Proviso East High School administrators recently decided not to renew the contract of head varsity football coach DeWan White Sr., according to Proviso Township High Schools District 209 officials.
In a statement put out on Nov. 15, Cynthia Moreno, the district’s spokesperson, stated that “Proviso East will be hiring a new football coach and will ensure that the program is headed in a competitive direction.”
During an interview that day, White said that he had problems with a performance evaluation of his coaching job conducted by Brian Colbert, Proviso East’s assistant principal and athletic director.
“I don’t believe the evaluation was fair,” White said. “They don’t give coaches a chance. In my opinion, Coach David Odom [White’s predecessor] should never have been fired. How can you expect a coach to change a culture if you’re switching every two years?”
District officials are prohibited from discussing personnel matters.
White was hired as an at-will employee in July 2016, replacing former head varsity football coach David Odom, who had been in the position since 2014. White went winless over two seasons.
“We didn’t win any games my first and second year, but we scored 26 points my first year and this year we scored 80 points,” White said.
