We didn’t force him out - Rusea’s principal denies asking coach Reynolds to leave

Last week, The Gleaner reported that Vassell Reynolds, who led Rusea's High School to the 2017 daCosta Cup title, has taken up the job as head coach of Manchester High School team in the same competition.

Since then, speculation has been swirling of him being forced out of the Hanover-based institution, after failing to make the quarter-final round last season.

But Linvern Wright, principal of Rusea's, told WESTERN STAR Sports in an interview recently that the decision to leave was a personal one solely by Reynolds, and it is one that they can live with.

"I don't know if it was difficult, because once he explained why he had to go, I was OK with it. If someone wants to move on for personal reasons, I'm not interested in trying to get them to stay. I would have preferred if it had not gone like that, but I never saw it as anything that I had huge difficulty with," Wright said.

SEEKING TO WIN

"What has to be made as a statement is that Rusea's' history in football is something that stands above any one individual. The nature of coaches in my mind is that they will move even as schools are seeking to win, and I am not the kind of principal that is standing in the way of any coach ..." he added.

When asked if Reynolds' failed second season played a part in the administration not putting much effort into trying to persuade him to stay, Wright said no

"Remember, I stated last year that Vassell Reynolds is going nowhere. If there is any disappointment for me, it's that I believe in stability and continuity. It would be nonsensical to have a coach in the first year, and then because he never delivered the second year, you figure that the person should go. I am not one of those persons who think like that," Wright said. "I believe that people are going to have successes and another time things won't go so well."

He added: "However, what you do is stick with a programme because that's what matters to me. If you have a programme with a person who is capable of executing it, he'll do it, and Vassell Reynolds is excellent at executing a programme. Like any other human being, things can go wrong. But I don't know if that's a basis you would let them leave so I didn't ask him to go."