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Hi all. I am a regular reader and thought it was time to get my feet wet and join in the conversation! I am here to mostly shed some light on the Coach McDonald situation. I played under Coach McDonald at NCC and graduated a few years ago. I absolutely loved playing for Coach Mike. He would jump off a cliff for each and every one of his players. Mike absolutely loved coaching at NCC, enough that he turned down other jobs that paid much much more. To my understanding, Rob Detzel (AD at NCC) fired Coach McDonald after a talk with a parent who has two sons on NCC's team who both did not receive much playing time. The three things that Mike was fired for were calling one player a bad word, pushing one player to the ground, and talking about being drunk all the time. For one, the player that he called the name was this man's son. To be honest, he deserved to be called one and needed it. His hand (and the entire team's hand) had been held and the boys needed to see their coach mad at them, disappointed in them. And I cannot see this as a fireable offense (thoughts of what NCC's football coaches yell at their players are running through my mind...). Secondly, in talking to a player on the team this year, the instance where he pushed a player to the ground goes as follows. The boys were circling and stretching and joking about their reputation as a flopping team, so Mike walked in and nudged one of the freshmen who fell to the ground as a flop. This is ridiculous if this is what Coach McDonald was fired for. Lastly, Mike NEVER talked about being drunk. The player who I talked to says that he only did to teach life lessons to the boys, like what not to do so to speak. I still haven't talked to Mike about the whole thing, but the player I talked to said he was disappointed that NCC's administration stabbed him in the back. The administration didn't talk to Mike about any of this; they just went off of a parent's story without even hearing Mike's side to this story. To add on this, they fired him over the phone, too. Coach McDonald was a hell of a coach, and NCC is at loss on this one. I know that Mike made hardly any money, and the only coach still on staff is the freshmen coach. So with the little budget that NCC gives to paying the soccer coaches, I can't see them finding a coach like Mike, and assistants and a JV staff on top of that. Coach Mike was like a father to me, and I will have his back in any discussion. I would back him over the NCC soccer program at this point. I hope he finds another coaching job here in NKY because it would be a huge loss if he leaves. Best of luck to both Coach McDonald and NCC moving forward.