The Potomac Highlands Dispatch - the online newspaper

Rice resigns as Sentinels coach
* Coach 'relucantly' steps down

By Kevin Spradlin
PhDispatch.com
FROSTBURG, March 19 -- Fort Hill Athletic Director Paul Green confirmed Friday that Glenn Rice has resigned as head coach of the Sentinels varsity boys basketball team.

Rice ended the season on a high note despite being eliminated from the Maryland Class 1A West Region in the west sectional final against the Rams. The Sentinels finished the regular season at 7-15 and won twice in the playoffs against Mountain Ridge and against favored Allegany.

It's a resignation that came "reluctantly," Rice told PhDispatch.com.

Rice said he felt that "I didn't have the support that I once did" from the administration.

Despite that, "I appreciate all the players' hard work and that I always coached for the players and wanted to keep coaching them," Rice said.

Green said Friday at the 51st annual A.C.I.T. in Frostburg that Rice had submitted his resignation last week after doing "some soul-searching."

"You know, at the end of the year, coaches are very tired," Green said.

Green said Rice and others who are not teachers at the school have their job made more difficult because there is a lack of immediate accountability. Student-athletes are less likely to behave out of order, Green said, if it's possible they'll run into their coach in the school hallways later that day.

Green said Rice informed his players and assistant coaches of the decision.

The vacancy will be advertised to the public through the Allegany County Board of Education along with other coaching vacancies at the school, Green said. The search is "wide open," Green said.

"We want to get the best person for the job," Green said.