ANTi EVERYBODY

7 black Salman High School basketball players kicked off team after raising concerns that coach Panos Bountovinas (pictured bottom right) inappropriately touched them    

Less than 24 hours after they refused to play in a game because they claimed concerns about their new coach were not being properly addressed, seven girls basketball players at Salmen High School in Slidell were kicked off the team Wednesday.

Senior Kayla Sibley said first-year coach Panos Bountovinas met with the players and broke the news.

When they asked why they were dismissed, Principal Brennan McCurley told the girls they weren’t allowed to ask any questions, Sibley said.

Attempts to reach McCurley, Bountovinas and St. Tammany Parish School Board spokeswomen Meredith Mendez were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Sibley said she wasn’t comfortable around Bountovinas because he often touched her.

“I felt uncomfortable around him on and off the court because he was very feely. Hand on the shoulders and other places and stuff,” Sibley said. “It made me feel uncomfortable. I never had a touchy-feely coach before. I felt uncomfortable.”

The players dismissed from the team were Sibley, Darnelle Webb, Myrezonte Cooper, Amara Bickham, Jazmine McKain, Antoinette Neal and Brianna Rudolph.

“They didn’t play because we wanted to get the principal and coach to the table to talk about the issues we have,” said Myles Cooper, a parent of one of the players. “This is not a witch hunt against the coach. We want the best for our kids, and we want our kids safe.”

Bountovinas is in his first season at Salmen. He spent two seasons at Mount Carmel, leading the Cubs to the Class 5A state championship in 2014. He was named The New Orleans Advocate’s Metro Coach of the Year for Large Schools that season.

He resigned from Mount Carmel before last season, citing “personal” reasons.

Cooper said that after Bountovinas was hired in June, parents had a meeting with Superintendent Trey Folse to “question the hiring process.”

“After that meeting, we were assured everything was going to be OK and we should move on as one unit,” Cooper said.

But Sibley said some concerns arose during the season.

“There were two games this season when (female assistant coach Wendy Stampley) told him to get out of the locker room while we were dressing. He hesitated,” Sibley said. “(Previous) coach (Kevin) Anderson last year never had that problem. Coach Bountovinas was just standing there. It took him a while to get out. This has happened more than once.”