GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — "It's unfortunate from my perspective but it is what it is," Dale Wilhelm told FOX 17 Tuesday after Forest Hills Northern fired him from his longtime position as head volleyball coach.
Many parents and players reached out to our newsroom to say the district made a mistake.
Now, for the first time in six years, Wilhelm is not on the sidelines coaching the Huskies— a decision he says was not mutual.
"I was given a chance to resign but I, you know, I'm an at-will employee," Wilhelm explained. "And I told him I didn't think it dictated me resigning. They could do what they had to do."
Forest Hills Public Schools has been pretty tight-lipped about the situation; however, the district did announce Tuesday that it appointed an interim head volleyball coach at Forest Hills Northern High School.
District leaders say it's part of their decision to lead student athletes "in another direction."
The school district issued the following statement:
"Forest Hills will be completing the volleyball season under the leadership of a new, interim head coach. We greatly appreciate the expertise, dedication, and success that Coach Wilhelm brought to our program but feel it is in the best interest of our student athletes to move in another direction. The athletic director has been involved in this issue as he is with all coaching decisions.
"The district cannot comment further as it is a personnel issue."
School officials declined to elaborate on the nature of Coach Wilhelm's exit.
Meanwhile, Wilhelm is a well-established coach in the Michigan volleyball world.
He was an assistant coach at Ferris State University. He served as an elected member of the MIVCA board and was appointed to the MHSAA Volleyball Committee.
The Huskies were the Division 1 state semifinalists last season and the league had them at number five already this season.
"Everybody knows that playing time is an issue you can't complain about, so they don't complain about playing time," Wilhelm said. "But there's a strong correlation between the people who are complaining and playing time."
He says there were three complaints in total; however, Wilhelm would not speak on the nature of those complaints— other than saying that two of them were unfounded. Wilhelm added that this issue is nothing new for Forest Hills Northern.
"It's kind of par for the course, you know," he said. "To the extent that I tried to protect my subordinate coaches from it because it's, you know, it's always a situation. I've gone through a lot of coaches here because they just get disenchanted, disenchanted with what they have to deal with off the court. So, I tried to protect them from that and certainly, I'm not immune from that."
Now, a petition has been started in support of Wilhelm.
"The people that have reached out to me, I've tried to tell them to stand down, you know, it's just, support the kids," Wilhelm said. "Once a decision has been made like this, it's been made and I, you know, you get a little ways away from it, time settles in and life moves on."
He added that he does not plan to appeal the district's decision.
Wilhelm also runs another program in the community for fifth and sixth graders and, despite what's happening at the high school level, those in charge of the other program are supportive of him and do not plan to remove him from that role.
