Westhampton Beach Head Coaches Plead With Board of Ed to Reinstate Volunteers

When Westhampton Beach senior Jack Halloran was asked who had an impact on him across his athletic career, the first person he named was assistant coach Dan Pulick. Unfortunately, because he is a volunteer, Mr. Pulick is not permitted to be with the team this year, due to Board of Education-approved restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, March 15, varsity head coaches within the district appealed that decision and begged board members to reconsider.

“We had a team meeting last week. The impact on our seniors was visible,” varsity baseball coach and seventh-grade math teacher Asa Grunenwald said. “I was immediately getting text messages from them, saying, ‘Coach, what can we do?’ Dan has really been a leader for our current juniors and seniors. This guy has improves the lives of all our players. They’ve been positively impacted by him.”

Following the loss of last year’s spring season, Mr. Grunenwald is hoping the current seniors will be able to play with Mr. Pulick one last year.

“Without a doubt, our assistant coach at Westhampton Beach, Dan Pulick, has had the largest impact on my playing career. These past few years we have spent countless hours breaking down the game of baseball to a science,” Jack said. “What’s even more impressive is the fact that all of his work with our program is volunteer-based, which speaks volumes to who he is as an individual.”

Varsity boys lacrosse coach and physical education teacher Drew Peters, who wrote a letter to the Board of Education on behalf of the Westhampton Beach Coaches Association, said volunteer coaches are invaluable to the overall success of the Hurricanes program.

“It’s been suggested the progress is not solely put on the shoulders of volunteers. I would agree with that, but I’d also disagree,” Mr. Peters said. “Whether it’s practice planning, game planning, in-game adjustments, during film sessions or overall player development, having another highly-qualified coach can make all the difference. The extra set of hands, the extra person to bounce ideas off of can surely make all the difference in the outcome of a game.”

Mr. Peters, who moved to the district with his wife and four kids in 2012, grew up in Babylon, and said he wanted to transfer to Westhampton Beach for its academic, extracurricular and athletic programs.

“We are known for athletics. We are good at athletics. When you drive by you see football championship signs, you see tennis championship signs, you see basketball championship signs — both boys and girls. You go into the gym and you see banners hung of league champions … years of successful teams,” he said. “And we should embrace that.”

But unlike many other schools, Westhampton Beach does not have paid assistant coaches, relying on junior varsity head coaches and volunteers when help is needed. Mr. Peters said the knowledge of volunteers has proved to be invaluable.

“Many of these volunteers have been coaching and been involved in coaching forever — that’s kind of been their life,” the coach said. “Luckily for us, our volunteer assistant coach left a varsity program out in East Hampton to come join us almost 10 years ago now. He has two children — one that just left the district and one that is a junior. This guy would do anything for our district.

“He’s a former head coach. He’s come over with a wealth of knowledge,” Mr. Peters continued. “In my opinion, that’s taken us over the top to where we’re a respected program every year — whether we’re a playoff contender or a county championship-contender or not, we’re at least in the conversation.”

Varsity boys soccer coach and health teacher Cody Hoyt, who also works with the lacrosse team, said he only recently began working with volunteers, but added the experience of Dave Silver has boosted his team immensely, especially when working with goalkeepers.

“His soccer experience is through the roof,” Mr. Hoyt said. “Every year, we’d get a new goalie. Having a true goalie coach who has the experience to come out here and work with these goalies while I’m working with the rest of the team has been huge. This year, we’re off to a great start, and a lot of it has to do with the goalies we have in net and the work we’ve done with them over the past couple of years.”

Varsity football coach and U.S. History teacher Bryan Schaumloffel said Steve Arrasate has been an assistant coach for the last 15 years, working with him and former head coach Bill Parry, and takes care of things large and small for the team.

“He handles equipment. When the kids have a broken helmet, he fixes it. He takes care of all our technology. Nobody knows what goes on,” Mr. Schaumloffel said. “He does things behind the scenes that nobody sees. The impact is just tremendous.”

The coach said more important is how the loss of Mr. Arrasate this season has affected his football family.

“We miss Steve Arrasate being at practice every single day, our kids miss working with Steve Arrasate. It’s a difficult conversation to have with them,” Mr. Schaumloffel said. “Our volunteer coaches are important to us, and more importantly, they are important to our kids.”

Mr. Peters said to board members Halsey Stevens and Joyce Donneson, who are both former coaches, that he thinks they would have jumped at the opportunity to have experienced and knowledgeable volunteers when they were coaches. He said these volunteers could also prove beneficial in the case of an emergency, especially during medical events or at away games to ride in an ambulance with a student-athlete should a parent not be allowed to attend because of COVID-19 protocol that prohibits visiting spectators. Still, he said, the effect on the students and program is paramount.

“The sports that we coach are developing. They’re different from when I played in high school,” Mr. Peters said. “The amount that kids are out on the field, the amount of effort that is required of them — if you’re a three-sport athlete right now it’s like going to school and having a full-time job. They are playing sports eight to 10 months a year and there’s a lot required of these players. We’re trying to give our student-athletes the best opportunity to succeed — to succeed individually, to succeed on the field as a team — and taking away volunteer coaches is resources we’re taking away from them.”