With hazing case closed, Fairhaven High School names new football coach [SouthCoastToday.com]

By MIKE ROCHA
Standard-Times correspondent
June 02, 2007 6:00 AM



FAIRHAVEN — When Scott Francis was hired as the Fairhaven High School athletic director last June, one of his goals was to return the struggling football program to prominence. Now the job falls squarely on his shoulders. ......

Mr. Francis, who has been a head girls lacrosse coach and an offensive and defensive coordinator in football, but never a head football coach, replaces Phil Harding, who stewarded the Blue Devils on a 4-7 campaign last year after an ugly chapter that only recently came to a close.

On May 18, Kevin M. Gonsalves Jr. and Dylan J. Parker, both 18, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor hazing and a charge of felony assault and battery after an incident last July at Camp Wishbone, an overnight football camp in Bourne attended by players from Fairhaven, Bourne, Falmouth and Bishop Stang high schools.

Two other Fairhaven students, both juveniles, have also been charged, but information about their cases has not been released. Mr. Francis, who had been on the job as AD for less than two months when the hazing incident occurred, said Friday the school will not return to Camp Wishbone this year, and Fairhaven Superintendent Dr. Robert Baldwin said that, while he can't prevent students from attending private overnight camps, he would not encourage it.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, head football coach Chris Foster resigned and Mr. Harding, who is also the school's boys basketball coach, took over on an interim basis. Mr. Harding withdrew his name after taking a promotion to head of the high school and middle school Math Department, making it difficult for him to coach two varsity sports, Mr. Francis said.

Dr. Baldwin, dismissed suggestions that the program should have distanced itself from the hazing incident with an outside hire. The superintendent, who had no input in the hiring process, said he thinks Mr. Francis is the right man for the job. ...


Contact Mike Rocha at
mrocha@s-t.com

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