From the perspective of several Cooper High School boys’ basketball players and parents, head coach Tim Sullivan built a program with a strong internal culture.
Sullivan and the Jaguars will play Lloyd Memorial High School in the 9th Region championship game Tuesday, which could be his last game with the program. On March 3, Sullivan’s wife, Andrea, announced on Facebook that his coaching contract would not be renewed for the next season. According to her post, Sullivan was given a choice: resign or face non-renewal.
Furthermore, the post alleges that Sullivan was facing non-renewal due to his lack of “urgency to improve the culture of the program.”
Stunned by the news, members of the community—former players, other coaches, parents, and volunteers—rallied to Sullivan’s defense. A large crowd attended the Boone County School Board meeting on Thursday to voice their support for Sullivan, sharing anecdotes of how he positively impacted their lives. Many of Sullivan’s supporters donned grey t-shirts with “Sully” emblazoned on the front.
“The people in this room, those that have bought shirts, responded on social media, the many students here that have personally shown their support of someone, those that have cheered loud in the region games, that this man has fought very hard to be the type of leader and excel in establishing a culture that any parent would want their child to grow up in and and be coached under,” said Durran Alexander, a parent of a former player.
School board member Jesse Parks reminded the audience that, by Kentucky state law, the board is not permitted to discuss personnel matters related to specific employees.
“Now, I want to add, if you have a concern specific to an individual student or a staff member, as I’ve said, the board cannot legally discuss these items,” Parks said.
KRS 61.810, part of the Open Meetings Act, states that public agencies, including school boards, must enter an executive session to discuss specific personnel issues.
Discussions about specific employees, such as hiring, firing, discipline, or performance evaluations, must take place in a closed session. However, any final action, such as voting on employment decisions, must happen in a public session. Since the Jaguars are alive in the postseason, Sullivan is still the head coach. No decision regarding his employment as a coach has been presented to the school board.
This upset many audience members who showed up specifically to stump for Sullivan. They promptly voiced their displeasure to the school board. Handicapped by restriction, many speakers instead chose to talk about the positive culture curated by the boys’ basketball program.
Recent grad Austin Alexander pleaded with the school board, sharing how the elimination of the program’s culture may negatively impact student athletes. Alexander, a former Cooper basketball player and current University of North Carolina football player, said he traveled back to Boone County from his college to speak.
“As I’m at North Carolina, I’m hearing about this culture that’s going to be taken away, and I already know where this leads to,” Alexander said. “This leads to the decline of mental health. This leads to people becoming lost, and it’s something I cannot stand for, and I must express that, the coming together, having a family that you can lean on through the hard times and the tough times is something that essential and must not be taken away, and I cannot stand for it.”
Senior basketball player Jordan Hampton alluded to the fact that Sullivan was the first person to contact him when his father was diagnosed with brain cancer.
“I just want you guys (school board) to know that that person, not saying who, has been an unbelievable man,” Hampton said.
Sullivan is the only head coach in the history of Cooper’s boys’ basketball program. Hired in 2008, the same year the school opened, Sullivan transformed the Jaguars into perennial region title contenders, winning nine 33rd District titles and finishing as the state runner-up in 2017.
LINK nky media partner WCPO reportedly asked Boone County Schools about their decision not to renew Sullivan’s contract, but they declined to comment because it’s a personnel matter.
