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Andre HENDERSON, Jr.

https://www.goerie.com/story/sports/high-school/2021/07/26/piaa-district-10-erie-high-hires-andre-henderson-football-coach-erie-school-board-rob-matz/8090144002/

7/26/21
The search is over.
Erie High's football team, eight months after the resignation of its former coach, finally has a new coach just one month before the official start of its new season.

The Erie School Board, by a unanimous 6-0 vote on Monday, approved the hiring of Andre Henderson as the second coach in the Royals' history. The vote was conducted during a special meeting at the Dr. James E. Barker Leadership Center.
Voting for the hire in person were School Board vice president Darlene Feeney and director John Harkins. Voting via teleconference were School Board president Tyler Titus and School Board directors Gwendolyn Cooley, Rosemary Sheridan and Sumner Nichols. Absent from voting were Thomas Spagel, Lori Pickens and Angela McNair. Also attending the meeting in person were Erie Public Schools Superintendent Brian Polito, Assistant Superintendent Teresa Szumigala and Executive Director of Operations Neal Brokman.

Henderson, 34, takes over Erie High's football program from Rob Matz, who was in charge since its inaugural 2017 season.
The 2005 Strong Vincent graduate was an assistant to Matz for the last three years, which included serving as Erie High's defensive coordinator for 2020.
“Let's just I'm very humbled – and happy – that this process is over with and that the School Board's selection committee made the decision they made,” Henderson said. Henderson spoke about his new job title during an Erie High offseason workout conducted at Veterans Stadium.
Henderson and his staff, which he compiled ahead of time in anticipation of getting hired, will have an unusually brief time span to the Royals ahead of their 2021 training camp.
The PIAA will allow teams to start heat acclimatization sessions on Aug. 9 and camps on Aug. 16. Erie High's season opener is Aug. 27 at Cathedral Prep.
Monday's vote ended a lengthy stop-and-start process to find a successor for Matz, who also coached Central Tech's football team before the school district consolidated its three high schools into one. He resigned last December with a 13-24 record and one District 10 championship over the Royals' first four seasons.
The School Board was set to vote on Joe Gabbard, a former Matz assistant, during its June 30 meeting. Gabbard is an Erie High social studies teacher and a member of the Erie Education Association. The contract between the school district and the teacher's union stipulates that Erie High head coaching positions must be filled by EEA members unless no qualified candidates apply.
Only in that case can non-EEA members attempt to fill that position. Despite that, Mercyhurst Prep graduate Jovon Johnson was thought to be the leading candidate since the start of this month.
Johnson, 37, played for the University of Iowa. He was a member of the 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers before he began a 12-year career as a defensive back in the Canadian Football League.
Johnson, who recently resigned from the football staff at Defiance (Ohio) College, wasn't an EEA member. However, it was during the June 30 meeting that 11 community members spoke on his behalf and that he be hired. Most of the speakers stressed the need to hire a Black head coach to lead and serve as a role model for a team that is made up of mostly Black student athletes.
That led the School Board to table its vote. The visible support for Johnson, who's Black, prompted Gabbard, who's white, to withdraw as a candidate.
Gabbard's decision forced the district to reboot the entire hiring process. Gabbard also reapplied for the position after he and another internal candidate agreed to give up their first-hire contractual rights as union members.
The search committee then recommended Henderson. Henderson, who is Black, isn't an EEA member, but does work as a behavioral specialist for the district through a contract.
School district spokeswoman Erica Erwin told the Times-News last Friday that Henderson's recommendation was made after the EEA acknowledged the support Johnson received during the June 30 meeting, plus the community's concerns over the hiring process.
Gary Horton, a representative of the Erie chapter of the NAACP, was on hand to support Johnson at the June 30 meeting. Horton also was present at Monday's meeting and spoke shortly before the board's vote.
He thanked the board for taking a second look at who should be hired and its transparency of the most recent search.
"It allowed for more competition and stayed an archaic hiring practice that has a disproportionate impact on minorities," Horton said. "Through your process, I think you determined the most qualified candidate for the job."
Johnson told the Times-News a district official informed him Thursday that he wasn't the candidate who would be recommended by its latest committee. He was under the impression Henderson was the person who would be voted upon Monday.
“I hope he takes that program and he does great things with it,” Johnson said.
Henderson was an all-state football player for Strong Vincent. He parlayed his success with the Colonels into a college career with Division II power Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

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