Jim Dimick Jr.

Below is an article from the Pioneer Press on 8/24/2010, about the Richfield High School basketball program parting ways with their head coach Jim Dimick Jr.:

Former Richfield High School boys basketball coach Jim Dimick Jr. took one last shot to get his job back Monday night, but it might as well have been an air ball. Unknown to him, his shot was doomed from the start.

Dimick's passionate, 45-minute presentation filled with graphs and pie charts to defend his job performance and illustrate race issues in the western first-ring suburb apparently fell on deaf ears as the school board voted before the special hearing to approve his dismissal.

"I knew it was a long shot to get reinstated,'' said Dimick, who averaged 16 victories per season in his nine years as the Spartans' head coach. "It's pretty disappointing to hear that they already had their minds made up. Hopefully, I had a chance to educate them on some issues that they are facing.''

Superintendent Robert Slotterback confirmed after the meeting that a vote to approve Dimick's firing already had been taken. He said Dimick's presentation didn't require more discussion or a revote by the board.

"I'm very disappointed that coach brought the race issue into this,'' Slotterback said.

Dimick, son of legendary St. Olaf College baseball coach Jim Dimick, said he is considering a legal appeal.

"Even with all of the opposition, I still want to coach these guys,'' said Dimick, who led Richfield to two state tournament berths, including a runner-up finish in Class AAA in 2005. "I have a group of kids that I've been coaching since fourth grade. I'd like to see them through to their senior year.''

On June 29, Dimick was told by Richfield activities director Todd Olson that his contract would not be renewed. According to Dimick, Olson said one of the reasons cited was his inability to unite the entire Richfield basketball community.

"(Olson) said he wanted a new voice that can unite this community,'' Dimick said. "He told me I've burned too many bridges.''

Olson attended the meeting but left quickly and was unavailable for comment.

Ten days later, when Dimick received his letter of nonrenewal of his coaching contract, it cited overall performance concerns, including communication, leadership and program development. Prior to his arrival, the two previous coaches averaged six victories a season.

In his presentation — which was attended by about 30 supporters, half of them African-American — Dimick demonstrated the changing demographics of an inner-ring suburb as it relates to student-athletes who play basketball.

With the rampant open enrollment of the past decade, not just in Richfield but throughout Minnesota, kids who played in the community traveling leagues were getting displaced by students moving into districts.

According to Dimick, from 2003-10, 92 percent of the boys playing basketball in the Richfield community who moved into the city after sixth grade or open enrolled as ninth graders, were students of color. In that same period, 96 percent of the participants in the Richfield boys basketball traveling program did not make the varsity team as seniors.

From 2007 to 2010, 64 percent of Richfield's boys basketball varsity roster were students of color. In 2002, 71 percent of the varsity roster was white.

"You've got a small group of traveling (basketball) parents that don't consider themselves racists, but are pretty good people, yet they want a program of institutional racism,'' said Dimick, who is a certified public accountant in Minneapolis. "Then you have a group that you can call closet racists that don't want to see black kids wearing Richfield uniforms. It is a difficult issue. Nobody wants to talk about it.''

Richfield resident Jim Noonan, who is white, was so disgusted with the racial divide that he resigned from the traveling league board. He attended the meeting in support of Dimick.

"I've been on the (traveling) board longer than anyone here,'' Noonan said. "The demographics in his community have changed, period. Jim has provided a lot of money to the program for scholarships for all kids — white, black, green or yellow. He always did what was asked of him by the traveling board.''

Tartan boys basketball coach Mark Klingsporn attended the meeting in support of Dimick. Richfield plays in the Classic Suburban Conference along with Tartan and many other east metro schools.

"Jim had a very well thought-out and organized presentation on why he should not be fired,'' Klingsporn said. "I agree with him 100 percent on all of the issues and the situations he shared. I am concerned about quality coaches that get fired for the wrong reasons.''

Dimick said he plans to attend Richfield basketball games this coming season.

"I've got a lot invested in these young men,'' he said. "I've seen them grow, and I want to see them excel.''

The article is pretty one sided towards Dimick's side...and before I even start ranting...the only reason this article even made it to the paper is because of Jim Dimick's dad (Jim Dimick Sr.) who is a well known baseball coach in the Northfield area (St. Olaf) has some pull around the sports community (specifically, the Pioneer Press sports department). I grew up in Richfield and was a part of the program all the way through my senior year...here are some of my differences of opinion that are not noted in the article because of how much of a love fest this article turned into for Mr. Jim Dimick Jr.:

* Jim Dimick Jr.'s contract wasn't renewed. Even though the Pioneer Press stated this fact in the article, why are the words "dismissed", "dismissal" and "firing" still all over in this article?

* Jim Dimick Jr. lazily pulled out the race card. That's pretty funny because prior to coming to Richfield, Dimick was canned at Washburn (an inner-city school) for not getting along with board members/parents (pretty much the same issue at Richfield). Was the race card not convenient for him to use at Washburn on his way out?

* Jim Dimick Jr. is not a teacher in the Richfield School district...or any district for that matter. Please don't humor me about how much time you "invested" in these kids when there are real teachers/coaches helping these kids on and off the court every day.

* Flaunting your coaching average of 16 wins per season, while the predecessors only averaged 6 wins a season is incomplete and misguided information (and I'm not even sure the six wins is correct...it should be higher, but who knows how he manipulated the data). Before you arrived, Richfield was struggling to find a home in a conference where schools had similar enrollments to Richfield. The two predecessors you're referring to actually had to play in the Classic Lake Conference where the majority of the schedule is all 4A teams. They didn't get the luxury of your schedule year in and year out of playing mostly 3A teams. You would've been better off just stating that you've brought your team to the State Tournament twice in your nine years.

* Dimick has also been accused of recruiting/persuading other players from other communities to play for him at Richfield. Even if he's innocent on all these accounts, it's the perception that he's giving out to the community by assembling teams of non-Richfield residents on a yearly basis. If you're going to alienate your community/youth programs you better have a damn good team every year, otherwise shit will hit the fan and catch up to you as it did this year.

SBG