Dean Bellanti's ousting as Beaver Dam varsity boys basketball coach has caught the attention of one obsever with area ties.
Hall of Fame coach Eli Crogan will represent the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association and plans to attend Monday's meeting of the Beaver Dam school board. Crogan currently serves on the WBCA's Executive Board as its Monitoring Director.
Crogan, who previously coached at Wayland Academy, is all too familiar with Bellanti's plight. After winning his 11th Little Ten title in 22 seasons at Watertown, Crogan was forced out as boys varsity basketball coach in 1994.
"Anyone can be forced out," Crogan said. "I have first-hand information on how that works and happens."
From that experience, Crogan has a personal interest in his current position on the WBCA Board. He said his job duties included helping young coaches get started, helping coaches stabilize their programs and supporting coaches being attacked in their communities.
"We have over 3,000 members and we're a very strong organization," Crogan said. "If a coach is getting fired, we look into it to see if it's fair, not because someone didn't play or isn't happy.
"We don't support every coach but we support those we think we should. We're supporting Dean and I plan to be there on the 19th."
After Bellanti refused to resign twice, the Beaver Dam school district posted the boys varsity basketball job on its web site. Bellanti's ousting has caught the attention of the WBCA as well as Hugh Roberts, a respected AAU club coach out of Randolph.
"We want coaches to feel support," Crogan said. "A lot of times, they don't have any.
"They seem to run basketball coaches the end of the plank and fire them more so than football or anywhere else. For some reason, we are called out and fired."
Crogan said the WBCA has supported two other coaches who have been under pressure with their job status. Jason McConnell was able to retain his post in Marshall and the other one has an interesting local connection — John Miron in Kimberly.
Miron was forced out after a largely successful tenure coaching the Papermakers. He was unable to regain his coaching job but two school board members were voted out in the ensuing tumult.
Miron has been succeeded by former Waupun coach Lucky Wurtz.
"Right now, we're trying to see what needs to happen," Crogan said. "We were just in Kimberly and if it's my opportunity to support coaches, I'm happy to do that."