Ex-coach's battle over job heats up

Everyone in Peabody has an opinion about Ed Nizwantowski.

"My observation is that there's no in-between with Mr. Nizwantowski," said Daniel B. Kulak, assistant city solicitor, speaking of the ongoing debate. "You're on one side of the line or the other."

These days, the former high school coach and Peabody School Committee member is a hot topic in town.

With the school administration trying to develop a budget for fiscal year 2008 and students balking at high user fees, the city may be hit with another big cost -- defending a lawsuit filed last week asserting age discrimination after Nizwantowski was not rehired to coach baseball or football in 2005, when he was 58.

The lawsuit, filed in Salem Superior Court, seeks $136,200 in documented and expected lost wages, and reinstatement as coach of both sports. The suit is asking for a jury to award treble damages, which could raise the judgment to $408,600.

Nizwantowski had filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, which found probable cause supporting the claims in July 2006. The commission case has been discontinued because of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit comes at a time when the district is seeking a new football coach following two losing seasons under Nizwantowski's replacement, Paul Uva. It also came after an e-mail exchange between Nizwantowski's lawyer, William H. Sheehan III, and Kulak was given to the Salem Evening News. In the e-mail, Sheehan suggested that Nizwantowski was willing to drop the commission complaint if he were appointed to the vacant head football coach's position. The exchange also indicated he was willing to leave the School Committee if he were hired as football coach.

That type of exchange is not uncommon for lawyers seeking to settle a dispute, both lawyers said.

"Mr. Nizwantowski wants very much to resume his position as high school football coach at Peabody High School," Sheehan said.

In executive session, the School Committee rejected the settlement offer that would have given Nizwantowski his football job back if he dropped the commission complaint, according to Sheehan.

Nizwantowski, known for a willingness to speak his mind, would not comment on the case or his position as a school board member of the district he's suing. Nor would the superintendent, C. Milton Burnett, or Mayor Michael Bonfanti, who chairs the School Committee, which met last night with the fiscal year 2008 budget and executive session issues on its agenda.

"There are a lot of good things happening here in Peabody," Burnett said. "Kids getting awards, teachers teaching kids, and kids involved in all kinds of activities. There are some good, positive things happening."

Others were more willing to discuss how the Nizwantowski situation is affecting the school.

"All this negative stuff is dragging the athletic department through the mud when we've got good things going on," Athletic Director Phil Sheridan said. "People don't see it because of all this other stuff."

Longtime coaches often don't go quietly, and that has certainly been the case with "Niz," a successful coach in a football-baseball town. His teams had been consistent winners, and he was helpful in getting his players into college.

In 23 seasons as the Tanners' football coach, Nizwantowski compiled a 179-64-6 record, and his team won nine Greater Boston League titles and made five Division 1 Super Bowl appearances, winning titles in 1990 and 1993. The baseball team won more than 200 games during his 18-year tenure.

"You can't coach as long as he coached and have the unqualified success he had without having an enormous effect on the kids themselves," said Sheehan. "The things he did for kids is almost legendary. He was an outstanding coach and always supported the kids."

At one time, the ousting of a high-profile coach would be played out at School Committee meetings and in the local news papers. Changes in state education guidelines theoretically took politics out of the equation when it gave the high school principal the authority to hire and fire coaches, but that has not been the case with Nizwantowski.

He filed the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination complaint in February 2005, a month after first-year Principal Patrick Larkin opened all spring coaching positions and made new hires. Finalists for the baseball position included Nizwantowski and Mark Bettencourt, a former Peabody High captain who is a Peabody police officer. Larkin selected Bettencourt, a hire approved by then-superintendent Nadine Binkley.

Later in 2005, Larkin also opened other positions, including the football job. Nizwantowski applied for the job, but Sheridan and a five-person hiring committee did not include him as a finalist.

In the fall of that year, Nizwantowski, a Peabody High graduate who taught physical education and health at the school for 35 years before retiring from teaching in 2004, ran for a School Committee seat and won. "Ed wanted to serve the city in another way," Sheehan said.

One of the few people willing to talk about the case was Larkin.

"All I can say is, I interviewed two people and I made an assessment that I thought was appropriate," said Larkin. "It's hard to get into specifics. I think I made the best decision for what was best for student athletes. It had zero percent to do with anybody's age."

What he will acknowledge, without going into specifics, is that Nizwantowski's history did factor into his decision.

That included a 2004 incident in which the coach was barred from Lowell's LeLacheur Park prior to his team's state tournament final appearance because he'd been involved in a verbal altercation with a groundskeeper at the park the year before. Nizwantowski instead stood about 150 feet from the park, getting updates on his cellphone. He was also featured in a December 2004 Sports Illustrated story about drug use among Peabody athletes, including former top baseball draft pick Jeff Allison and Nizwantowski's son.

Larkin said he felt the Sports Illustrated story served an important purpose by bringing forward the important issue of drug use and appreciated Nizwantowski's candor in talking about his family situation, but said he didn't appreciate not being notified when the reporter and photographer came to Peabody High.

While Bettencourt's teams have been successful, Uva had two losing seasons and a 5-15 record, a factor that has added fuel to the debate. "If it's all about winning percentage, I'd hate to put that as a starting point for how we choose to put people on board," Larkin said.

Larkin is leaving at the end of the academic year in June to take a similar position in Burlington. He said he'll be glad to leave this controversy behind.

"I want to go to a place where I can be a principal and concentrate on academics," he said. "It's draining to be put through this over and over. I look forward to going somewhere and doing the job I'm supposed to be doing."

Christopher Gasper of the Globe staff contributed to this report.