scribner "replaced"

socalogo.gif (8739 bytes)
SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Damian Scribner "Replaced"
At Crescenta Valley--(June 23, 1999)

"Replaced." Really, that's the word that the Glendale News-Press (a local LA Times-owned paper based in Glendale) used in describing the situation at Crescenta Valley High, which has placed Damian Scribner, coach of the girls team on "unpaid administrative leave pending an investigation into alleged inappropriate behavior with a female student," according to a published report in the News-Press quoting a spokesman for the Glendale Unified School District. Of course the coach hasn't really been "replaced" at all; he's been fired.

"That is the extent of the information that we can provide at this point," district spokesman Vic Pallos told the Glendale News-Press. Pat Snickles, girls' athletic director at Crescenta Valley, confirmed Scribner was "relieved of his duties" and replaced by assistant Roddy Gregory, who will coach the team this summer. Snickles told the paper that the school is close to hiring a full-time coach, but referred all other questions regarding Scribner's leave to co-Principal Gary Talbert, who did not return calls to the paper, and neither did Scribner or Gregory.

Players on the girls' basketball team said they were told by Talbert and Snickles during a team meeting on June 14 that Scribner had been relieved of his duties. "They just dropped it on us," Sinnamonn Garrett, who will be a senior in the fall, told the News-Press. "We were in shock." The players said no reason was given for Scribner's leave. "They said it was a privacy issue and couldn't tell us," Garrett told the paper.

Crescenta Valley was 46-8 in two seasons under Scribner. The Falcons won the Pacific League title in 1997-98 and tied Muir for the league title last season. Top-seeded Crescenta Valley was upset in the Southern Section Division I-AA quarterfinals by El Toro on a last-second shot in 1998. Last season, the Falcons were stunned by Santa Barbara in the first round of the Division I-A playoffs.

The CV coaching position should get more than a few applicants Crescenta Valley has long had a youth basketball program that feeds a high school which has been very successful at the freshman, jv, and varsity level. Garrett, a Times' All-Valley selection as a junior, will be one of the region's top returning players along with teammate Kristie Umemoto, a second-team All-Valley guard.