http://www.whittierdailynews.com/sports/20130905/california-fires-cross-country-coach-dimarco
This was the coach DiMarco's response at prepcaltrack.com. Just an unfortunate situation all the way around.
"First off, let me just say thank you for the positive responses. It has not been an easy couple of weeks and I have experienced things I never thought I would ever experience in my life time. I prefer not to comment on this online but I do want to make a point real quick. I do not blame a single athlete for telling their parents. Some of the blisters were pretty bad looking and as a parent I too would be concerned if my child came home with them on their hands. I do not blame parents for voicing their opinions to my administration (I actually self-reported it as soon as I saw the first blisters). So please don't blame my athletes... while I tried to teach them about responsibility the end result did not accomplish that goal. My problem lies in my districts response! First offense total accident with acknowledgment by my district that they believe me when I say that I never meant for this to happen yet the punishment suggest otherwise. I understand the need to investigate and leave no stone unturned in finding the truth but when you have a coach who loves his athletes and would never do anything to harm them make a mistake, turn himself in and literally border on depression in the days following the incident express nothing but remorse for the situation and explain his reason why he chose the surface (we don't have true grass fields, we have grass with flowers and hundreds of bees where my athletes have been stung multiple times running barefoot or bear crawling in the past). I chose the surface we had used to do bear crawls hundreds of times as part of our weight room workout which never in the past did one athlete ever get a blister from... Common sense would suggest that the surface that was safe of risk would be better than the surface that has had nothing but risk in the past. This particular time I was wrong and while no one feels worse than I... in the end what matters is athletes were injured and it was my fault. I have been charged with corporal punishment (which I do not believe is true) as bear crawls are not something cross country teams do (or as I was told)... While I don't know what my future holds I only wish the best for my athletes... they are in my opinion the real losers in this unfortunate situation and for that I will never forgive myself. Again, thank you for the kind words, they mean a lot to me!"
This was the coach DiMarco's response at prepcaltrack.com. Just an unfortunate situation all the way around.
"First off, let me just say thank you for the positive responses. It has not been an easy couple of weeks and I have experienced things I never thought I would ever experience in my life time. I prefer not to comment on this online but I do want to make a point real quick. I do not blame a single athlete for telling their parents. Some of the blisters were pretty bad looking and as a parent I too would be concerned if my child came home with them on their hands. I do not blame parents for voicing their opinions to my administration (I actually self-reported it as soon as I saw the first blisters). So please don't blame my athletes... while I tried to teach them about responsibility the end result did not accomplish that goal. My problem lies in my districts response! First offense total accident with acknowledgment by my district that they believe me when I say that I never meant for this to happen yet the punishment suggest otherwise. I understand the need to investigate and leave no stone unturned in finding the truth but when you have a coach who loves his athletes and would never do anything to harm them make a mistake, turn himself in and literally border on depression in the days following the incident express nothing but remorse for the situation and explain his reason why he chose the surface (we don't have true grass fields, we have grass with flowers and hundreds of bees where my athletes have been stung multiple times running barefoot or bear crawling in the past). I chose the surface we had used to do bear crawls hundreds of times as part of our weight room workout which never in the past did one athlete ever get a blister from... Common sense would suggest that the surface that was safe of risk would be better than the surface that has had nothing but risk in the past. This particular time I was wrong and while no one feels worse than I... in the end what matters is athletes were injured and it was my fault. I have been charged with corporal punishment (which I do not believe is true) as bear crawls are not something cross country teams do (or as I was told)... While I don't know what my future holds I only wish the best for my athletes... they are in my opinion the real losers in this unfortunate situation and for that I will never forgive myself. Again, thank you for the kind words, they mean a lot to me!"
