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Make no mistake – the following is a work of commentary.

Phillip Hyche returned to his chair, his suit coat hung on the back, his sleeves cuffed to his elbows. He had just delivered about two minutes of what turned out to be the foundation for an emotional appeal, but the crowd, compacted all the way back to the door of the Leeds Middle School Library, didn’t know he wasn’t finished. They started to clap, and he stopped them.

“Keith’s my cousin,” he said. “I”m really struggling with this.”

The first Leeds Board of Education meeting held since the departure of former Head Football Coach Keith Etheredge was an emotional affair, packed with tears and applause and all manner of interruptions. The crowd, at least 100 but probably more lost among the shelves of the library, arrived fueled by mass distribution of rumor spurred by a wealth of heartache.

The man who built their football program up from the depths was gone, and they sincerely – well, some of them anyway – wanted to know why. Hyche gave them his opinion.

“I didn’t get it done,” he said, his words spaced in short phrases as he sat looking the notes he had written. “And I apologize to every one of you. The two sides, they’re there.”

These “two sides,” well I’ll admit I don’t know what they really are. Since I’ve been editing the News-Aegis, I’ve heard about them incessantly though. Coach vs. Superintendent is what it’s always sounded like. But during the meeting there was a moment that somewhat confirmed it. It was a total breakdown in the demeanor of the crowd right after Hyche said this:

“We all know there was a division,” he said. “But [Superintendent John J. Moore] will do the right thing. I know he will.”

They booed him. Whether a division in school administration is real or not, the community, at least a division of the members there tonight, believes it exists.

Etheredge left LHS officially on Feb. 17 – the day before the meeting – to take the position of head football coach and athletic director of Pell City High School. He and his wife, Allison, were introduced to the community at the Pell City Board of Education meeting that night. 

Hyche, in his lengthy, passionate address, told the Leeds community that Etheredge only applied to one job.

“That was the one that made it real,” Hyche said, noting that the rumor mill began to churn at the smell of Etheredge’s application and flooded the internet with its byproducts. Hyche said whispers of Etheredge leaving were always abundant, but this time – for the first time – there was more to it. And that was why he, Hyche, felt the need to apologize.

“This time, I didn’t even know [Etheredge] put in an application until Mr. Moore sent me an email that said, ‘Keith has applied for the job in Pell City. Hopefully we’ll have an answer sooner or later, and we’ll post that position,’” Hyche said. “That was on Thursday of last week (Feb. 11). So all the speculation we’d always heard had just become a reality.

“Monday (Feb. 15), we got another email that said the superintendent from Pell City (Dr. Michael Barber) called, [Etheredge] is going to take the job. So I apologize that between Monday and Thursday we didn’t do a thing.

“We didn’t do a thing. That’s a fact.”

Each school board member, as well as Superintendent Moore, had addressed the audience before Hyche took his turn. Their words, always supportive of their former coach, also dripped with absolution and accusations of broken promises. There was a meeting recently, a “great meeting,” Moore said, in the same room as the one then filled by members of the community, where Etheredge allegedly admitted he wanted to retire from Leeds. Three members of the board, including Hyche, referenced it.

“What everyone needs to know is that in June [Etheredge] was told he could be the coach at Leeds as long as he wanted to be here,” Board member Scott Sisk said.

In their statements, some prepared and others off-the-cuff, Board members noted that Etheredge had been given plenty of monetary incentive for he and his staff to stay.

Moore cited at least three examples of raises provided to the coach during times when the coffers were barren. One example stood out to me though, and it was tough to find my way back to an objective center during the meeting after hearing it. It’s why I gave up and wrote this – again, an opinion piece – in first person.

“During the single worst year of double-digit proration, we hired [Coach Etheredge’s] wife, Allison, the minute she completed her student teaching in 2010,” Moore said.

Even though Moore credited Allison Etheredge with doing a “fine” job and being the teacher of one of his own children, the phrase made it seem like hiring her was merely one of Keith’s raises. It’s a sledgehammer to the value of an educator, no matter the context. 

Elsewhere, a bulk of this meeting was devoted to whatever online conversations have taken place in the past week. Moore accused the community of spreading “untruths” and “garbage” on the Internet. He accused community members of creating a “circus” and being “uncivil.” I haven’t read any of it, so like much of the things said tonight, I can’t confirm it. 

I can confirm that one member of the community started a petition to Mayor David Miller and the Leeds City Council to make the Leeds BOE seats elected positions. It has about 330 signatures. It’s creator’s name is Staci Tawbush.

“The citizens of Leeds, Alabama for far too long have been ignored when it comes to decisions made by its Board of Education,” the petition reads. “We realize that, as citizens, we have no recourse when decisions are made that we disagree with.”

Tawbush was first to take the podium for citizen comments. She accused Moore of calling Facebook posters “idiots.”I couldn’t find any proof that statement exists. Members of the crowd responded by accusing the Facebook commenters of attacking Moore, essentially saying Moore was justified in the response.

(Note: An image now attached to this article shows the alleged message referenced during last night’s meeting. It’s possible existence and inclusion in this piece as originally written were meant to illustrate the role online conversation played in the meeting itself, not to further the subject.)

This was my first Leeds City Schools Board of Education meeting, as I’m sure it was for many of the others in attendance. At best that makes me an impartial voice and at worst an imposing outsider. But it’s absolutely true that there are so many things to be excited about in the Leeds School System right now. During this meeting, the board agreed to purchase the furniture for the new primary school, which is more than half complete at this point. The furniture looks amazing; everyone will be sincerely impressed once it’s installed.

But overall, this wasn’t a meeting of positives. It wasn’t congratulatory toward the coach. It also wasn’t derogatory toward either the board or Leeds residents. Amidst a swirl of emotion and fact-less accusations, it was simply evidence that Keith Etheredge was loved for what he did in the community, football and otherwise.

Hyche’s statements about the timeline for Etheredge’s departure haven’t been confirmed. Nor have the alleged Facebook assaults on Board members of the efforts made to keep Etheredge in Leeds. The community should accept tonight for what it was – a venting session. Most of the issues and discrepancies within this outpouring of accusation and defense are based on something deep within this city that doesn’t have paper trail. Whether there really is an “us vs. them,” I don’t know. There’s no proof.

So, if you’re looking for facts, there’s really only one.

When Keith Etheredge left Leeds, it hurt.