Ala. HS Football Coach Sues Board Of Education Over Player Rezoning

December 17, 2010 / Football
Montgomery Advisor (Ala.)

In a lawsuit filed Thursday against the Autauga County Board of Education and several former members, former Marbury High football coach Kyle Glover alleges he was fired after he uncovered a conspiracy by board members to keep several students, including numerous football players, from being rezoned to Marbury from Prattville.

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The Montgomery Advertiser and the Prattville Progress were also named as defendants in the suit, which was filed in Montgomery Circuit Court, for publishing comments from board members that Glover claims were libelous.

“Since last January, when these people did what they did to me, not one person – not a school board member, not an administrator, not an investigator – has ever asked me a single question,” Glover said. “I’ve never had an opportunity to tell my side of this story to anyone. I tried and tried to get someone to listen to me and to do things the right way. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but I can’t sit back and take it any longer. It’s my turn to talk.”

His attorneys, Greg L. Davis, Michael Kidd, and Dan W. Taliaferro, issued a press release that essentially summarized the lawsuit, saying that Glover is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. They did not specify an amount.

The central allegation in the suit is that Autauga County Board of Education members knowingly maintained a “secret” computer file that contained the names of several students, including several athletes, who had been newly zoned for Marbury but were continuing to attend classes and participate on athletic teams at Prattville. The Autauga County school zones were shifted prior to the 2009 school year, in preparation of the completion of the new Marbury High.

James “Spud” Seale, the attorney for the Autauga County Board of Education, said today that the board would defend itself.

“I was aware that (Glover) was planning to file a lawsuit, and I was given a copy of one a few days ago, but I’m not sure if that’s what he’s filed — I haven’t seen it yet,” Seale said. “All I can say is that it will be vigorously defended. He’s free to make any claims he’d like, but there’s a long way between making claims and proving them in court, if it gets that far.”

As the head football coach and athletic director at Marbury, the lawsuit states, “Glover was aware of the number of new athletes who would be appearing on the Marbury campus.”

When several of those athletes failed to show up for spring workouts, the lawsuit claims Glover began to investigate. What he uncovered, it says, was a “stand-alone STI database file” within the computer system that contained the names of numerous students. According to the suit, the STI database is utilized by the school system to maintain student records.

“The students in the ‘stand alone’ STI file were excluded from the main STI database,” the suit claims.

The lawsuit claims those actions violate the procedures of the Autauga County school board and prevented Marbury from receiving state and federal funds for those students. If athletes indeed were playing out of district, it would render them ineligible, and any athletic contest in which they competed would have to be forfeited.

Glover claims in the suit that he revealed his knowledge of the stand-alone file to several board members, but they refused to take action because “Prattville High School’s football team reached the Alabama High School playoffs and progressed to the final game before being defeated.”

Glover claims that once he began to talk to reporters about it, school board members concocted a “malicious plan to destroy” Glover both personally and professionally. Glover, who was one of the most successful coaches in school history in his six seasons leading the Bulldogs, was fired from Marbury last January.

Shortly after his firing, the Board of Education launched an investigation into misappropriated funds associated with the Marbury Touchdown Club, and an audit released by the Board concluded that Glover had been accused of misappropriating club funds. However, it never identified the accuser or provided any details about the missing funds. The club’s treasurer later admitted to “borrowing” the money.


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