Waukegan playing the waiting game

Updated: March 28, 2011 10:02AM

That's what Waukegan's playing, as we move a day closer to the official start of football practice.

The full-time school-district job offered to Waukegan football coach Derek Dewitt was, evidently, not adequate to secure his services for this coming season.

One day after Steve Hamlin, Waukegan High's principal, made a job offer to Dewitt in the hopes that he would not resign, the second-year grid leader was not at Wednesday's football summer workout and was not responding to phone calls.

Assistant coach Aaron Manning and other members of the staff continued instructing the players as all awaited a final verdict from Dewitt, who Manning spoke to earlier that day.

"He was hoping that the full-time position that they offered him would allow him to take care of his family," said Manning, "but he does not believe what they put before him will do that. He's hoping they will offer a better position so he can stay."

Manning said that Dewitt, a Lake Villa resident, has four children and needs a position that would include health insurance. The job he was offered reportedly did not include insurance. Dewitt was a non-union substitute teacher last school year, who ended up working in the school library.

"He was offered a para-professional type job that you would offer a high school kid," said Dwayne Springs, an assistant coach who is also the father of the team's quarterback, Akeem Springs.

Dwayne said he also talked to Dewitt that day.

"This was not a realistic offer. His kids have got to eat, too."

Waukegan, a K-12 school district suffering through major budget deficits, recently hired back 72 of the 85 union teachers it had originally cut in a reduction-in-force move. Although Dewitt possesses a masters degree and has state-of-Ohio teacher credentials, they do not translate as far as Illinois teaching requirements are concerned.

Still, both Manning and Springs believe that the situation could have been avoided.

"The athletic director at the time (Dave Perkins, since removed from the post and now an assistant principal at a middle school) did not do enough to take care of the situation during the year," said Manning. "He was aware of what coach Dewitt's situation was but he did not make the School Board aware of what was going on.

"Sam (new athletic director Sam Taylor) has bent over backward trying to fix things. We're hoping it's not too late."

"This should have been addressed long ago," said Springs. "Football is the biggest single program at the school and it was not taken care of."

Perkins declined to comment on the observations.

"This is a hell of a loss for our community," said Springs, who pointed out that Dewitt is not only a knowledgeable coach, but a positive role model. "He certainly made me a better coach."

"We've never had a football coach here with his credentials," said Manning. "He had major-college coaching connections all over the country."

Dewitt is entertaining a job offer in his native state of Texas. Springs and Manning both said that Dewitt had refused at least four job offers last year in order to stay at Waukegan.

"This has really got to be tough on the juniors and seniors," said Rickey Poole, a father of a freshman football player who was watching the practice. "There doesn't seem to be anyone in place to take over. And with a new athletic director, well, it kind of bites the big one."

Another longtime observer of the high-school sports scene, who wished to remain anonymous, noted that "At Waukegan, everything is so fragile already. Especially considering the timing of this situation. It can all go downhill very fast, and before you know it, you don't have a program anymore. But it's tough to place a guy who doesn't have a teaching certificate."

Meanwhile, the Waukegan coaches are awaiting official word on Dewitt resigning, accepting a position or having someone named interim coach. The first official day of football practice is Aug. 11.

"It is discouraging a little," said senior fullback/linebacker Davaughn Palmer. "But we have to keep moving forward.

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