Landisch firing is a PR nightmare

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Peter Zuzga

Wauwatosa West Boys Varsity Basketball Coach Mike Landisch reacts following his teams WIAA Sectional game against Whitefish Bay in the Al McGuire Center Thursday, March 20, 2011, in Milwaukee, Wis. Whitefish Bay won the game.

Peter Zuzga

Wauwatosa West Boys Varsity Basketball Coach Mike Landisch reacts following his teams WIAA Sectional game against Whitefish Bay in the Al McGuire Center Thursday, March 20, 2011, in Milwaukee, Wis. Whitefish Bay won the game.

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It's been a little over a week since the Wauwatosa West administration told their successful, popular boys basketball coach, Mike Landisch, "Thanks for playing."

Of course, "because they are part of a personnel matter, the district will not comment further on the specifics of Mr. Landisch's performance review." This, of course, not only protects the administration, but the employee as well.

After I made numerous phone calls and exchanged many emails with parents, current and past players, and others close to the situation, I have to say it doesn't seem that Landisch fits any of the reasons that have been tossed out there for his firing.

Rumored reasons

Let's take a look at some of them.

The most humorous one: The players weren't getting a positive experience.

I spoke with three key players on this year's team - Jarvis Ashley, Tyler Krause and Kieviante Love - and former players A.J. Krause and Sam Krenzien. All they talked about was that Landisch is a good coach and a better human being, and how he cared about them as people.

Barb Krause actually told me that her sons A.J. and Tyler are better men because of Landisch.

I followed the Trojans every game down the stretch, and I've heard the players talk about this team being a family and how much fun they were having.

It's unusual for a game to go by without me being approached by parents who want to talk basketball. Once I had a mother tell me she wished her son had more playing time. I also had another parent tell me he felt Landisch disrespected his son.

But unless there are a great number of people lying about the situation, these sentiments are isolated.

How about this purported reason? He yells at his players.

OK, you can stop laughing now.

This is sports, and coaches yell at their players. If they didn't yell, they wouldn't be coaches. I spoke to more than 10 coaches - basketball and other spring sport coaches, boys and girls coaches - and most of them said they would have been let go a long time ago if yelling at their team was a reason to be fired.

Love, one of the Trojans' senior leaders this year, said about the Tosa West practices: "If anything, as senior leaders, we got on each other more than coach did. He had a good, positive attitude."

Positive attitude? Seems that phrase keeps popping up.

Cancer is not the issue

Now, notice I haven't even brought up the word "cancer." I didn't have to, because the administration did - twice, according to sources.

First of all, Landisch was told the cancer changed his demeanor. Made him grouchy.

Hard to imagine having cancer and being grouchy, hey?

"I don't think it hurt his attitude at all," Ashley said. "... I don't think he's changed at all. I think he's the same."

The administration also told Landisch he was using his cancer to motivate his team.

Love brought up the subject before I did during our conversation.

"We care about coach, and when he told us last year (about the cancer), we wanted to win for him," Love said. "We know he is still fighting it, and we care for him, but that was not our motivation to win (this year). We believe in ourselves, and we wanted to win because we had a good team."

Glitch in the plan?

Since none of the pieces fit, here's my opinion about why Landisch is gone: Principal Frank Calarco and Athletic Director Nathan DeLany are finishing their first year at the helm, and both would like to have their own man running the boys basketball program - which is their right.

But things went wrong with their plan when the Trojans did something no other Tosa West basketball team has done since 1996 - they won a regional championship and almost knocked off the eventual state champion, Whitefish Bay, in the sectional semifinal, leaving everyone with a "positive experience."

After Landisch told his team March 29 that he was not having his contract renewed, Ashley, Love and Krause went in to see Calarco. Obviously, Calarco couldn't say much. But Ashley had an interesting comment.

"When we went in to talk to him, he didn't make eye contact with us," he said. "My mother always told me when I talked to people to make eye contact or they might think I was lying."

I could go on and on, but this would be fruitless. Mainly because in a couple weeks, a month at the most, this will die down and Calarco and DeLany both know that.

So now they can get going and bring in their own coach.

But they can only hope the damage they've done to their school's image in southeast Wisconsin can be repaired.