Brad Wallace confirmed an earlier thread started by one of our members, TheWoodDogs, that his contract wasn't renewed despite the administration strongly recommending it should be to the school board.

Wallace told David Smoak, "The Cross Roads I.S.D. administration is livid, but this isn't the first time the school board has gone against the administrations recommendation, they did the same thing to the volleyball coach."

When asked what reason was given for his contract not being renewed, Wallace said, "I wasn't given an explanation." When asked if he was given enough time to install his system, Wallace added, "Over half of the boys in our program are freshman and we knew it would take some time and thought we would get that time. We had to first learn how to compete, knowing at times we were going to fall short on the scoreboard. We weren't going to sacrifice the future for now, we knew it was an uphill climb and we were so young, but we wanted to build from our 9th-grade program on up."

When Wallace took the job a year ago, he told Smoak, "I know this is a program that hasn't enjoyed much success, but this is what I want at this time, a chance to stabilize and then rebuild," but Wallace wasn't given more than a year, "Please understand, we were committed to winning, but our success the first year was about competing, growing, gaining experience and we won the same number of games as the year before with a much younger team."

Cross Roads was 2-8 in Wallace's first and only season, and the program has experienced only two winning seasons since 1994 (7-3 in '94 and 6-5 in 2003), and during that time Cross Roads has seen eight head coaches.

Wallace is also frustrated that other programs within the athletic department showed growth, "our boys basketball team won more games than a year ago and our baseball team went 9-5 in district play."

And, Wallace also felt the athletic department had improved in the classroom, "During this six-week period, we had 90 boys and girls in the athletic department and we enjoyed our best passing rate within athletics. I stressed to our coaches to build relationships with our student-athletes in the classroom and that would also help build momentum into our athletic success."

Wallace isn't sure what's next for him and he'll take some time to regroup and then move on, "Although this is setback and I wanted to turn this program around, my family and I have enjoyed the community and area and I really don't see us leaving anytime soon."


David Smoak