Freedom's Blackwell receives letter of reprimand

Freedom first-year football coach Marquel Blackwell has been issued a letter of reprimand from the school district for his role in a verbal confrontation with another male teacher, Mark Lennox, nearly two months ago.

School district spokesperson Linda Cobbe said there's been no other discipline for Blackwell, a former USF star quarterback who's now an in-school suspension teacher. The county's Office of Professional Standards investigated the incident, which Cobbe has said had students witnessing both Blackwell and Lennox using profanities in an argument.

Cobbe received a letter of direction, less severe than a reprimand, because he was "reacting" when Blackwell entered his classroom.

Cobbe said Blackwell has a 10-day time period to respond to the letter. Blackwell could not be reached for comment.

The Patriots went 1-9 in Blackwell's first season, but lost their last two games by a combined five points.

-- JOE SMITH

joesmith@sptimes.com

Comments

[frank]

WOW, I knew nothing would happen. When a Player uses the same language on the Football field, that Player gets suspended. Great job Freedom and the Hillsborough County School District that is the way to show that you will not tolerate that type of behavior from a Coach in front of Students. You wonder why you have the problems you have in public schools. I guess that if Blackwell punches out that same Teacher he would only get a two day suspension. Nice job way to teach them correctly. What a joke for a Coach and a Person. Good Luck Freedom!!!!

[Ed]

He has F-Bombed the players all season long without any reprimand, why would this be any different? How about investigating 3 of his coaches actually fully suiting up for a practice during the season and "going live" hitting the kids injuring one bad enough to have to miss a game? 27-28 yr old "coaches" were hitting 15-16 yr olds. Clean house Freedom, your kids deserve so much better.

[Miguel]

I have no problem with coaches suiting up. Stop trying to tell the coach how to do his job. There is a reason why you are not the coach Ed.

[Ed]

FHSAA 107.06 (page 8){Fines for misconduct by a coach during a contest} "use of profanity or gutter language-$150
So if he uses profanity on Friday night at a football game it's a $150 fine; walk in a classroom on a Monday morning and curse out another member of the faculty in front of a classroom full of students-$0? As for you Miguel- at 1-9, a historical on field brawl that left several players suspended, and a girl kicker in a sport FHSAA clearly defines as "Boys Football"...someone needs to tell that coach something...like RESIGN. If you sat in those stands all season and still support that crew you're an idiot.

[Dexter]

Blackwell is the best coach in the area. All of yall just shut the f up already!

[disgusted freedom fan]

Garbage! Unacceptabe! But unfortanately not shocking because Freedom's administation,the school board and Laniss Robinson has let us down REPEATEDLY with Blackwell's horrible conduct all year.Let's review:Illegal practices in off season,keeping players until 8-9 pm after practice,cussing and downing players constantly,quality veteran varsity kids quiting,socializing to include drinking and smoking wth players,young lives ruined,fines,probation, the ugly brawl,embarrassment of school,terrible on field record,underperforming,suiting up and injuring your players!!!,cussing out teachers. The AP is Blackwell's girlfriend!! It's covered up! Bartels is a coward. Afraid to fire Blackwell. It is possibly the worst school in the state.What will it take?Stegman was fired for less.Laniss Robinson are you too Blackwell's friend? Or just a coward like Bartels.It is your duty to stop this mess!If Vernon Corn (sp) was still the AD he would have swiftly taken care of this problem. You ,Robinson are proving to be as poor an AD as Blackwell is a coach! Shameful.

[freedom fan]

Laniss Robinson is deffinatly a better AD than Vernon Corn (sp). look at what he has already done that corn did not. He stopped Armwood from recruiting Addae. Corn let that school pick and choose all of Kings and Brandons players at will with no backlash what so ever. If our kids don't want to play at Freedom, send them to Tampa Bay Tech!That will really fire up Blackwell

[Larry]

Blackwell has been a disaster. Nothing, absolutely nothing good has come from that man's tenure.

Consider:

1. Taking a playoff team to a losing team.

2. Scaring away dozens of players.

3. Marching his ISS group to another classroom, then cursing out another teacher in front of other students.

4. Putting on pads and mixing it up with his players.

5. Cursing at non-players on the field.

6. Dressing like a student. No, Blackwell, you are not a 16-year old.

7. His team's involvement in an on-field brawl that shows he simply cannot control his team.

Dexter, if you think these are the qualities of a good coach, well, it's sad. Just plain sad.

Blackwell, you should resign. The County AD should be ashamed. The principal should react.

In a corporate setting, Mr. Blackwell would have been gone months ago. If I had a child at Freedom, I'd be there tomorrow asking why this guy is allowed to be on campus.

Other than playing at USF what were his qualifications for being a HEAD coach? I am playing the race card here. I would hope that all of you would be smart enough to see where I am going with this. Of course there will be the "you are a racist" comeback to my comment but don't confuse racist with realist.

If he is indeed a licensed educator what hasn't anyone complained to the FDOE and filed a complaint on an ethics violation? Just asking.

[Just wait]

The 5 or 6 people who want him there sure are doing a heck of a job protecting him because the things that have got to the paper aren't half as bad as some of the other crap he's pulled. He's done ten things that would have got any one else fired right away.

[thadeaus]

Boy is Blackwell ever hated.Boy you musta pissed off lots of people.Everytime there is a piece about you-you always lead in negative blogs.

[thadeaus]

Boy is Blackwell ever hated.Boy you musta pissed off lots of people.Everytime there is a piece about you-you always lead in negative blogs.

[freedom fan]

acctually, freedom, middleton, and tech finished with a tie for third place in the district with iddentical 1-3 records. This was Blackwell's first year as a head coach. Give im one more year. If he hasn't learned anything and doesn't improve than he has established a pattern and his job will not be deffended. Believe me the school district know what they are doing on this one. You can always transfer to a magnet school like tech if you don't lik it here

[grammar police]

Is it a coincidence that the few posts supporting Coach Blackwell are always the most illiterate ones in the thread?

the other coach who's team was involved in the big brawl was made "coach of the year" by the Buc's. got to wonder what values we are looking for in our coaches these days.

[Patriot]

Dec 7th- Freedom Fall Sports (football)banquet.-$10
Award Trophys- $350
Blackwell Announcing Resignation(and take all your gang...I mean staff... with you)- PRICELESS.

[norace-issue]

Blackwell is so inadequate in coaching performance and personal demeanor, administrative incompetence, unprofessional language and behavior, improper appearance, interpersonal deficiencies in communication, lack of experience and knowledge of how to run a program, and poor judgment in staff selection while being completely clueless in knowing the difference between team discipline and being an enemy to his players...I see no reason to bring race into question, if we were all purple all of the above would still be true. He simply is given a "get out of jail free card" because he was selected over some very seasoned, experienced successful, more qualified candidates and his removal would mean Bartels would have to admit bad judgment. Anyone at Freedom knows King Richard is never wrong.

TBT's head coach got the award because he overcame the adversity CAUSED by blackwells team. How many players from tech got ejected after the brawl? None. How many Freedom players got ejected after the brawl? 2. Any indication as to who started the thing? Lets face it, TBT's head coach is a class act, so if you can't beat them, join them!

[Patriot Fan]

The Freedom Patriot Football team (coaches included) are some of the hardest working, friendliest and good natured people that I have ever met. Those of you who see it otherwise may have pristeen grammar, but forgot to listen to your parents who hopefully told you that when you having nothing good to say, say nothing at all. If you have a beef with someone, take it up with them and resolve it vs. typing your heart out here and resolving nothing. And if you want to send your kids somewhere else, go for it. No one is asking you to do otherwise. We could stand to lose some of the dead weight, negative, criticizers anyway. Happy Holidays to my favorite team, the Freedom Patriots football team! See you in '08!