Howard Lutton will roam the sidelines as Franklin Pierce High’s head football coach for at least one more season.
Three weeks after being fired from his coaching position, Lutton was reinstated as the on Wednesday.
“I’m excited to get back on the field next season,” said Lutton, who has been at Franklin Pierce for 34 years and has been head coach for 24 seasons.
Lutton appealed his termination to Franklin Pierce School District superintendent Frank Hewins on Monday, meeting for almost two hours. Hewins called Lutton back on Wednesday, surprising him.
“I wasn’t expecting anything until Friday,” Lutton said. “He congratulated me and we went through the concerns and said they were very easily correctable.”
Lutton expressed thanks to many in the community for what he called an overwhelming show of support over the past few weeks.
“There was quite an upwelling of support,” he said. “I received a lot of emails of support and some that stuff was really amazing to me. I got choked up and emotional.”
Good. Glad to hear it. Sure do wonder though how the decision to fire him was made and so quickly reversed. Maybe the original decision was a building-level decision by Ms. Shaw and Ms. Malich? Very poorly done. But again, props to Frank Hewins for doing the right thing.