Athletic Director

Northeast athletic director Bob Grimm confirmed yesterday that his contract is not being renewed after 15 years at the Pasadena school.Grimm said he received his yearly evaluation from principal Joseph Carducci Jr. and learned that he was not being retained. The one-paragraph statement included criticism of Grimm as "pursuing a course of action independent or contradictory to that of the principal."The evaluation also accused Grimm of "insubordination.""That's 15 years in a paragraph," Grimm said from his Millersville home.

Ed Vinson never has seen anything quite like it at Northeast High. And he's been a member of the school's athletic boosters for 17 years."I haven't seen these kinds of emotions and discontent. I've had teachers calling me, coaches calling me, parents calling me," Vinson,53, said of the negative reaction to last week's dismissals of Athletic Director Bob Grimm and Assistant Athletic Director Bart Rader.Principal Joseph Carducci Jr.'s decision to advertise the two positions met with resistance by a coalition of Northeast supporters -- including Vinson -- seeking to have Grimm and Rader reinstated.

Bob Grimm said yesterday that he will not be rehired as Northeast High's athletic director, a position he occupied for 15 years until being fired by Principal Joseph Carducci Jr. in late May.Carducci interviewed both Grimm and former assistant athletic director Bart Rader on Monday morning, then called Grimm Tuesday night to tell him thathis contract would not be renewed.Carducci, who replaced Joseph Cardamone as principal on Feb. 1, has appointed social studies teacher Roger Stitt as the acting athletic director until a replacement is found.

When Diane E. Schumacher was a junior in high school in the 1960s, the only sport available for girls was gymnastics. She didn't get involved in that, she says, because no leotards were long enough for her tall frame.So the West Springfield, Mass., native started teams of her own -- basketball, softball, tennis -- despite naysayers at the school who insisted that girls just wouldn't be interested in that kind of thing. Schumacher, who is 6 feet 2, proved them wrong.Schumacher started this month as the first athletic director at Howard Community College, and she plans to do what has always come naturally: Take charge of a program and make it better.

C. Milton Wright athletic director Jim McNicholas is retiring after 22 years to "move on and relax a little bit and do some traveling with my family." McNicholas, 60, will officially step down July 1 to complete a tenure of 35 years in the Harford County school system, spending four years each at Aberdeen Middle School and Bel Air High before going to C. Milton Wright, where he worked for Jack McCracken for five years before becoming the athletic director. McCracken and McNicholas have been the only athletic directors in the history of C. Milton Wright.

Leon D. Horowitz, an athletic director and principal who coached high school and college teams, died Tuesday of complications from cancer at Sinai Hospital. He was 84 and lived in Brooklandville. During a lengthy career in local athletics, he was associated with programs at Southern High School and the Johns Hopkins University. He retired in 1978 from the city's Department of Education as director of interscholastic athletics. "What made him a legend was that he was down at little Southern High School, and he made them a power," said his friend Judge Robert I.H. Hammerman, former chief judge of the Baltimore Circuit Court.

University of Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow signed a contract extension yesterday that guarantees her $350,000 per year through 2013, she confirmed. Yow's previous contract would not have expired until August 2010, but early negotiations in the athletic department are common, she said. Financial bonuses based on academic achievement and "competitive excellence" are included in the contract, Yow said, but details were not available yesterday.

Craig Walker said that transferring to a job in a new school is a little like moving into a new house. "The first thing you do is you walk in, you look and you think, `Oh, on that wall, maybe I can put such and such,' " Walker said. "I've found myself doing that quite often." Walker, the new athletic director at Francis Scott Key High School, is giddy with anticipation over the possibilities at his new home. The sentiment is similar for Randy Pentz, who has taken over Walker's old job at Century after eight years as the athletic director of Owings Mills.

The euphoria of two state championships continues to be upstaged by a wave of controversy at Northeast High.Students have threatened a sit-in this morning to protest Wednesday's firing of athletic director Bob Grimm. And yesterday another member of the athletic department staff found out from a reporter that his job is being advertised.Word spread quickly that students were organizing a protest of principal Joseph Carducci Jr.'s decision not to retain Grimm after 15 years. Grimm's job as social studies teacher, which he has held for 24years, was not affected by the action.

To squelch a rampant rumor that has been circulating in football and county athletic circles, Brad Best has no plans to resign as football coach and athletic director at St. Mary's in Annapolis.Best, Saints' coach for the past 10 years (59-41, .590), led them to their greatest season in 1996 (8-2). That year they won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship and finished No. 1 in The Sun's Top 15 for the first time.Best also was named The Sun's county and metro Coach of the Year in 1996.