Former Arlee adminstrators respond to Pitt's resignation
Former Arlee High School board member Tom Haynes wasn’t surprised when he learned his colleague, old Arlee High School boys basketball coach Zanen Pitts, resigned.
Haynes admits he was more surprised Pitts, who publicly resigned and criticized the Arlee School board in a recent Missoulian article and 406mtsports.com article, admits the resignation didn’t happen sooner.
“I figured this was coming down to him leaving,” Haynes said. “Zanen told me he was ‘getting kind of tired of fighting the administration.’ There were a lot of things with the school board that he could and could not do.”
Haynes, a member of the Arlee school board for nearly six years, said he felt Pitts was losing his will to fight through the political dynamics he had to endure during his time as the Warriors boys head basketball coach.
“The (administration) didn’t let him do his job, and everything he did as a coach was brought up to the school board or the superintendent,” haynes said. “Zanen started getting tired of all of these issues being brought up.”
Pitts told Frank Gogola of the Missoulian and the 406mtsports.com network he couldn’t carry on because of the emotional toll.
“They threatened to fire me, and they told me to go different places,” he told the Missoulian. “I don’t want to coach anywhere else. It doesn’t even interest me. I love Arlee.”
Pitts expounded to the Missoulian: “But I don’t want you guys to look at me and think that I’m dissing on you or I’m leaving you. They destroyed my family and me. It’s been the hardest seven years of my life. That’s why I wanted you first to know that if it weren’t for our solid, awesome family and your support, we wouldn’t be able to be here now.”
Fighting a political wrestling match
Haynes described the atmosphere at the Arlee school board meetings as chaotic, citing numerous arguments, bickering and disagreements.
“It was like the WWF (World Wrestling Federation),” Haynes said. “It was a battle, and I don’t like to be in that situation. I don’t like to lose any argument. There were four other members of the board, and you couldn’t get nowhere.”
After Pitt’s public tirade, the Arlee administration responded with a formal written statement, uncharacteristic of the school district’s responses to personnel issues.
Pieces of the statement were published in the recent Missoulian article.
“Mr. Pitts chose to blame the administration for his departure, and to make derogatory comments about school staff who have attempted to hold him accountable during his tenure as a basketball coach,” Baldwin said. “For several years, and through many administrators, the district has addressed Mr. Pitts’ misconduct both formally and informally, with varying degrees of success.” Public school districts are required to follow federal and state rules regarding equity in high school sports, and the Montana High School Association enforces additional rules regarding benefits to student-athletes.
“Mr. Pitts was reprimanded formally and informally for violating these rules, and he continued to disregard the direction of the administrators who were tasked with addressing his misconduct. Most recently, Mr. Pitts had a violent outburst in another school’s locker room and destroyed the school’s property. This incident reflected poorly on the Arlee School District and boys’ basketball program. The district was obligated to reimburse the other school for the vandalism. The District charged Mr. Pitts with the cost it incurred for his violent outburst, and he expressed significant dissatisfaction with that decision.”
Haynes said he felt the loser in the political ring between the school board and Pitts was ultimately the kids.
“I feel sorry for the kids,” Haynes said. “The kids are supposed to be a priority, but somehow it didn’t work. I experienced it, I know what happened and everyone else backed off.”
A lasting legacy
Pitt’s resume as a coach for the Arlee Warriors speaks for itself. After guiding his team to four consecutive Montana High School Class C state championship title games, and winning back-to-back MHSA Class C championship title games during the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 campaign, Haynes said Pitts desired to finish his career on a “positive note.”
“Most people don’t think the way he left was on a positive note,” Haynes said. “Most people don’t know the exact story about what was going on, and they judged before they knew exactly what was going on. I hate to say it that is the nature of people, they like to add onto things to make the story juicer than what it started as.”
Haynes wouldn’t cite specific incidences but mentioned they were numerous times in which he defended Pitts.
“The whole situation is pretty disappointing,” Haynes said. “As a board member who went to bat for him and stood up for him, and then he didn’t re-up, it lost the battle for me and it was like I was wasting my time. I wasn’t getting anything accomplished.”
Former Arlee superintendent Dave Whitesell, father of former Arlee Warriors player Greg Whitesell who played for Zanen from 2015-19 and was an integral piece to Pitt’s back-to-back MHSA Class C titles, cited his work with the team.
“What he did for those kids was phenomenal,” Whitesell said. “He built a solid program, and you can use different indicators to categorize his phenomenal program, such as the win-loss record, the social impact he made with those kids with the suicide awareness campaign, helping kids in the classroom and making fine young men out of those crew.”
Whitesell himself has nearly a decade of coaching experience, and coaching on reservations in New Mexico, said he could understand what Pitts experienced as a coach.
“Coaching is tough and so is officiating, and that is why there are shortages in both,” Whitesell said. “In coaching, you are going to upset some folks, and some parents who are either trying to relive their glory days or trying to create glory days they never had by living vicariously through their children.”
Whitesell, whose son Greg is signed along with former Warrior Lane Johnson, to United Tribes in Bismarck, North Dakota to play college basketball, said he had experienced basketball from all sides as a parent, a coach and a fan in the stands.
“I think all great coaches and all coaches have to have a level of tolerance, but some are not as high as others, and sometimes you have to take a look at where you are at in your life with your family,” Whitesell said. “I think he made the right consideration by resigning regarding his family.”
Whitesell, whose son Greg is getting an opportunity to move onto the next level, said Greg highly regarded Pitts but it wasn’t always perfect,
“He was an extremely positive influence on Greg, though it wasn’t always warm and fuzzy all of the time,” Dave Whitesell recalled. “There was mutual respect developed between the two. As a parent, I was just happy to see that Pitts lasted until Greg graduated.”
Whitesell credited Pitts with facilitating the Warrior Movement, which is a campaign that went viral during the MHSA Class C Divisional Tournament in Hamilton, and has now turned into its own not-for-profit company continuing to grow to spread the message about the socio-economic problems of suicides and trying to de-stigmatize mental illness.
Pitts will continue to guide the Warrior Movement which is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit. The non-profit isn’t associated with the school.
“Zanen facilitated the Warrior movement into what it has become and there were speaking engagements in the Flathead, Cheyenne, Missoula and Frenchtown and it was taking a lot of time away from his personal life to be able to do that,” Whitesell said. “He will forever go into the Montana history books for his appearances at the state tournament. I think my son when he played under Zanen had a record of 99-6, including playing in three state championships.
Whitesell, who resigned as Arlee’s superintendent on June 29, 2018, and says he is now taking a “golfing sabbatical” from his time in administration, said he felt Pitt’s legacy would be in his public service.
Haynes cited one of Zanen’s other accomplishments. He has put several kids through colleges at the next level including Phillip Malatare (North Idaho College), Tyler Tanner (Norht Idaho College), Will Mesteth (Salish Kootenai College), Lane Johnson (United Tribes Technical College), Greg Whitesell (United Tribes Technical College), and Lane Schall (Minot State University for football) with other players anticipated to sign to respective colleges.
“What will be his legacy to the school, and as a basketball coach is his public service,” Whitesell said. “He was a social activist and a positive social activist.”