Sports
RUHS Baseball Coach Resigns After One Season
Bradey Thurman assumed the position earlier this year after winning a legal challenge against the school.
Redondo Union High baseball coach Bradey Thurman, who mounted a legal challenge to gain the position after he had been passed over for the job, has resigned after just one season.
The Sea Hawks were 10-18 under Thurman including 2-8 and in fifth-place in the six-team Bay League, losing four in a row and 10 of their last 11 at the end of the year.
''It's a shame because the kids are the ones who are going through this turmoil,'' said Redondo Union Athletic Director Les Congelliere, who is retiring at the end of the year.
''The adults, the coaches, we'll all get over it. But I feel bad for the junior kids and the sophomore kids who played on the varsity — having to go through three coaches in three years, that's really tough. But kids are resilient. The kids will hang in there and get through this.''
Thurman did not return messages left on his cell phone.
Redondo Union had hired Cassidy Olson to lead its baseball program after long-time coach Tim Ammentorp stepped down after the 2008 season. But Thurman, citing a clause in the school district code, was able to reach a legal agreement that allowed Olson to finish out his first season at Redondo before he would take over the program.
According to the Redondo Beach Unified School District code, ''Any certificated teacher employed by the district who applies for a position as a temporary athletic team coach and who satisfies the qualification criteria established for the position shall first be offered the position.''
Thurman was a teacher in the district at Parras Middle School and had been an assistant to Ammentorp for nine years, while Olson was not a district employee.
Olson later was hired by Mira Costa High, and in his first season led the Mustangs to a Bay League championship and into the CIF-Southern Section Division II semifinals.
The Sea Hawks started the season 7-8 and opened Bay League play with two victories over Leuzinger, but Redondo Union lost its next six games. Thurman was put on a paid leave for one week in April after a player was found to have chewing tobacco in his bag.
