Just weeks after playing in the D1-A San Diego Section Division 1 championship, St. Augustine (CA) High School has parted ways with head coach Ron Gladnick.
After the school lost 21-20 in a regional bowl game, they announced they were parting ways with Gladnick, who went 48- in 2022 before turning in a 10-5 season in 2023.
Gladnick has been very open about his dismissal, saying, “I think we brought too much cultural change to a campus that wasn’t ready to handle it,” when he appeared on the Prep Pigskin Report Podcast with Paul Rudy recently.
Gladnick is a successful businessman who was hired to coach the football team and was also a gym teacher at the school. He implied one of the disagreements leading to his dismissal had to do with an unnamed school policy. “The best thing you can say about [the policy], is that it is culturally insensitive and the worst thing you can say about it is it’s downright racist,” Gladnick said about the policy that applies to students but not to teachers. “It is not only antiquated to current societal rules, but it’s also wrapped in hypocrisy.”
Gladnick closed by addressing the school’s leadership, saying, “Strong leaders hire people who make them uncomfortable. I hired a whole coaching staff who, at times make me uncomfortable, because I want to be challenged about everything. That’s what great leaders do. When a person doesn’t want to be challenged, it says more about them.”
About Robert O'Neill