In five years as a head basketball coach, Chris Head has grabbed his share of the spotlight.
Lately it hasn’t been because of wins and losses.
Instead, an allegation of player abuse and an investigation into possible Illinois High School Association rules violations have come to the forefront for Head, who concluded his first season as Proviso West’s coach in March, a year after leading Westinghouse’s basketball team to its first state title.
As early as Monday, IHSA officials could announce their findings on whether Head organized preseason workouts, a violation of the association’s season-limitation rule.
Tuesday, Head is expected to appear in the Maywood courthouse to respond to a misdemeanor battery charge, the result of a complaint filed by a Proviso West player who alleges the coach repeatedly hit him in the chest and groin and choked him.
“It came to the point where it was too much punching and hitting,” said senior Jarrett Northern, who filed the complaint. “Winning wasn’t worth getting abused every day.”
Allegations that Head broke the IHSA’s season-limitation rule for the second time in four years could prove to be just as damaging for Head and Proviso Township School Dist. 209, which hired Head last summer to coach boys basketball and to operate security cameras at Proviso West.
Head did not respond to requests for an interview to address the battery charge and possible rules violations, but he said Thursday he does not expect a severe penalty from the IHSA. He added that he will consider legal action if he considers the penalty drastic.
If he is found in violation, a lengthy suspension would follow because Head broke a similar rule four years ago while he was head coach at Westinghouse, IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman said Friday.
The IHSA suspended Head for 11 games during the 1999-2000 season because he coached some of his players in an off-season Amateur Athletic Union tournament.
“Our past history of people complying or not complying is a factor when we consider penalty violations,” Hickman said.
Head is no stranger to success or controversies. He has a career record of 126-29, including a mark of 19-9 last season. Proviso West tied with Downers Grove North for the West Suburban Silver championship.
He is known for his confrontational and intimidating style but also for his fierce loyalty to his players, drawing some comparisons with Bob Knight. Some within the district question whether he has gone too far.
“He feels he’s bulletproof,” said one teacher who requested anonymity. “He has no regard [for school officials] because he feels he has a few board members in his pocket.”
Legal troubles
Almost as soon as Head took over at Proviso West, he began to bully players, Northern said.
“There was punishment for something if you did something bad,” said Northern, a part-time starting forward. “If you were running a drill and you messed up, you got hit in the groin or slapped in the chest. As the season went on, the punishment became more severe.”
Northern alleges that Head started hitting him harder in the groin, chest and head. He also alleges that Head once left scratches and bruises on his chest, which his mother noticed.
Cynthia Northern began asking her son about the coach’s tactics. Her son told her that Head hit him and others in the gymnasium and other times in an equipment room or in his office while he berated them.
In late January the Northerns filed a complaint with Hillside police detailing these allegations, and Head was charged with misdemeanor battery in April. Cynthia Northern and her husband, Warren, say they have sought a response from Proviso administrators but have not received one.
“We do not take these types of accusations mildly,” Proviso Township Supt. Gregory Jackson said. “The steps we are charged with taking were initiated.”
Jackson called the school’s investigation “ongoing.”
Attempts to reach many of Northern’s teammates were unsuccessful. The parents of two players contacted declined interview requests for their sons.
Martell Bailey, a 2000 Westinghouse graduate and a member of Head’s state runner-up team that year, said he never saw Head hit a player.
“He hollers at the kids, but it’s because he wants what’s best for them,” said Bailey, now a junior star at Illinois-Chicago.
Cynthia Northern kept her son out of school for one week and away from the basketball team for two weeks. Jarrett ultimately convinced his mother to let him rejoin the team.
“I was letting him win by quitting,” Northern said of Head. “Why should I give up my right to play basketball?”
Northern has heard rumors at school about his motives for going to the police.
“[Head] has them believing I’m making things up and I’m doing this for publicity,” he said. “Who wants the publicity of getting punched in the groin?”
Skirting the rules
Head had troubles with the IHSA in February. State officials suspended him for three games because of incidents stemming from his team’s game against district rival Proviso East. In that game, won by Proviso East in overtime, Head was called for three technical fouls and ejected from the game.
After the game Head criticized the referee, and his comments appeared in a newspaper.
“We felt it was a violation of our sportsmanship bylaw,” said the IHSA’s Hickman, who suspended Head for one game.
Sources within the district said Head then scheduled a non-conference game during the week of Feb. 10 to avoid sitting out a West Suburban Silver game against Lyons Township. Hickman said Proviso school officials told him of the game.
“I said, `That’s fine, but you can’t count it toward the suspension,'” Hickman recalled. “I felt it was an attempt on the part of coach Head and possibly the athletic director to circumvent the rule.”
Consequently the IHSA suspended Head for both games and added a third game to the suspension for trying to manipulate the penalty. Athletic director Frank Montgomery did not respond to a telephone message seeking his comment.
“One of the things that was troubling to us was that they tried to schedule a game so he wouldn’t have to miss the Lyons game,” Hickman said. “Fortunately, our bylaws cover that type of thing.”
Controversial start
Head’s hiring ignited a controversy last year in the Proviso community. The previous coach at Proviso West, Mark Schneider, was removed as coach and chairman of the physical education department despite earning praise from the school board a few months earlier for outstanding job performance.
Before he lost his jobs, Schneider had reportedly been asked by Jackson to step down to become athletic director. Schneider declined, and district officials transferred him to Proviso East to teach social studies.
Officials created the security position and hired Head, who is not a certified teacher, and named him head boys basketball coach. In doing so, they went against a district practice of hiring teachers as head coaches.
Schneider, who was 50 at the time of his removal and is white, has since filed two lawsuits. One lawsuit against the school board alleges reverse race and age discrimination and retaliation. The other suit is against board President Emanuel Welch and Infinity Broadcasting Corp. for alleged defamatory statements Welch made against Schneider in a live radio broadcast on WSCR-AM 670 in September.
If district officials went to extraordinary measures to hire Head, they appear willing to stand behind him now.
“Right now his status is unchanged,” Jackson said. “It would be so unfair to prejudge him.”
Jackson said he expects Head’s contract will be renewed for the next school year.
“Why would we not?” Jackson asked. “He tied for the conference championship. He did a spectacular job as far as the development of players and the Proviso West program.”
