Baseball: Longtime Coach Manny Alvarado is no longer at Kennedy
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On the first day of classes at Granada Hills Kennedy on Tuesday, the varsity baseball team learned that its longtime coach, Manny Alvarado, had been reassigned by the local district office of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Principal Suzanne Blake refused comment other than to confirm that Alvarado was no longer a teacher at Kennedy and that there will be a baseball team in the spring.
Alvarado was present Monday for a teacher’s meeting at Kennedy. Next to the physical education building on Tuesday was a whiteboard with the names of Kennedy’s physical education teachers: ‘Raub, Rodrique, Lambert, Kanemura, Alvarado.’
Except Alvarado was nowhere to be found Tuesday. A parent said one of the teachers told players that there was no one to teach the off-season fifth-period baseball class, so students had to find a regular class.
Messages were left for Alvarado and the LAUSD for comment.
Alvarado, who completed his 24th season as coach, has guided the Golden Cougars to five City Section championships and helped develop major leaguers Jon Garland and Garret Anderson.
He has been involved in a dispute with the district office after an attempt to suspend him for three weeks last school year after a student was injured during an alleged hazing incident while he was in charge of a class. He appealed the suspension.
Also, his junior varsity coach was arrested in June on suspicion of child endangerment for allegedly smoking marijuana with his players while taking them in a car to Dodger Stadium.
No one at Kennedy will say whether Alvarado’s days as baseball coach are over, but it doesn’t look good.
Kennedy baseball parents are expected to rally in front of the school on Thursday morning in protest beginning at 7 a.m.
-- Eric Sondheimer