Larry "Bud" Wright, the winningest coach in the history of Indiana high school football, has resigned amid pressure from the administration at Sheridan High School.
Wright went 463-219 with nine state championships over the course of his career. One does not coach 682 games without racking up some years on the job; Wright spent 59 years at Sheridan and turns 84 this month.
WTHR-TV reported Wright was suspended one game this past season for alleged verbal abuse of a player, and faced an ultimatum from the Sheridan administration: resign or be fired.
"During the 2024 season, Sheridan Community Schools worked with Coach Wright regarding his coaching future. After discussion and consultation with his family, Coach Wright agreed that this would be his final season," superintendent David Mundy told the station.
“Over the last two years it had become more and more impossible to work under all the directives imposed by the Athletic Director on the football program,” Wright said.
In a lengthy statement, the school system said it developed a plan back in September to announce 2024 as Wright's final season, but Wright deviated from that plan in recent days.
The Sheridan Community Schools (SCS) Board of School Trustees would like to address and correct any misinformation regarding Coach Bud Wright following his retirement announcement yesterday. It is important to clarify that SCS administration worked with Coach Wright, his legal advisor, and his family back in September. At that time, a mutual agreement was reached that the 2024 season would be Coach Wright’s final year as Head Coach of the Blackhawks. Although SCS offered to announce his retirement then, Coach Wright chose not to do so, and the school respected his decision. Plans were also discussed to celebrate his career during the last home football game of the regular season; however, Coach Wright declined this as well.
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When the parties met in September, it was agreed that Coach Wright would make his retirement announcement before January 1, 2025. The announcement made yesterday was not in line with that agreement.
It's been a busy time for the Wright family. Kevin Wright, who spent 2023 as one of two associate head coaches at Sheridan, took the head coaching job at state power Carmel last week. It's possible Bud Wright may join him on staff there.
After a near-literal lifetime at Sheridan, Wright's departure is a reminder of a sad reality of too many tenures in the coaching business: all too often, if things didn't end ugly, they wouldn't end at all.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.