Ousted former Westmoore (Oklahoma) football coach wondering why he was removed despite team's recent success
Just three weeks after completing his best season at Westmoore High, Lorenzo Williams found himself out of a coaching job.
Williams was informed earlier this week during a meeting with officials from Westmoore and the Moore School District that “they were heading in a different direction.” And that Williams was not part of that new plan.
However, according to Williams, he still doesn’t know exactly why he has been removed from the position he held for the past seven seasons.
“They said I've taken the program as far as I could take it,” Williams said. “I was like, I don't think I have even gotten to the starting line.
"I feel like I was 10 miles behind the eight ball when I got here. I just got to the starting line now. I don't understand that.”
Williams guided the Jaguars to a 7-5 season - which included a win at Class 6AI runner-up Jenks - and a trip to the 6AI quarterfinals before losing to Tulsa Union. He was 29-34 since 2018 with three winning seasons and had developed a feeder system for the program.
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So when Williams walked into his exit meeting two weeks ago, he said he was feeling pretty good about the direction of the program. But that quickly changed as soon as he sat down with Moore Public Schools athletic director Brian Fitzgerald, Westmoore athletic facilitator Chad Mashburn, Assistant Site athletic director Scott Hunter and Westmoore principal Danny Reed.
“I had a meeting last Wednesday when we got back from Thanksgiving break,” Williams recounted. “And basically, they laid out a couple points. We have exit interview meetings every year.
"Obviously, I wasn't expecting that one to be a bad one because it's the best season I've had since I've been at Westmoore. But they came in and said we are thinking about making a change. I was shocked almost more than anything.”
According to Williams, the main concerns that the group wanted to address revolved around him working too hard, not bringing in a championship coaching staff and not spending enough time down in the junior highs visiting with kids and not being visible.
“I feel like these are conversational pieces over a coffee. This is not stuff that you're going to get fired about,” Williams said. “And they're like, ‘Well, we see it otherwise. We haven't made a decision yet, but we just want to let you know this could happen.’”
According to Williams, the only other time his coaching future had been brought up to him was the previous season’s exit interview. He said he was told then that he was doing a great job, but if he went 3-8 again, they would have to talk about his future.
Williams said, at the time, he had no problem with that because he knew “you can’t go 3-8 three straight years.” But no other indications were given that school officials were unhappy with his performance.
Williams said he left the first meeting Nov. 29 not knowing his fate and stressed about it until they met again Dec. 4. That was when, according to Williams, he was told he was fired.
This came three days after it was announced he had been named the 6AI-1 District Coach of the Year.
“The one thing I hated about the first meeting was they didn't say one positive thing to me the entire time we was in the meeting, nothing positive about the season that we just had,” Williams said. “So we're going to the next meeting, they were like, we're going to make a change. We think the program needs to go in different directions. And I was like, I don't understand that. It doesn't make sense to me.
"We are talking about these four things. I know you guys got to do something, so you got to tell me why. They were like, ‘Well, you're not going to understand why we needed to do this. It just needs to be done now.'”
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Williams left the meeting confused about the entire situation, but he was angry at the way the process was being handled. He says the manner in which the firing was done left room for speculation about his character.
“I told them in the meeting, y'all going to screw me for life because I'm not going to get another head coaching job. I'm the only black head coach in 6AI and they're like, 'No you're not.' Yes, I am. That's an easily findable fact,” Williams said. “But I tell you, nobody's going to believe that y'all are just letting me go and I didn't do anything wrong. And they were like, ‘Well, we're going to say good things about you.’ And I was like, that doesn't mean nothing.
"Nobody's going to believe that I didn't do anything wrong. Nobody walks off a job after having the season we had, unless you got a better job or you did something horribly wrong and I didn't do anything wrong. But nobody's going to believe that these are the reasons why I got let go. And that's pretty much what happened.”
Before social media exploded with rumors and conjectures, Williams immediately began to inform his players about what took place. That includes senior linebacker Connor Cavnar.
“He texted me as soon as it happened. He's like a second dad to me. So he texted me as soon as it happened and when it happened, I just didn't really believe it at first,” said Cavnar. “I was like, there's no way someone could do this to a guy that puts his heart into everything.
"But, it just seems like I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I didn't think it was real at first.”
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According to Williams, it took two days before the Moore School District issued a statement about him being removed. The statement said the school was moving in a different direction. But it also stated he would still be teaching at the school.
According to Williams, he is also able to coach any other sport at Westmoore or in the school district. Just not Westmoore football.
When contacted, Westmoore officials had no comment on the matter. Because the school will not publicly comment on personnel matters, it has left players, parents and fans in the dark.
“The second I stepped in at Westmoore, he's been a father figure to me and just put me under his wing and show me the ways of being great,” Cavnar said. “He just really told me what needs to be done and what not to do. Even the game outside of football was really important to him.
"And he made sure that I was a good Christian man, I was a good faithful man. I was a good son, I was a good brother. It was more about the person I was becoming, and then that would show on the football field. He's a man that put someone else in front of himself and it just really shows.”
Williams remarked he doesn’t believe the excuses they gave him for the dismissal are valid and that they are not telling him the true reasons. But it doesn’t matter now because he is not the one who is truly being hurt by the situation.
“I feel bad for my kids. I raised a lot of these kids the last eight years, not just in football,” Williams said. “But the kids that I coach, I'm worried about them because nobody is advocating for them to go to college since I've been let go.
"This is the time that recruiting is happening. So all college coaches are coming by school right now, they don’t have anybody to talk to. And I don't think anybody's really concerned about that. That kind of (ticked) me off a little bit.”
Williams added he has had several job offers since word got out that he was available. However, with his children being deeply ingrained at Westmoore and the Moore School District, he will really have to deliberate his options.
As the Moore School District begins its search for a new head coach at Westmoore, Cavnar said the loss of Williams will have a direct and immediate effect on the Jaguars' program moving forward.
“As much as I've grown up wanting to be a Jaguar all my life, I grew up in the district and as a kid, I just want to play football and baseball for Westmoore," Cavnar said. “But unfortunately, I feel like this is just a terrible, terrible way that Westmoore's going to head into and a bunch of underclassmen I know, they're just no longer going to be at Westmoore.
"Everyone's that preached the culture of greatness at Westmoore is not going to be there next year, which is going to ultimately just drown Westmoore. Which is going to be a horrible thing.”
-- Michael Kinney | @SBLiveOK
