Leopard players, including star QB, rally around coach

By Ed Puskas and jeanne starmack

epuskas@vindy.com

starmack@vindy.com

LIBERTY

Kevin Cylar doesn’t believe he’ll be back for a third season as Liberty High School’s football coach.

If Cylar is not on the Leopards’ sideline this fall, some of his players say they might not be back, either.

Three of them spoke out on his behalf Thursday night, hours after dozens of Liberty students protested on the embattled coach’s behalf.

“I’m not happy at all,” said Leopards sophomore quarterback Lynn Bowden, the star player on each of the last two Liberty playoff teams on Cylar’s watch.

“We were 17-6 the last two years and had two playoff appearances and he gets fired?”

Cylar told WMFJ he was asked to resign after speaking at the sentencing of former Ursuline football player Darrell Mason on Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Mason, 24, was a Fighting Irish standout, but he turned to leading an East Side street gang known as Vic Boys, who dealt drugs and were involved in several shootings.

Mason was convicted of trafficking in marijuana, cocaine and heroin and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Among more than 20 people in court to support him was Cylar, who had coached Mason at Ursuline when he was an assistant coach.

Cylar said Mason had no role models growing up and lived in poverty.

“I felt that Darrell had done things that were wrong and he needs to be punished, but his whole life shouldn’t be thrown away,” Cylar said.

Liberty Schools Superintendent Stan Watson said no action has been taken on Cylar’s supplemental coaching contact. He said all supplemental contracts are non-renewed near the end of each school year and decisions are later made about which are coaches will be re-hired.

Watson said Cylar’s contract will go through the process like all others in the district and the school board will decide whether to retain him at a meeting before the school year ends.

Watson confirmed that Cylar was in his office Thursday, but he would not confirm whether he asked him to resign.

“I won’t speak about personnel matters,” he said, adding that he is legally prohibited from doing so.

Watson said Cylar’s status was not affected by his appearance on behalf of Mason.

“He has every right to speak at a trial,” Watson said.

The coach disagrees.

“When I go in his office for the meeting I look on his notes and I see Darrell Mason’s name and I see Vic Boys,” Cylar told WFMJ.

Attempts by The Vindicator to reach Cylar were unsuccessful on Wednesday. The coach did not return calls and texts to his cell phone. He told WFMJ he doesn’t expect to be back with the Leopards.

“My principal [Rocco Adduci] told me that it would be better and that things would get messy if I did not quit,” Cylar told the television station.

Adduci could not be reached for comment. Liberty athletic director George Gulgas said he was out of the building much of the day.

“I only know what I saw on the news,” he said.

An estimated 70 Liberty students — including Bowden and teammates Jaylen Williams and Damien Clark — left the high school Wednesday morning to protest Cylar’s impending ouster at the school board office, where Cylar and Watson were meeting.

Bowden, Williams and Clark said they were later suspended for three days along with at least two other students. The players said they were told the suspensions were for threatening other students who did not participate in the protest, but all three denied the apparent allegation.

“We didn’t threaten anyone,” Clark said. “I’m not sure where that came from.”

Said Williams: “We got suspended for our coach. They said me and my boys threatened another kid, but that was just a cover story.”

Watson also said he would not comment on the suspensions. He said he was aware of the situation, but cannot discuss disciplinary matters.

School board members could not be reached to comment.

Liberty finished 10-2 and won the All-American Conference with a 7-0 record in 2014, Cylar’s second season. The Leopards qualified for the Division V playoffs and opened with a 62-7 win over Gilmour Academy before losing to Cylar’s old team, Ursuline, 23-7, in a regional semifinal.

Cylar also led Liberty to the playoffs as a first-year coach in 2013. The Leopards finished 7-4 and lost a regional quarterfinal to Crestview, 35-26.

Bowden, Williams and Clark all said they would consider leaving Liberty if Cylar is not re-hired.

“Wherever coach Kev goes, that’s where I go,” Williams said. “It’s my senior season coming up and I don’t want to play for anyone else.”

Clark, who came to Liberty from West Palm Beach, Fla., last fall, echoed his teammate.

“To tell you the truth, I really want to go wherever coach Kev goes,” he said.

Bowden said he’d prefer to stay at Liberty, as long as Cylar is still leading the Leopards.

“He just defended one of his former players and it cost him his job,” Bowden said. “I would do anything to get coach Kev his job back. It’s crazy.”