Saturday, April 22, 2000
McNicholas' Doerger fired for confrontation with refs
Archdiocese initiates action
BY Carey Hoffman
Enquirer contributor
McNicholas boys basketball coach Jerry Doerger, the most veteran and winningest active coach in the city, has been fired by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
Doerger was informed Wednesday that his contract to coach at McNicholas will not be renewed for next season. The decision comes as a result of his actions after McNick lost to Dayton Christian 69-66 in a district championship game March9 at University of Dayton Arena.
“While Mr. Doerger has had considerable success over the years as McNicholas' coach, his conduct in repeatedly verbally abusing game officials following this year's district basketball game was totally unacceptable for a Catholic educator,” said Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Cincinnati Archdiocese.
Doerger has been a high school head coach in Cincinnati for 34 years, the last 25 at McNicholas. He has a career record of 433-219 and made five trips to the state tournament, including three in the 1990s.
“It was based on my conduct in Dayton, which I don't want to comment on
at this point,” Doerger said. “I did not retire, and I did not resign. I sure did not want to go out on this note.”
Doerger's ire in Dayton stemmed from four no-calls on what he considered goaltending violations by Dayton Christian star Romain Sato. The archdiocese said a confrontation between Doerger and game officials took place in the stands after the game.
Doerger told the Enquirer that night he felt that two of the officials assigned to the game were biased based on past problems he had had with them.
“I think they carry a chip on their shoulder,” he said at the time. “There were some of the worst calls I've seen. I really think they took the game away from us. We deserved better.”
While the archdiocese initiated the action, the decision was technically made by McNicholas' administration. Officials from the school could not be reached for comment Friday evening.
Doerger, 63, had planned on coaching three more years, then retiring from both his coaching and counseling responsibilities at the school.
This week's decision apparently does not affect Doerger's status as a counselor, although he is uncertain at this point if he'll continue in that position next year.
Doerger, who was always known as volatile on the sidelines but also as a coach close to his players, said the hardest part was when he was allowed to address his team on Thursday.
“I didn't want them to read about it or hear it from someone else,” he said. “It was not fun.”
“Jerry asked me at lunch to get the guys together for a meeting in the gym after school,” senior forward Adam Schneider said. “He had a hard time getting it out, but he told us he probably wouldn't be back as coach. The whole thing is ridiculous. He never hurt a soul and always told us that no matter what anybody said, he loved us.”
Added Doerger: “I feel I can still coach.”
This past season, McNick posted a 15-9 record. A highlight was a 63-54 upset in February of the then-undefeated and No.1-ranked Division I team in Ohio, St. Xavier.
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