Palmerton hires coach amid protests

The only ones losing in Palmerton are the kids. To vote the current coach back was the biggest mistake this board could make. Mike would have brought discipline and technique back to the sport. Good luck with your losing season next year, Palmerton!! Sure mike will train the kids the right way so that can all be taken away when they move up to the current coachign staff. I guess palmerton doesn't like winning. Hicks!

Ok now let me get this straight, she has a phobia to going to school in Palmerton, but she can attend a boarding school away from home. What's wrong with this picture?????????? Just because the district had to award the money they should have a say how it is spent towards the "SCHOOL PHOBIA" maybe the district needs some guidelines how these monies are spent. Not after the fact.

Its almost 8AM and no posts yet on either of these issues? Well, since its an Olympic year, "LET THE GAMES BEGIN"!!!!!!!!!

Its A Joke wrote:

Ok now let me get this straight, she has a phobia to going to school in Palmerton, but she can attend a boarding school away from home. What's wrong with this picture?????????? Just because the district had to award the money they should have a say how it is spent towards the "SCHOOL PHOBIA" maybe the district needs some guidelines how these monies are spent. Not after the fact.

Yah we WERE TOLD TO CONTACT THE GOVERNMENT FOR MAKING THE DIABILITY LAWS. VOTE OUT ALL THE LEGISLATERS FOR ALLOWING THIS MADDNESS.

Losers wrote:

The only ones losing in Palmerton are the kids. To vote the current coach back was the biggest mistake this board could make. Mike would have brought discipline and technique back to the sport. Good luck with your losing season next year, Palmerton!! Sure mike will train the kids the right way so that can all be taken away when they move up to the current coachign staff. I guess palmerton doesn't like winning. Hicks!

WINNING!!!!! How many championships has Snyder won as a high school coach? By discipline I assume you mean kicking them if they don't listen,right?? I like the HICKS comment, don't you mean WHITE TRAILER TRASH???

Mike is a good guy, with a great name. Good luck Mike.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Firstly, I was present for the 'kicking' incident at Jim Thorpe. This was the most overblown thing that I have ever seen. The kick was so soft and meant to be motivational. Funny thing was the student that was 'kicked' was also one that showed up at the Jim Thorpe board meeting when he was fired and was his strongest supporter. What does that tell you? And oh yeah did the MC report that? Of course not that would paint an educator in a positive light. In addition, wasn't Snyder a coach at Palmerton AFTER the firing occurred. And if so what is the relavence of it now? Mike is a good guy that gets overly excited about a sport he loves. Mike also knows he has somethings to work on as a coach, and coaches should never stop learning and reevaluating themselves. Was there any former players there to support him, because I know several that loved having him as a coach, because of his passion and desire to win. As for the comment on championships I believe the answer is 0, but have you sen the W-L record at Jim Thorpe girls basketball since he left? When is the last time Palmerton basketball was even in the playoffs? Wasn't it with Mike as the coach?... Hmmmm. Let's face it Jim Thorpe and Palmerton are not basketball powerhouses, yet somehow Mike lead both to playoff berths. Some people have too much time on their hands. To the lady that protestd because her kid got yelled at, are you going to go to his workplace and yell at the boss or bosses that yell at your kid? Its part of life and makes you stronger and builds character. Mike was simply teaching you child that life is not all happy and go lucky. Sometimes you screw up and have to del with consequences. Good luck Mike, you should have been the HEAD COACH. I never seen so much controversy about a freshman coach! Palmerton WAKE UP!

Fat wrote:

Ladies and gentlemen,
Firstly, I was present for the 'kicking' incident at Jim Thorpe. This was the most overblown thing that I have ever seen. The kick was so soft and meant to be motivational. Funny thing was the student that was 'kicked' was also one that showed up at the Jim Thorpe board meeting when he was fired and was his strongest supporter. What does that tell you? And oh yeah did the MC report that? Of course not that would paint an educator in a positive light. In addition, wasn't Snyder a coach at Palmerton AFTER the firing occurred. And if so what is the relavence of it now? Mike is a good guy that gets overly excited about a sport he loves. Mike also knows he has somethings to work on as a coach, and coaches should never stop learning and reevaluating themselves. Was there any former players there to support him, because I know several that loved having him as a coach, because of his passion and desire to win. As for the comment on championships I believe the answer is 0, but have you sen the W-L record at Jim Thorpe girls basketball since he left? When is the last time Palmerton basketball was even in the playoffs? Wasn't it with Mike as the coach?... Hmmmm. Let's face it Jim Thorpe and Palmerton are not basketball powerhouses, yet somehow Mike lead both to playoff berths. Some people have too much time on their hands. To the lady that protestd because her kid got yelled at, are you going to go to his workplace and yell at the boss or bosses that yell at your kid? Its part of life and makes you stronger and builds character. Mike was simply teaching you child that life is not all happy and go lucky. Sometimes you screw up and have to del with consequences. Good luck Mike, you should have been the HEAD COACH. I never seen so much controversy about a freshman coach! Palmerton WAKE UP!

Just to clarify that playoff team he coached was inherited from Todd Gombos, Mr. Snyder then destroyed them. When he was a coach at Palmerton there was a senior who actually exposed his buttocks out the rear window of the bus on a return trip from a game. The car was full of undercover state troopers. Interesting you should say he would bring back discipline. If there was discipline at the time do you think this individual would have acted this way? I am looking forward to the entertainment he will be providing this winter.

Mike has helped build the youth organization the last 5 years and those kids like him and want him to be their coach. I will bet that by the end of next year his team will have the only winning season. The fact is that Ridge Hughes kept the previous JV and Freshman coaches despite their horrible records. Last year, the high school program took kids for the 9th grade team that were cut from the 8th grade travel team. That is an insult to the good players that had a winning program in 8th grade while the freshman and JV class lost so bad that they didn't even post the scores in the paper. But I don't blame the kids. The coaches kept taking kids up before they were ready and didn't give them the fundamentals they needed to win. I feel sorry for Mike Snyder's family for what they have had to endure during this whole time. Mike is a good coach. There are many players that support him and want to continue to play for him. He did take that current group of 9th graders to a championship in 7th grade, the first championship for Palmerton's youth boys program that I can remember. If that is so easy, why has nobody else been able to do it? What people didn't see were the many parents and kids who wrote letters in support of Mike Snyder because they like the results. The school board was only trying to please two groups, the seniors who wanted to keep the old coach, and the new kids coming up that wanted something better. I understand that the seniors want to give Mr. Hughes another chance. That wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that the JV and Freshman coaches have been there the last 6 years and the records for those teams have been embarrassing. Are kids supposed to wait till they get to the varsity level before they learn anything? By that time it is too late. Those people who were at that school board meeting are only one side of the story and you didn't see the parents of the kids who support Mike Snyder because they were afraid that the current varsity and JV coaches would hold it against their kids for supporting him.

First of all there might have been 75 people at the whole meeting but they all were not there to bash Mike Snyder! The MC does it again! There were a few loud mouths or "hicks" that didn't get their way so they cried and whined. I was sitting back watching the whole ordeal! What a joke that a school board meeting was about sports the whole time. Only in Palmerton.

First of all, Mike Snyder didn't build the youth organization the last five years. He didn't even coach the boys team last year because the parents had enough of his abuse the year before. His brother Jerry helped coach the team last year in his place and practices and games ran much sooner. Apparently Stu Henritzy's backround checks have a lot of holes in them also. Not only was he not rehired at Jim Thorpe and Palmerton, there was a time he applied to coach at Lehighton and didn't get hired even though he is a guidance counselor there. And how about being fired as Lehigh Carbon Community College baseball coach midway through the season? Last year he received a letter from the Bowmanston Baseball Association for conduct at one of his son's baseball game. Last week, he reprimands his son's team for losing to what he called F---in' Trailer Trash. YOU talk about discipline? Not only did his star player show his buttocks out of the back of a school bus on the way home from a loss, Snyder tried to fight with administration over discipline actions. Then when the same player walkced off the court that year in a game against East Stroudsburg South, he didn't even have the guts to discipline the player himself. He put the team's players on the spot and made them vote whether to keep him onthe team or not. He once was on the staff at Towamensing Elementary School and when he left to take the job in Lehighton, he said he would never do anything for the Palmerton School District again cause it was a joke. If I was Ridge Hughes, I would take the good freshmen up to play on the JV level, like all of the successful programs in the Colonial League does to see how he likes coaching with "mediocre talent". Hopefully the new superintendent will watch Ridge Hughes' back. Someone better.

"First of all, Mike Snyder didn't build the youth organization the last five years. He didn't even coach the boys team last year because the parents had enough of his abuse the year before."

Before you post your ignorance, get your facts straight. Mike didn't coach last year because Mike didn't want to coach. The kids wanted him back. He was asked to coach. He wanted a year off. Bowmanstown baseball apologized for what happened last year. Mike IS coaching this year at Bowmanstown. You have no idea what you are talking about with the youth organization. He did help rebuild that organization. And he did still help out last year with the 7th grade.

I find it interesting that the Mcall didn't even metion the "other" big story. THe board approved the budget with no tax increase!!!

Sounds like the wife should have abstained from all votes for the coaching position since she knew her husband wanted the job. I don't know whether the guy is a a good coach who was victimized by overzealous parents or if he's a coaching tyrant, but the wife's actions on the board were kinda sleazy.

The solictor's assertion that the district had no choice but to pay for the ridiculous expenses of the school-phobic girl is a bunch of bull too. The District should have shown a little backbone and said no to most of that crap. Let the state hearing officer step up and play the fool by trying to enforce the approval of any & all expenses, no matter how absurd they may have been.

I hope the basketball team does do well, but I really hope there are no verbal comments made to the opposing team or his own. He is a coach for the Bowmanstown Central Whitehall League (technically he is an an assistant). I don't believe anyone apologized to Mike, but he almost lost his privileges as a spectator to his childs games for the rest of the season last year. He took his team after a game (his team lost) and told them that the other Bowmanstown team (who won) were nothing but soar winners and they are nothing but white trailer trash. You would like him teaching your child that discipline. I am so angry that people aren't offended by that comment and keep saying he is such a nice guy. I personally do not know him, but my coaches in every level of sports never used comments like that even if they were emotional. It's funny that the majority of the coaches at the baseball meeting said he should be suspended, but when a lawyer got involved they said he has 30 days to appeal. Appeal what? The season is over. I coach a sport also and I hope I never get that emotional and make racial comments like that. His own team told on him so it is not a rumor. Several of his team have been questioned and responded that he did make that exact comment. To the head coach of that Bowmanstown Team, you really want your name associated with this individual and can truly look at yourself in the mirror and know what a hurtful and indignant comment that was. If the other Bowmanstown team had lost, I am positive those coaches would not have handled it in that manner. He also made a comment to grandparents that were there that it is a shame their Bowmanstown team did not learn anything while playing the last 4 years under different coaches. His head coach was one of them within the last 4 years. I don't feel badly for his family, I feel badly for his son. Imagine what he is learning at home. It was very difficult to explain to the children what White Trailer Trash means. We have police officers, teachers, law enforcement and managers on this team and I doubt they would fall into this category. I am so appauled by the Palmerton Community that they would not be offended by this comment irregardless if it wasn't directed at their children. There are children on both teams that live in trailers, but their parents have jobs and pay taxes so what a stupid comment to make. I am just so upset over this it makes me ill. Let these men keep teaching our children and you may have a winning team, but you'll have rude, disrespectful, jail bait children. Please get involved and stand up against persons who do not have the decency to apologize to ALL those children for such comments.

I find it interesting that 2 people sticking up for Snyder have ISP in Illinois.

As for all the bashing about Snyder...
Michael is a dedicated dad and husband who has a passion to coach. He may be outspoken but tells it like it is....He is not afraid to speak his mind....and does NOT talk behind your back...what you see is what you get...and I am annoyed with the comments about what his family life is like....My kids LOVE Michael. He is a fun-loving person who LOVES kids. He would do anything to help your child become the best individual he or she can be. He is a communicator and is willing to go above and beyond for any child--emotionally, academically and/or athletically. Any child would be lucky to have Michael as a coach, teacher or guidance counselor. Best wishes to your coaching year, Michael. Don't let ignorant people ruin your basketball season with their rude comments. Kick butt to shut them up! Go Snyder!

ISP---Slatington (not ILLINOIS)

I agree with "Concerned"...Mr. Snyder has never shown any signs of being a good man let alone a good coach. He is totally out of control, teaching uncontrollable behavior, foul language and disrespect. If any of you so-called supporters really know what you're talking about, you certainly know full well that he has anger and behavior issues. For those of you who don't know, you're going to find out. It would at least be nice to have him step up and admit his mistakes, take responsibility, apologize, make amends and show some effort that he is trying to change. But no, even under the microscope he still behaves badly. He does not learn from his mistakes and is a total liability!!!
I am still holding out hope of this hiring decision to be overturned but if it can not be, please Ms. Boyce, give this man a NO TOLERANCE policy...ONE STRIKE AND YOU'RE OUT!

I love the comment "I'm aware of the rumors"...that's the best!!! People are standing right in front of your face telling you the things this man has done!!! Are you and Henritzy imbeciles or what?!?!?!?!
Cheese & crackers vunst!

Cheese and crackers vunst!!!