A Lesson in Poor PR and Dumb Decision-Making: Mullen High School vs. Dave Logan

Former Mullen Head Coach Dave Logan

Dave Logan is one of the most storied and celebrated sports figures in Colorado history. A phenomenal athlete, he starred at Wheat Ridge High School and was the Denver Post Gold Helmet winner in 1971. The Gold Helmet is awarded to the state's top senior football player, scholar, and citizen. Logan was a dual-sport athlete at the University of Colorado and was drafted by the NFL, MLB, and NBA. He played several years in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos.

After hanging up his cleats, Logan went on to become the play-by-play man for the Broncos as well as one of the most successful high school coaches in Colorado history. Over 19 seasons at three different schools (Arvada West, Chatfield, and Mullen), Logan compiled a record of 201-43 with six state titles. He won a title with every school he coached. At Mullen, he won four of those titles, including three straight, and had a 34-game winning streak that was halted this past season. He has never taken a salary, instead divvying up his pay amongst his assistants.

This past season, Mullen went 9-3 and was bounced from the state playoffs in the quarterfinals by Pomona.

Naturally, Mullen fired him.

For Coloradoans, this was even more shocking than when the Broncos fired Mike Shanahan. Dave Logan is high school football to many people. He's a Colorado icon. His voice can be heard every Sunday by legions of Broncos fans tuning into the game on 850 KOA. His face is seen all over the state in FirstBank advertisements. Let's face it, the guy's a legend.

As if his ouster wasn't enough, the tale just keeps getting stranger and stranger as Mullen officials, already facing a wave of negative opinion, seemingly keep digging themselves a bigger and bigger hole.

When the firing was first announced, Mullen president and CEO Ryan Clement, a former Mullen and University of Miami quarterback (who was, according to his bio, offered a scholarship by EVERY Division I school in the United States. No word about Canadian schools), said that he wanted a coach who could be around the school full-time. Clement said, "Our responsibility is to always be aware of the entire culture at Mullen according to Lasallian values. After discussions, we decided the best interest of the school in the long term was someone who can be a full-time member of the school community and be engaged in every facet. Part of that is to be a full engaged member."

Clement went on to say that Logan had become the face of the school, stating, "In the case of Coach Logan, he had a greater celebrity outside, which was even magnified more. The analysis of the impact on our culture is magnified by how the head football coach engages within the school. For that position, we felt we needed to have (the coach) be full-time faculty. If our greatest asset is our football coach, who's not here very often, you can see it's not who we've been."

Logan is not a teacher and hosts a daily afternoon talk show on 850 KOA. However, only about 10 percent of Mullen's 100 coaches are full-time faculty. Having a coach who isn't a teacher at the school is pretty common. I played baseball and tennis at Columbine, and neither of my head coaches were employed at the school, for example. Students held brief protests supporting Logan, indicating that how he "engaged within the school" was greatly appreciated by the student body.

Plus, what is the problem with football being the face of the school? Success breeds recognition, and few schools have been as successful as Mullen at football over the past decade. As a private school, Mullen needs the attention that football brings. Prospective students will hear about the Mustangs' success and become interested in learning more about the school.

It happens to schools all the time. When you think about Rocky Mountain High School, the first thing that comes to mind is their stellar baseball team. Same thing with Eaton. Cherry Creek is known for its dominant tennis program and stellar baseball team coached by legendary coach Marc Johnson. Rudy Carey and boys basketball are the face of Denver East. Columbine is known for its strong football program with its punishing ground game. One could make an argument that Coach Andy Lowry is the face of the school.

That explanation, shaky enough to begin with, became even more suspect once it was revealed that prior to last season, Mullen administrators wanted Logan to replace three assistant coaches with full-time faculty, one of whom was Clement. The former all-state quarterback wanted to become the team's quarterbacks coach. Logan admitted that Clement did talk to him several times about becoming the quarterbacks coach but that he declined because he already had a quarterbacks coach (a pretty good one, too, as the past few Mullen quarterbacks have received Division I scholarship offers). He did add that he doesn't believe that was the reason he was fired. Mullen officials, mainly Clement, have denied the reports, but according to The Denver Post, multiple sources have confirmed the school wanted full-time faculty on the football staff.

Another angle to this story indirectly revolves around Regis' Mark Nolan. Mullen's new principal, Jim Gmelich, was at Regis prior to coming to Mullen last year and is close to Nolan. Speculation is that the new Mullen administrators want Nolan to be the football coach at Mullen. I have heard the same thing from someone I know who knows someone close to the situation.

The latest bombshell is that last night, Mullen reported recruiting violations to the Colorado High School Athletic Association. The school claims the violations were committed by Logan and his staff. Clement again reiterated that the football program cannot be run by someone who is not at the school full-time and that compliance with state regulations deteriorated during Logan's tenure.   .

These allegations are not surprising. Public school fans have long suspected and accused private schools such as Mullen of recruiting. The Denver Post recently ran an excellent series of articles, mainly centered around newcomer Valor Christian, about the rise of private school powerhouses in the state.

Logan himself has been accused of recruiting. Before he was the head coach at Mullen, Logan coached at Chatfield. In 2001, they won a state title behind LenDale White and several transfers from Denver South. White went on to play at USC and in the NFL. While no action was ever taken against Logan, rivals cried foul that these players all happened to transfer to Chatfield, a school that is not a football powerhouse. They went there because of Logan, and the common belief among Jeffco League rivals was that Logan and his staff recruited them.

In his defense, Denver South's football team had been going through a tumultuous time. In 2000, their head coach and an assistant were suspended, and another placed on leave, after an incident in which the coach's brother pointed a gun at an assistant coach after practice. Reports surfaced of other problems with the program, including allegations of player abuse. It is understandable that players would want to leave a program after something like that. It is a gray area between recruiting and helping kids out.

Regardless, the timing of these allegations is highly suspect. If recruiting violations did occur, then why weren't they mentioned at the time of Logan's firing? The story then was that Logan was let go because the school wanted a full-time faculty member to coach the football team, somone who could be around the school more often.

Clement said at the time, "Coach Logan is a great coach. He's a man of integrity. He does a great job in all that he does. But he's just not here as often as necessary for the head football coach at Mullen."

He won four state titles and went 110-12 in nine years at the school. Sounds like he was there often enough.

After the strong public backlash and criticism, all of a sudden now Logan and his staff were fired because of recruiting and other violations? Seriously? What about his integrity and the great job he did? If that were indeed the case, then why not come out and say it when it was first announced that he was fired? Why the charade about wanting a full-time faculty member to coach the team?

Oh, but it gets better.

Logan's name is not even listed among the people accused of committing recruiting violations in the package Mullen sent to CHSAA. Logan adamantly denies any allegations of wrongdoing, saying. A further video interview can be found here. Other members of Logan's staff have strongly denied that anything violations occurred.

In this day and age, especially after last year's college football season that was riddled with scandal, "recruiting violations" has a sinister undertone to it. Want to know what nefarious deeds Logan and staff committed?

On October 21, during a game against Arapahoe, several eighth graders were on the sideline during the game. The students were eventually asked to sit in the stands. That was it. If you've ever been to a high school football game here in Colorado, you know that there is a lot going on and that kids wander around all over the place. It wouldn't be that hard to sneak onto the sidelines, and I doubt coaches actively asked them to come stand with the team. Logan wouldn't know about them because he would have been too busy coaching the game. His attention is focused on his players and what's going on out on the field.

Logan admitted that several other eighth graders were going to eat a meal with the team but were denied once the staff realized it could be a recruiting violation. Before you think it was some plot to go around the rules, the kids had older brothers who were coached by Logan. Presumably, the older brothers were current players. It stands to reason that young kids, who usually look up to and try to emulate their older brothers, simply wanted to be a part of the team and hang out with their older brothers. They were denied, and that was the end of it.

Clement wants us to believe that was the reason Logan was fired? Some eigtht graders stood on the sideline during part of one game, and some others almost had dinner with the team? Really? That's your reasoning for firing Logan?

Clement and Mullen just keep digging themselves into a deeper and deeper hole. Public opinion was already against them, but now it's going to get even worse. Clement keeps putting his foot in his mouth. In a statement, he said, "My handling of the communication and outreach efforts to the Mullen family and the general public in the immediate aftermath of our decision to part company with our coach was handled poorly..."

Ya think?

The vague reasoning and constantly changing stories don't do much for Mullen's credibility. In fact, it comes across as Clement and Mullen trying to cover their own asses while smearing Logan's name to try and salvage their own. If indeed their side of the story is accurate, then they simply come across as incompetent and grossly lacking in PR ability and should not be allowed to run a school.

My money's on the former. Look, I've never been a fan of Mullen, and Logan has always coached schools that are rivals of my own. However, Logan has never been accused of any wrongdoing by CHSAA. By all accounts he is an upstanding and honorable man who is well-liked and admired. He has been a highly-successful coach and coaches the right way. He encourages kids to play other sports in an era of specialization and realizes football isn't everything, unlike many dictatorial coaches these days. He works for free and gives his salary to his assistants. He has taken the high road all throughout this ordeal, unlike Clement.

This whole thing just comes off as an ill-conceived and poorly executed power trip by Clement and Mullen officials. There's no good reason to fire Logan. They simply resented his power and influence. They wanted the spotlight. Well now it's shining on them, and they've proven they can't handle it. I suppose the one benefit to this whole thing is that Clement will get his wish: the football program will no longer be the face of the school because if you're a prospective football player, would you want to play for Mullen after all this? I think not.

Rumors have been rampant that Logan will end up at Cherry Creek, the state's largest high school and one with a rich football tradition of its own. Coach Mike Brookhart stepped down as football coach yesterday (he still remains the head basketball coach), leading to further speculation that Logan will replace him. I despise Cherry Creek-- pretty much every non-Creek student in Colorado does-- but I honestly hope that Logan takes the job and crushes Mullen for years to come.