Former coach urges school board not to be misled

Richmond High School’s head volleyball coach Darrell Morken spoke at a Richmond Community Schools board meeting on Wednesday, March 12, where he said the board should ask for 75% of its money back for a lawyer’s investigation into a conflict between volleyball and basketball players, coaches and athletic administrators.

The next morning, Morken received a message that he needed to attend a Friday meeting, he told Western Wayne News.

At that meeting, Morken learned from Athletic Director Robert Lee and RHS Principal Rae Ferriell-Woolpy that he wouldn’t return as RHS’ volleyball coach next season.

Morken said administrators told him the decision not to renew his contract had nothing to do with his statements to the school board, but they wanted to take the program in a different direction. No replacement has been named.

In a March 17 statement, Richmond Community Schools’ longtime attorney Ron Cross said Morken hadn’t been fired as coach.

Rather, Cross said extracurricular activity contracts aren’t automatically renewed from one contract year to the next and that Morken had fully completed his service as head coach for the 2024-2025 season.

Morken had served as the Lady Red Devils’ volleyball coach for the last three seasons. His 2024-25 team won the North Central Conference for the first time in 25 years, and Morken was named NCC Coach of the Year. One of Morken’s stated goals when he accepted the position was to rebuild the program from the bottom up through opportunities at Richmond Family YMCA for elementary students, plus intermediate and middle school teams, and he notes renewed interest at those ages.

Morken was placed on administrative leave in late September after a dispute over the use of gyms for practices. He was later reinstated and coached the volleyball team in the North Central Conference tournament and during the sectional. 

RCS’ teaching contracts automatically renew, but extracurricular coaching and advising positions don’t. Morken remains a teacher at RCS’ Hibberd Program Building, he confirmed to WWN on Friday, March 21.

During the public commentary portion of RCS’ March 12 board meeting, Morken used his allotted 5 minutes to share concerns about the presentation that attorney Jon Mayes of Indianapolis-based Bose McKinney & Evans LLP gave at RCS’ Feb. 26 board meeting. Mayes had investigated the Sept. 24 incident between coaches and players of RHS’ girls volleyball and boys basketball teams when concerns arose about which team was practicing in which Tiernan Center gym.

Morken told WWN he attended the Feb. 26 meeting to watch his son be celebrated along with other RHS swimmers and divers, not knowing Mayes would give an oral summary of his report. Morken stayed to watch Mayes’ presentation of what Morken called “limited information.”

Investigations at a glance

RCS had hired Mayes to investigate complaints of misconduct relating to the incident.

In his 14-page written report that was shared on RCS’ website, Mayes said the purpose of his investigation was to broadly review the interactions on Sept. 24 for misconduct by school administrators, athletic directors and assistant directors, coaches, teachers, and students.

Cross said the Sept. 24 incident didn’t result in the filing of a Title IX complaint, but it did cause RHS’ Principal Rae Ferriell-Woolpy and Athletic Director Robert Lee to conduct an internal investigation. It also caused RCS Director of Human Resources Stacy Mopps, also RCS’ Title IX compliance officer, to interview Morken.

Cross said before RHS administrators completed their internal investigation, the board decided to allow that investigation to continue and also retain an independent third-party investigation of the incident.

RHS’ internal investigatory report has since been completed and shared with the school board, Cross said. That report was also given to the Hamilton County-based Church Church Hittle and Antrim law firm that RCS hired on Oct. 9 to conduct a more comprehensive Title IX audit of RCS, its programs and procedures. That audit’s still in progress.

Before the Sept. 24 incident, RCS administration and board decided to conduct a Title IX audit “involving a broader spectrum of RCS issues and programs that could give rise to Title IX implications,” Cross said.

Mayes was hired just to look into the incident and any legal implications arising from it, including whether the incident, in and of itself, constituted a violation of Title IX, Cross said.

Morken’s comments

During the March 12 board meeting, Morken said Mayes’ investigation was not a Title IX investigation, and Mayes was looking at the interaction “with a focus on someone to blame.”

“His presentation made it sound like the volleyball team being moved was a one-time occurrence,” Morken said. “That is a far cry from the actual reality.”

The Sept. 24 interaction was the culmination of multiple scheduling changes and the basketball team’s game-day refusal to leave Tiernan Center, Morken said.

“He totally failed to present an accurate picture of the situation,” Morken told the board.

Morken added that Mayes didn’t mention the volleyball team’s removal from the main gym on Tuesday, Sept. 10.

In the middle of their season, a total of 24 varsity and junior varsity volleyball players were already on the main court and asked to go to the back gym, which has just one volleyball court. That move was to accommodate 12 out-of-season basketball players who were attending optional practices with limited coach contact, Morken said.

Morken said the volleyball team rarely used the main floor for practices, so that request didn’t sit well with him, but volleyball relocated.

After that practice, Morken explained his dissatisfaction about the situation with Lee, who reassured Morken that it wouldn’t happen again, Morken said.

“This was like the third time I had been reassured it would never happen again,” Morken said.

The following Tuesday, volleyball had a home match. Morken said Mayes had quickly noted in his presentation there was no interaction between the teams that night. However, Morken said that wasn’t quite true, because basketball didn’t leave the court until 5:30 p.m.

Volleyball was to start its competition at 6 p.m., but the gym wasn’t set up, so the match didn’t start until 6:30 p.m., and then the scoreboard malfunctioned. Morken said he apologized to Lincoln High School fans and referees for the delay.

Morken urged the board not to be misled by Mayes’ presentation and to review the players’ and coaches’ statements for “the true story,” because everything the volleyball team did was aboveboard, he said.

“It was very deceptive,” Morken said. “He told you it was not a Title IX violation. It wasn’t. One occurrence is not. A history is, that’s for sure. I think you guys should ask the attorney and his company for 75% of your money back because he only gave you 25% of the information.”