Investigation into Hempfield high school basketball coach continues, assistant coach fills in

Hempfield Area School District will continue to compensate high school basketball coach and guidance counselor Bill Swan more than $90,000 as it investigates a complaint against him.

Swan has been placed on paid administrative leave from his coaching and guidance counselor positions as the district investigates the allegation — which the administration learned about during a school board meeting Monday, according to Superintendent Mark Holtzman.

Holtzman declined to share details of the complaint.

“We care about kids. We’re worried about the student athletes, the fact that they’ve had a pretty good season, how excited they are that they are approaching a potential playoff berth,” Holtzman said.

Tuesday’s game against Norwin was postponed in light of the complaint. The team’s next game is scheduled for Friday night at home against Mt. Lebanon.

“All of their hard work, it’s being derailed, and they still have to play on,” Holtzman said. “That’s my No. 1 priority — supporting our student-athletes and making sure they have what they need to be successful. We’ll work on the personnel issues aside from that.”

Swan declined to comment on the investigation.

Assistant coach fills in for Spartans

Assistant Coach Mark Katarski, who is filling in as interim head coach during his first season with the Spartans, led the team at a closed practice Wednesday. It’s unclear if he will serve as head coach during Friday’s game.

Katarski would not divulge any information about the investigation into Swan. Players were not permitted to talk to the media. Athletic Director Brandon Rapp also declined to comment.

Katarski has coached basketball for 27 years, including 20 at the collegiate level. He did his best Wednesday to steer the team with a business-as-usual mentality.

“We took a second today, and I told them to look at their shoes,” said Katarski, Seton Hill’s associate athletic director for internal relations. “Your brain and your feet can’t be in two different places. You can’t be worrying about who we play or if school is canceled. It’s about what we can do to make the group better each day, from the basketball end.”

Swan fired from district in 2009

Hempfield hired Swan as a basketball coach and guidance counselor in 2014, but it was the second time he worked for the district.

Swan first joined Hempfield in 2001 but was fired in May 2009 after a player’s father complained to the school board that the coach had benched and cursed at a player during the 2008-09 basketball season. The district hired an attorney to investigate the complaint.

Greg Meisner, the athletic director at the time, completed a 13-page evaluation of Swan in 2008 — which resulted in the board ordering Swan to partake in anger management classes.

At the time, Swan called the investigation and his subsequent firing a “witch hunt.”

Tim Miller, who served on the school board at the time, denied the claim Wednesday.

“It was no witch hunt,” said Miller, who served on the board on and off from 1996 to his resignation in September 2009.

“We don’t go out seeking to get somebody in trouble. That, to me, is what a witch hunt is. We were not hunting for a witch,” Miller said. “Parents come to us and say ‘Hey, there’s A, B, C and D that happened.’”

Swan later filed a grievance against the district, which settled with Swan in September 2010. The district paid Swan $14,000, contributing to a nearly $22,000 payment for the legal proceedings.

In the settlement, Swan agreed not to apply for a future Hempfield coaching position or file an age discrimination lawsuit against the district.

He was rehired as high school boys head basketball coach in August 2014, according to school board meeting minutes.

Diane Ciabattoni, who has served on the school board for about 32 years, said Swan did not apply for the coaching position, but the district asked him to return to the job.

Miller disagrees with the rehiring.

“Based on the circumstances,” he said, “I don’t think he should have been brought back.”

“I hope nothing negatively impacted this current class of kids at Hempfield,” Miller said regarding the current investigation.

School board President Jerry Radebaugh and members Jennifer Bretz, Jennifer Stape, Vince DeAugustine and Mike Alfery did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Board Vice President Scott Learn and members Tracy Miller and Paul Ward declined to comment.

The representative for the Hempfield Area teachers union also did not respond to a request for comment.

Swan received $92,791 in compensation as a guidance counselor at Hempfield during the 2022-23 school year, according to an online database of Pennsylvania education spending.

The 1985 Connellsville Area High School graduate previously taught math at Central Cambria School District in Ebensburg, coaching ninth grade basketball at the same time.

Swan coached at Portage High School during the 1994-95 school year before accepting a role as guidance counselor at Connellsville Area the following fall. He started coaching basketball at Connellsville Area three years later.

Interim head coach encourages players

Katarski had no clue he would end up directing the Spartans in a playoff chase, calling the plays or balancing team morale, but experience helped to ease tension.

“I have been through a ton of situations in coaching,” Katarski said. “The question I always ask is: who is this group we have today? Every game counts as one in the standings. Can we continue to build as a team? Is this game today going to count as a win or loss?”

A win Friday — with or without Swan — would be big for the Spartans.

Hempfield has a record of 7-6 overall and 2-4 in Section 2-6A, which puts it in sixth place. Mt. Lebanon is 7-6, 3-4 and in fifth.

The top five teams in the section make the WPIAL playoffs.

“Remember, this is a team that has two of the more impressive wins in the WPIAL,” Katarski said. “We beat (a top 5 team in) Fox Chapel and (2A No. 1) Greensburg Central Catholic. The guys are fortunate they get to keep playing more basketball.”