By Nate Dougherty
Bill Resler, former Head Girls’ Basketball Coach at Roosevelt (Wash.) High School is known for winning state championships with a teaching style that emphasizes having fun and letting players solve problems on their own. In 2005, his coaching methods were featured in a critically acclaimed documentary, but before the start of this season, Resler was fired for reasons that remain unclear.
If you go to a Roosevelt (Wash.) High School girls’ basketball game, you won’t find Bill Resler sitting on the bench. The former head coach, who gained fame in the documentary The Heart of the Game was fired Nov. 9, just days before the start of the season.
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“The fact that they compiled a self-report of out-of-season coaching means that is their nominal reason” for the firing, Resler told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “But as I always told my players, and as I told my three daughters, if you have to cheat to win, you can’t win. It is a lie that I practiced out of season. I did nothing out of season that you’re not allowed to do. It was pure conditioning.”
As seen in the documentary, Resler’s coaching style was far from conventional. Each year he gave his team a new “pack” nickname—one year they were a pack of lions, another year pirhannas, and when they won the 2004 state championship they were wolves. He swore on the bench and led pregame cheers to “draw blood.”
According to Craig Smith, staff reporter for The Seattle Times, this style eventually caught up with Resler as he made enemies out of some of his student-athletes’ parents. Smith wrote: “Over the years, complaints and concerns about Resler have included: (1) His drinking (he has maintained that he didn’t mix social drinking and coaching); (2) inappropriate language, some of it considered demeaning to women; (3) permitting foul language by his players; and (4) complaints about his coaching ability in recent years.”
Others concur that that Resler’s drinking contributed to the firing. He admits frequenting a local tavern with some students and parents from a business class he teaches at the University of Washington. But he vehemently denies allegations he drank with players on road trips, saying the only time he ever drank around the team was on a summer road trip five years ago, when he and the families of a few players had wine with dinner.
Some suggest his firing was the result of previous bad press for the Seattle School District. After a 2003 series in The Seattle Times titled, “Coaches Who Prey,” the district has been more sensitive to coaching issues, Seattle Weekly reports. Earlier this year, the district fired Ballard High School girls tennis coach Aaron Silverberg after he admitted asking his players questions like, “What’s the difference between full-blown spirituality and full-blown sexuality?”
“Seattle Public Schools doesn’t want another scandal,” retired Roosevelt athletic director Joel Waters told Seattle Weekly. Waters sees the parental complaints as sour grapes, not the smoke of a raging fire. “It’s a minority. They’ve been after him a long time. I don’t think you’re gonna find big smut on Bill Resler.”
Resler’s coaching style was featured in an article published in the Athletic Management April/May 2007 issue titled “Outside the Coaching Box.”
Nate Dougherty is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management.
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