Football coach's resignation accepted

The school board accepted the resignation of Geary Oliver as head football coach at Lake Roosevelt High School at its meeting Monday night.

The district has stated that it was exercising its long-established practice of awarding head coaching positions to sitting teachers, if they are qualified for the job. Advertisements for candidates to fill the position will soon be underway, and it is expected that Loren Endsley, Lake Roosevelt’s physical education teacher who acted as Oliver’s assistant last year, will apply.

Oliver said Athletic Director Richard Black told him July 5 that “administration was going in a different direction.” This occurred well after Oliver had been given a new contract for the 2016-17 school year.

Black had been given the assignment of asking Oliver to step down and offer a letter of resignation, which he did. The district had earlier stated that the request for Oliver to resign came from action in executive session of the school board on July 11.

However, Oliver said he had been asked by Black to return his keys to the school building the afternoon before the school board met.

Oliver said that it had never been his intention to resign, but that he told new district Superintendent Paul Turner, on his first day July 1, that he would step aside if asked.

Turner stated last week, “I want to thank Coach Oliver for the commitment he has made to the LR football program over the years.”

Oliver’s contract, which was passed by the board in May, had been recommended by then-superintendent Dennis Carlson, who retired June 30.