Cardinal Spellman football coach quits, blames harassment from parents
BROCKTON - For 19 years, Kahn Chace has coached high school football. For the last two seasons, at Cardinal Spellman High school in Brockton, that is, until Thursday night.
"The joy of coaching kind of gets ripped away from you," Chace said. "It's just general vulgar behavior."
The head coach resigned after the team's Thursday night game against Bishop Fenwick, he says due to two seasons of verbal abuse from the sidelines from his own players' parents.
"It's just nonstop whether it's the plays stink, I don't have the team ready, they're just yelling at us," Chace said. "Last year we had a guy follow our assistant coaches out of the booth."
For a while, he could take it, by getting people to escort him from games or going out a back exit for safety. But he reached a breaking point when he had to tell his wife and young kids to stay home.
"Now I can't have, I don't want my daughter to hear stuff like that said about her dad," Chace said.
Coach Chace's resignation comes as the state's high school athletic association asks fans to calm down. The MIAA says it has had a referee shortage for a couple seasons now in part because of verbal abuse form parents in the stands.
"We can never forget that when our coaches are coaching, they are doing this for the love of the sport and for what they are trying to do for young athletes," said Richard Pearson of the MIAA.
For Coach Chace, he hopes his willingness to step off the field will be a wake-up call for parents in the stands. Cardinal Spellman's administration tells WBZ it wishes him all the best in his future endeavors.
"I am a real person with real feelings too, and I care about their kids tremendously and that's why I'm there trying to help them do as good as they can," Chace said.