Are Loudoun County Public Schools Promoting Racism and otherwise, Immoral and Unethical, Behavior with their Questionable Hiring Policies?

Statistically, Coach Corey Stitzel is an above average high school coach, as compared to his Loudoun County, VA peers.  Some fans have even referred to him as an “offensive genius,” with his team relying heavily on high shooting percentages, and less on defense.  While his technical capabilities are now widely recognized, Coach Stitzel has also gained a less-reported on reputation as a hot-headed, arrogant, and demeaning individual, both on and off the court, with students, parents, and peers alike.  So, my question is, what did he do before coming to Loudoun County, and did the Loudoun County Public School system properly vet him before hiring him to be a role model for our kids?

Coach Stitzel is a school hall monitor and has a great deal of “free time” with Stone Bridge High School students.  In addition, he has been the Varsity Head Coach at Stone Bridge for the past two years.  In his first season, he led his team to a first-ever Conference Championship with Jason Jolley, a Senior and long-time stand-out, as his showcase player.  That season, the Bulldogs continued on for a 22 game winning streak, losing in the state semi-finals.  This season, the Bulldogs didn’t fare as well, ending the regular season tied for third place in their conference, with state ranking dropping to 83^rd, at last check.  Nevertheless, the Bulldogs were able to pull out a winning season, overall, in spite of their Conference 14 championship and regional game losses.   

Coach Stitzel has been seemingly quite successful in Loudoun to date – just ask him.  Off the court, however, he shares a very different and darker side.  Coach Stitzel has a very different reputation among his players and their families.  He is known by the Stone Bridge High School staff where he works as an arrogant person, who is difficult to work with and extremely high maintenance.   More importantly, some of his players see him as derogatory, inflammatory, and otherwise, verbally abusive, often calling the young men on his team “pussies” and such.  This season, Coach Stitzel targeted Senior, and college recruit, Nick Barnes, with his derogatory remarks after Barnes suffered a an ankle injury that potentially threatened his final high school season.  Many coaches are tough, mind you, but Coach Stitizel is just plain inappropriate, popping off like a two-year-old, openly expressing his negative opinions of his players to anyone who will listen.  All the while, he continues to pump them up in the media - as it suits him to do so, of course.  

In and around the community, Coach Stitzel has often and repeatedly been heard making slanderous comments about players and parents, alike.  Some extremely defamatory and potential damaging comments he has made in the past involve highly respected members of the community, and include accusations of substance abuse, mental illness, misappropriation of funds, and irresponsible care of youth, to name a few.   He has demonstrated a pattern of behavior in his attack of his adult victims – all have children in sports, all are successful business people, and all are very popular with local youth.  He makes these false statements all around town, one has to assume, to discredit his new “neighbors,” leading one to wonder, what could be his motive?  Could he be deflecting, perhaps?

Coach Stitzel behaves in a way local parents would never teach their children to behave.  He regularly breaks established rules - county, school, and even Parks and Recs - talks negatively to students about other teachers, administrators, and coaches, and generally behaves like a bully around town, in his place of work, and with his team.  He encourages his players to join in his antics, fostering a gang mentality within his team(s), targeting the “weak links” – not necessarily the weakest players on the team or in the community, mind you, but those who refuse to join in his reindeer games.  He is often heard talking to players from opposing teams when they are near sidelines or even shouting across the court, telling them they are “un-athletic,” “slow,” and/or are “nothing.” His intimidation techniques are even more apparent in his abuse of his minority players, whom he often openly and loudly berates, and sometimes, dismisses altogether, to exemplify to other players what may happen to them if they don’t bend to his influences.  Jason Jolly and Nick Barnes are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to that specific character flaw, as one can trace his questionable behavior from his high school team to his middle school AAU team, and all the way back to his own high school years. 

In addition to his moral code being somewhat questionable, his ethics have been called into question on numerous occasions.  For the past two years, Coach Stitzel has leveraged his influence as a high school coach to “encourage” young people to pay for individual and group training with his company, Dynamic Hoops Training, or to join his AAU program, from which he earns his living.  Whether they want to or not, players “know” that they must participate in his programs, if they have any hope of playing basketball in high school.  To make matters worse, he has expanded his web of influence by appointing all but one of his AAU organization’s coaching staff to his Varsity and JV coaching staff at Stone Bridge, and has joined forces with Riverside Head Coach, Coach K by adding his to his AAU coaching staff, in order to cast a wider net within the community.    

His ethics were in question again earlier this season, Stitzel was involved in what locals questioned as a potential VHSL recruiting violation, involving the transfer of Briar Woods Falcons Senior, Brandon Curry, to Stone Bridge prior to the start of the season.  But, recruiting violations are nothing new to Corey Stitzel.  Stitzel’s last coaching job, as an assistant at JMU, in charge of recruiting, ended in scandal regarding the illegal recruitment of players to JMU whom he had previously recruited to previous employer, Marist.  JMU ended up settling the case with Marist, compensating the college monetarily.  That, coupled with the Dukes ending the 2011-2012 season with a 12-20 record, ended Stitzel’s college coaching career.

 

Many may wonder, how can this all be true?  However, in Coach Stitzel’s case, there isn’t much mystery.  Stitzel, himself, isn’t known for being discreet.  That fact, coupled with his extensive media presence, makes a great deal of his life very public.  Beginning from his most recent coaching job before Stone Bridge, one can trace Stitzel’s history back through the media.  He was involved in an illegal recruiting scandal at JMU, [where he met a young coed at the time, now his wife, Kathleen - Stone Bridge Class of 2006] and was fired after a losing season. Prior to that, he has a long history of moderate successes as an assistant coach for smaller collegiate programs for which he was responsible for recruiting, as well as one year as a Division III Head Coach, where he racked up a 13-13 season.  And, further back in history, one can read that he was a star high school basketball player, himself.  At the same time, however, he was someone whose family home was fire-bombed, molotav cocktail-style, by minority classmates he allegedly tormented repeatedly with racial slurs and derogatory comments about their families, telling them to go back to their country.  It’s all out there for anyone to see. 

Though none of his past actions are illegal, per se, they are at minimum questionable.  It seems Coach Stitzel has been living on the edge throughout his life, and it can all be confirmed just by simply Googling his name.  One doesn’t even have to pick up the phone to check references to determine Stitzel’s non-suitability for employment as an educator of our youth.  Certainly, one can easily see a pattern of behavior that should have been a red flag to Loudoun County Public School administrators.  So, I wonder - What is he doing in Loudoun?  I mean, I’m all for promoting winning athletic programs in Loudoun County, but what are we saying to our citizens by having him represent one of our high schools in such a visible position?  More importantly, did the Loudoun County Public School system even do its due diligence in hiring such an influential man, with such a questionable background, to care for and coach our kids?   It certainly makes one wonder how many other coaches, teachers, administrators, and other staff in Loudoun County schools have a propensity to mistreat young people, and specifically minorities, skirt the rules, bend all moral and ethical boundaries, and in general dodge responsibility.  How many more “Coach Stitzels” has Loudoun County chosen to overlook for the sake of the “win?”