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Coach Tronsrue steps down from Battle Mountain Huskies coaching job

Philip S. Tronsrue
Vail, CO, Colorado
newsroom@vaildaily.com

This is Philip Tronsrue and I would like to respond to Chris Freud’s article “Tronsrue Steps down in Eagle-Vail” because there is some important information that was left out from the article. With regards to Mr. Houghton’s e-mail statement, the article failed to mention that Mr. Houghton met with me on February 25, 2009 and gave me my evaluation of this past season. Mr. Houghton evaluated me according to the criteria on the evaluation form. I received all excellent and superiors on the evaluation form. Mr. Houghton told me he appreciated the job I was doing and that I would continue to be employed as the head boys’ basketball coach.

There needs to be a correction to the article about one of Mr. Houghton’s statement. In the article it states “(Houghton didn’t say anything like ‘Do you want to think about it over the weekend.” This is not correct. Mr. Houghton did in fact ask me if I wanted to think about it over the weekend. I made the decision to stand by my resignation.

There is another statement by Mr. Houghton which states, “…. I asked him to sit down with the parents and he chose not to do that.” This is not correct, Mr. Houghton never offered this option to me.



The article states, “The fact is…over a period of years, the parents were listening to the frustrations of teenage boys on a regular basis about the coaching methods and what went on during practices and at the games.” Is this a true representation from players/parent from the years 2003 -2007 or the feeling from a few disgruntled parents of this season? I beg to differ with this statement because I have received numerous phone calls and emails over the past 48 hours from former players and their parents which tell a far different story and offering their support to me.

The article mentions a February 2008 hazing incident and that the present parents were concerned. I was not made aware of any present parent’s concerns with the year old incident. If it was a concern then why wasn’t this brought to my attention earlier and not a year later? The article also mentions a possible repeat hazing incident. At the beginning of the season, I received an anymonous email mentioning the rumor. I immediately contacted the administration and within hours I met with all three teams. I informed them of our rules against hazing and of the suspensions associated with any such act. Nothing ever occurred. If there were present parents who had a concern then why did they not notify either me or the administration at that time instead of waiting four months later following the season?

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I stand by my statement that we have been competitive many nights. Just solicit the opinions of any of my fellow coaching colleagues in the Western Slope League and ask them their thoughts as to our talent level and our competitiveness.

Lastly, I have spent the last seven years devoting and committing a lot of time and energy to this team and program. I have always pried myself in giving 100% of my best effort to this team and program. It is sad that a few parents are causing this relationship to end.

Philip S. Tronsrue


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