Almost 50 years ago, we were privileged to wear the red and white jersey emblazoned with the number 32 one last time for the Freedom High School Bulldogs in Beaver County just across the county line from Cranberry.

The three years that I was honored to wear that jersey and go into competition with my team were never to be forgotten.

There were no major accolades to my career, but I lettered all three years and was a starter for two. Freshman couldn’t play varsity back then. But it was a privilege to be part of turning around a program that had been a consistent loser for the previous 20 years.

So, what’s the point?

At no time during the years we lost or after we became a winning program did the players lose respect for the coaches, nor did the parents try to tell the coaches how to coach.

And we never knew there was a person with the title “athletic director.”

This past Friday night, Freedom lost a game to one of its traditional rivals. It was disappointing because they were coming off back-to-back playoff seasons. They had survived a terrible situation in 2018 when the head coach had to be fired because of being charged with criminal activity during the season. The program has had seven coaches in 13 years.

But while nothing should surprise us in 2020, we were shocked by the firing of the coach this week.

He was fired by the players. That is right — by the 16- to 18-year-old players. They were permitted to take a vote as to whether he should continue to be the coach or be dismissed because parents had stormed the coach’s office and complained about playing time for certain players.

We aren’t sure how much experience any of these young voters have with hiring and firing, but someone at the school district thought this was a good idea.

We have never met the coach and never met his boss, the athletic director.

But we do have experience dealing with players, coaches and athletic directors. And more than 40 years of experience hiring people. When they do well, we hired well. If they did poorly, we had done a poor job of hiring. Our fault. We know who should be in charge and in which order their opinion should matter.

Under no circumstances should the players be put in such a position. It isn’t even fair to the players, let alone the coach.

So, what’s next? The athletic director will probably take over himself for the season. He has before.

He could appoint someone else — hopefully with the school board’s approval — or if the school board was really serious about righting this ship, they would step in and can dismiss, fire, throw out ... whatever term you want to use, but it should be the last day the AD has any authority over any sports program in the district.

What could he possibly have been thinking?

The season was already a mess for these kids. Players, yes, but still kids.

Somehow, parents and the — hopefully, soon former — AD hijacked the program to suit themselves instead of letting a coach do his job.

Was he a bad coach? If so, who were the people who hired him?

Why is the head coaching position constantly vacant?

Is there a common denominator? Maybe the kids should vote on the AD?

We have enough problems in 2020 with just getting kids to be able to play, and we are still trying to get parents the right to attend the games.

We don’t need this type of misuse of power.

Maybe not allowing parents to attend is a good idea.

Can we ban specific athletic directors too?

Ron Vodenichar is president and publisher of the Butler Eagle.