Mark Storm had spent over 30 years coaching basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer at Honeoye Central (NY) until 2015 when a few parents of his players got together and wrote a letter to their school board claiming Storm was verbally abusive, had broken promises to players, and had a drinking problem.
Fast forward a few months later and the board of education voted 5-2 against renewing storms contract as the varsity boy's basketball coach.
Outside of the fact that parents sent that letter to the school board, the situation may sound similar to any other coach in any other sport being let go, but that's where things take an interesting turn.
Coach Storm fought back, according to the Democrat and Chronicle, filing a defamation lawsuit against the parents who wrote the letter. Storm was seeking $150,000 in damages, but ended up settling with the group of parents for $50,000.
The article points out that Storm's goal with the lawsuit was to send a message to parents about the consequences of their actions.
"Enough is enough. I wanted to do something for other coaches," he shared.
“My hope is people will at least start to think about what they’re saying, think about what they do before they send that email.”
Head here to read more on the story, including some information on previous cases where coaches sued parents and won.