Bridger assistant high school basketball coach Jake Kallevig is at the center of controversy in small-town Montana. Or, should I say, former assistant coach. Maybe.
His employment status remains unknown but it appears as though he was fired.
This latest high school basketball controversy stems from the use of profanity. Kallevig used language that apparently drew complaints from parents even though he said nothing out of the ordinary.
Jake Kallevig coached high school basketball in Montana.
As far as I can tell, Kallevig is no less than five years removed from high school, which makes him approximately 21 or 22 years old in age. He previously starred for the Scouts as recently as 2020.
Jake Kallevig leads Bridger with 8 points. pic.twitter.com/sQXFxU47Gg
— Victor Flores (@VictorFlores406) February 23, 2020
Bridger High School is located in the small town of Bridger, less than 30 miles from the Wyoming border, approximately 140 miles southeast of Bozeman. It enrolls around 55 students in total. That’s it.
Kallevig returned home to his alma mater as an assistant coach for the varsity boy’s basketball team. His mother previously served as the athletic director. He played for head coach Jerry Thompson.
However, Kallevig was either forced to resign or fired because he used profanity.
A use of profanity led to his ouster.
Superintendent and Bridger High School principal Nick Gallagher brought a recommendation to terminate Jake Kallevig to the school board last week. He cited concerns about player treatment.
Gallagher revealed the district had received multiple reports of “a team environment that is emotionally unsafe and unsupportive.” Those reports were discussed with coach Thompson on Dec. 8.
The incident took place at practice later that night.
Kallevig told two players to “shut the f— up” because they would not stop talking. Gallagher met with him the next morning to let him know a letter of termination would be brought to the school board.
This is where things get murky. Kallevig claims he was not warned about the prior complaints or disciplined for any previous behavior. The superintendent did not even give him a chance to explain his use of profane language or plead his case before termination was proposed.
“Why wasn’t I told about the complaints beforehand? I wasn’t reprimanded. I wasn’t asked my side of the story. There was no due process followed,” Kallevig said during the school board meeting. “I told the kid to ‘shut the F up,’ but that came after me asking him twice to stop talking so I can explain what to do, and it wasn’t just one kid that I said that to. I said it to two kids.”
He does not understand the big deal. (Nor do I!)
“I said one little thing that coaches say every day in practice, and I get fired on the spot. That’s wrong,” Kallevig said. “Nobody else has had that happen to them. This is personal.”
Gallagher obviously believes there is grounds for termination.
The school board controversy created a domino effect.
Kallevig was not fired during the school board meeting. The board decided instead to consider paid administrative leave until the situation could be further discussed.
However, his coaching position is no longer listed online and Gallagher will not comment on the status of his employment. Is he still allowed to coach the team? Was he fired? Nobody knows.
What we do know is that head coach Jake Thompson decided to resign because of how his assistant coach was treated. Jake Kallevig’s mom also stepped down from her role as the the athletic director.
The handling of this incident has raised questions about due process. Thompson tore into the school board in defense of his assistant.
“If you’re going to fire Jake, you guys have the right to do that, but you don’t have the right to violate civil rights and you don’t have the rights to not give them due process and to expect coaches to follow every little rule down to the MHSA rule that’s in there, and then you guys break all of yours,” Thompson said. “They said that (Kallevig has) until Thursday to resign or you are going to be fired, so that leads me to believe that Nick made the decision to fire him.”
Superintendent Gallagher defended the actions of the district.
“At the meeting, there were some questions about process and was it followed? And I think we followed what our plan was up until that point,” Gallagher told KTVQ. “There wasn’t any doubts in my head in terms of were we not following a specific process or doing necessarily anything wrong.”
There may not be doubts in his head but there are doubts in mine. This guy sounds insufferable.