Parents accuse GHS coaches

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — The decision to place the three Gallup High School varsity football coaches on administrative leave came after several parents had a meeting with top county school officials and complained about the way the coaching staff handled their team.

That was the word from three of the parents who on Nov. 29 attended a meeting with County School Superintendent Esther Macias, school Personnel Director Theresa Mariano and Mike Butkovich, principal of the high school.

The next Monday, the school district placed the team’s head coach, Dan Donisthorpe, and his two assistant coaches, Albert Gabaldon and Steve Starkovich, on administrative leave with pay. Starkovich was allowed to return to work a week later. The other two are still on administrative leave.

The parents’ concerns ranged from unsupervised parties by football players while on trips to allegations of inappropriate on-field behavior by the coaches during practices.

The allegations were mainly against Donisthorpe and Gabaldon, who were accused of using racial slurs during practices, harassing the players and pushing them so hard that parents were concerned about their children’s physical well-being.

The coaches at Gallup High School aren’t the only ones in this area who have come under attack from parents because of a feeling they had gone too far in trying to get players to play at their highest potential. This has also occurred in recent years to coaches at Thoreau High and Chinle High and after parents complained, school officials in both cases either changed the coaching staff or requested that the coaches tone down their practice sessions.

In both of these cases and in other cases where parents have complained about coaching tactics, coaches argued that the parents were overreacting and should have been supporting the coaches in their efforts to make the students better players and teach them responsibility. In some cases, the parents were accused of using these kinds of complaints to mask their real complaint – that their son was not getting enough playing time.

There was one report during the meeting that of a case where one of the coaches called a player of Asian descent a “Chink” during practice and forced him to practice until he finally collapsed and had to be taken to a hospital by ambulance, but this has not been confirmed.

Starkovich was allowed to return to school, one parent said, when it was made clear that the complaints were about the actions of the other coaches and while he may have cursed at times, he did not intimidate and harass the players as the other two coaches allegedly did.

Attempts to get comments from the coaches were unsuccessful. Macias said Wednesday that she was not aware of what the complaints were about and declined to comment except to say that Mariano is now conducting an investigation.