Waukegan coaching hires raise eyebrows

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WAUKEGAN -- While Windell Piercy II's hiring as Waukegan's new girls basketball got all the attention at Tuesday's school-board meeting, the big no-look, behind-the-back pass of the night transpired without discussion.

Tim Bowen, who was not rehired as coach of the Grayslake Central boys team this summer, was one of seven coaches approved for hiring by the board in a simultaneous vote. Bowen will sit on head boys basketball coach Ron Ashlaw's bench as an assistant this coming season.

Waukegan athletic director David Perkins, who shares high school roots with Bowen, said he approached Bowen shortly after the coach lost his job amid tremendous controversy last summer.

"One of Ron's concerns was that he wanted to bring strong basketball minds to his staff," said Perkins. "With this move, we got one of the better basketball minds in Lake County."

Perkins was athletic director at Grayslake Central prior to coming to Waukegan.

"This may be a one-year stopover for Tim, I don't know," said Perkins following the board meeting. "We know he's a head varsity coach and likely to seek another such job. But for next year, he'll be on our staff."

Bowen's Rams team was 22-7 last year, winning the Fox Valley Fox  championship as well as a regional title. He lost his job following a summer of heated discussion by school board members in Grayslake.

Meanwhile, following objections to Piercy replacing Romell Drake as Waukegan girls basketball head coach, Piercy's name was removed from the list of coaches to be approved for hiring and given a separate vote.

He was approved 5-2.

During open-forum time, two residents of the district expressed displeasure with Piercy's nomination prior to the vote. Tanya Brown Verrett, who has a daughter on the girls team, could not understand why former longtime girls coach Jim Askew was not considered for the position.

Askew was assistant head coach last season. Robert Evans took a racial approach to the hiring, saying that the district did not have one black head coach. He pointed to the minority enrollment of the student population and further noted that neither Drake nor Askew were even asked to be on the committee that recommended Piercy for the position.

Perkins would not say who the members of the three-person committee were.

Drake stepped down as head coach in order to take the job as assistant principal at the high school.

Answering the racial charge, Waukegan High principal Dr. Steven Hamlin pointed out that "An African-American person was appointed to the second-highest position in the entire school. I don't want anyone to lose sight of that."

He also noted that a half-dozen African-Americans were head coaches at various levels in the school.

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