Niles West Coach Says Harassment By Ex-School Board President Made Him Quit

SKOKIE, IL — A Niles West High School teacher and former coach publicly accused the former president of the District 219 school’s board of bullying and harassing him, and the board approved a resolution at a meeting Tuesday to pay for an independent investigator to examine the allegations. They include suggestions the then-board president used his role to exercise inappropriate influence over his daughter’s basketball team.

“I’m here this evening because of the public humiliation I’ve been subjected to,” said former Niles West girls basketball coach Tony Konsewicz. He said he resigned after last season because of a pattern of harassment by Mark Sproat, the D219 board president whose term has recently ended. Konsewicz said Sproat was the source of rumors that he was being fired.

» Watch: District 219 Board of Education Special Meeting May 2

“It is rather embarrassing to hear people tell you that you are going to be fired from something that you really love to do," he addressed the board meeting with audible emotion. "It also makes the challenging job of coaching even more difficult when your credibility is being publicly questioned." Konsewicz said he decided to speak publicly about the matter after going through a closed-door process did not provide any resolution.

One parent of a senior player on the girls basketball team, said Sproat would make “nasty comments” about coaches and go on “rants” when his daughter wasn’t playing.

Sproat told the Pioneer Press he did not use his role as school board president to give any special advantages to his children. He told the paper he had “a really fine balancing act between a parent and a board member” and emphasized his respect for players and parents in the Niles West basketball program.

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Top photo | Tony Konsewicz | Courtesy District 219