School: Coach Out After Slapping Student, 'Nappy' Hair Comment

Coach Duane Graves led the Black Hawks to the state Class A championships last year, the inaugural season for the merged Lahser and Andover teams. (Photo via MIPrepZone.com)

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A Bloomfield Hills High School coach has resigned in the midst of an investigation that he slapped one player in the face and referred to another’s hair as “nappy” during a basketball practice Wednesday.

The school district said both incidents were thoroughly investigated.

Though the investigation showed students didn’t think there was any intent on the part of the coach, Duane Graves, to harm them, the district said his “interaction with the student athletes is unacceptable,” the Detroit Free Press reports.

Graves apologized to the students and asked them if they were all right at the end of the practice, the newspaper said.

District spokeswoman Shira Good said Graves, whose resignation effective Thursday was voluntary, isn’t employed by Bloomfield Hills Schools, but rather by the third-party employer EduStaff.

Before the school district made the announcement, Graves contacted The Oakland Press and said he was stepping down to address some personal issues.

“It’s time for me to move on,” Graves said. “I have a 12-year old son now who is becoming a man and I get to be there for him. I’m not done coaching, but I am done for this year.

“It’s sad but it’s needed,” he continued. “It had to be done. I love the kids but I just had to deal with some stuff right now.”

Freshman boys’ basketball coach Nick Stration will pick up additional coaching duties and coach the high school team for the balance of the season as well. The Black Hawks are 6-5 so far this season.

School administrators met with members of the basketball team on Thursday to tell them of the coaching change, also explained in a letter to the families of players.

Graves led the Black Hawks to the Class A state championship game last year, the inaugural season for the merged Lahser and Andover teams. The Bloomfield Hills team lost to Muskegon, one of only four games the Black Hawks lost in 28 starts last year.

Graves, a 1994 Lake Orion graduate, had coached at Lahser for three seasons before the teams merged. He also has coached at Royal Oak Kimball (freshman team), Detroit Country Day (middle school girls) and for an AAU girls’ basketball with the Shock.

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