. We don’t get paid enough money to deal with this stuff. You do it for relationships and you do it for community and right now at Spellman there is no community and there are negative relationships," reports The Enterprise. "Obviously it’s a hard decision to make, but it’s something that builds up over time,” Chace said. “There’s a boiling point where it’s unacceptable to be treated that way with the time and effort we put into this. To get disrespected and yelled at, it’s unacceptable," he said, as quoted by The Boston Globe.
Chace, who has been coaching high school football for 19 years, was hired at Spellman in July 2021 to replace Ron St George. Accepting his resignation, a press release from Spellman read, "Today, we accepted the resignation of Head Football Coach Kahn Chace for personal reasons. We appreciate Coach Chace’s service to the Spellman Athletic Department, and we wish him well in his future endeavors. Our priority is to stabilize the program on an interim basis, by working with the existing coaching staff," stated the reports by The Enterprise.