[Allsports#1]

MARK MAYNARD: A Decision Where Nobody WinsMark Maynard 01/17/2014 6:00 AM
It was a stalemate of epic proportions, the young superintendent with an eye toward the future staring down the 75-year-old coach who simply is the school football program’s past.
What do you do?
I feel sorry for both of these men and in ways admire them both for the stands that were taken on Tuesday, although the ugliness of the end result was not what anyone wanted for either of them.
But at the end of the day, Sean Horne, the young Russell Schools superintendent with the weight of running a school system on his shoulders, was holding the trump card. He is responsible for everything that happens in the Russell schools and that includes the direction of the athletic programs.
He offered an olive branch of a “Farewell Tour” season for the adored coach — one last hurrah around the area — but Ivan McGlone declined the invitation. Horne made a similar offer before the 2013 season that was rebuffed, too.
“It’s not in my nature to have them parade me around for a year,” McGlone said. “Either you’re the coach or you’re not.”
So with that, McGlone’s 38-year storybook coaching career was over with one last bitter chapter. It’s not the way anyone — not Horne and not McGlone — wanted it to end. It’s not the way it was supposed to end. Happy marriages of 38 years, most of them honeymoon years, usually don’t end with ugly divorces.
Who’s to blame?
Some will point to Horne, others will say enough was enough for McGlone. The decision will be debated in the community for years.
Horne’s decision was made, but he tried to set up a graceful ending for the venerable coach, who had remained the head coach the last few years despite several health setbacks and the loss of his spouse, Gloria, the love of his life. If she had still been with him, the move to step away from football would have been much easier for McGlone, who had two loves in his life — his wife and his football.
That’s why it’s understable that McGlone would act so defiantly about having football taken from him without so much as a reason why. It’s what he knows, what he loves, what he does best. So what will he do now? And was it the worst thing in the world to have somebody like Ivan McGlone around your sons?
Here’s something else: Any standard that he’s being held to was probably one he established himself.
Horne was not only looking out for the program’s health, which he obviously feels is better without McGlone, but also likely the coach’s own health issues associated with some of the setbacks. McGlone has coached from a walker or used a cane to help steady himself the past couple of seasons. He’s far from agile and the sideline can be a dangerous place for even the most nimble.
His mind is still sharp and he may be healthier now than he’s been the past two years. But, of course, he’s also not getting any younger. However, the old school coach can still hand out wisdom, and Ivan-isms, like candy and that’s not such a bad thing either.
Does he deserve to script his own ending to a storied coaching career?
Some would say yes, but how often does that happen for any of us? And how many of us ever really want to say, “That’s enough, I’m finished.”
Ivan McGlone wasn’t ready to do that, either. He was still looking at coaching for the long term. You have to admire that determination, that sense of passion.
That’s not how Horne saw it playing out. He was willing to go one last season, but no more. It was the only concession he was making. The future of Russell football, as he saw it from the Big Chair, needed a change.
Taking on the iconic coach who wasn’t willing to go along with the plan could be (and still may be) a PR nightmare for the young superintendent. But give credit to Horne for sticking to what he believed was best for Russell schools and, after all, that is what he’s hired to do.
It’s not going to be the most popular decision he ever makes — and it may even be the one decision he’s remembered for most — but on the gutsy meter it shows some fortitude.
Ivan McGlone has been Russell football since coming here from Vinson in 1976, winning 316 games and two state championships in 38 amazing seasons. Interestingly enough, his becoming Russell’s coach coincides with the time I began writing for the newspaper on a regular basis. McGlone is a treasured friend and obviously an outstanding coach. I’ve written game stories, previews, personal stories, features and columns about him during the last 38 years.
He always believed strongly in himself and his abilities, so it’s no surprise he didn’t want to put down the whistle. He firmly feels he has something more to give.
But for the sake of the program — a program with his stamp and fingerprints all over it — it may have been better to walk away quietly. Nothing was going to change with some harsh words.
His legacy as the greatest coach in Russell history is secure, whether he left now or coached two or three more seasons. Going out while crying foul didn’t pay respect to the program he created, a program that recognizes him as its Coaching Idol.
If Russell had a Mount Rushmore, his face would surely be carved on it.
The turf at Henry R. Evans Stadium is named after him, a fitting tribute to the man who put Russell football on the map.
He has been showered with accolades over the years and remains one of the most popular coaches in northeastern Kentucky history. The special moments have been many with Ivan McGlone as the head coach at Russell High School.
Whoever replaces him will have an enormous shadow that grows even larger because of this controversial and uncomfortable ending.
Could he have coached another year or two or even more? Certainly, if his health held out, it was possible.
But for better or worse, Sean Horne’s mind was made up. He wasn’t going to blink over a decision he had clearly debated many times in his own mind.
Time will be the only way to judge if it, indeed, was the right call.
MARK MAYNARD can be reached at [email]mmaynard@dailyindependent.com[/email] or (606) 326-2648.

Im a former player of coach McGlone's early years and was on his first State Championship team. Yesterday was a hard day for a lot of us and he deserved to go out on his own terms. I'm proud to say I played for him. For a lot of us he was like a second dad and he made fine outstanding men out of us. This will just kill him because he lost his wife and now his football.