Mike Randolph Addresses Media About Resignation As Duluth East Boys Hockey Coach
On Friday morning, long-time Duluth East Boys Hockey head coach Mike Randolph addressed the media, following the announcement earlier this week of his resignation from the program.
Randolph opened the conference at the Duluth Heritage Sports Center explaining that it has been an emotional few days for him, and expressing that he appreciated the opportunity to use the press conference as a way to bring closure to the situation.
He followed with remarks thanking his wife for her support over the years and the coaching staff members, trainers, bus drivers, and every he has worked with over his long coaching career with the school.
Randolph's comments pivoted as he thanked the many great parents of which he's had the opportunity to coach their kids, sharing "sadly, there are those that tried to ruin it for others." He went on to explain "We all know what's going on here. Coaches across the state are being run out by parental pressure. The most recent is Lakeville South and Brainerd." He continued "And now, me."
He called the trend "tiresome", but shared that "the number of supportive parents always far outweighed the others." Randolph expressed that beyond parental pressure, he felt as though school administrators didn't provide support under this pressure, commenting "Without administrative support, it is a losing battle that is tiring and takes the joy out of it."
He concluded calling the vast majority of his coaching career at East "rewarding and fun" up until recently. He continued "When negatives outweigh the positives, it gets to be exhausting. And no longer worth the time I put into it."
After his playing career, Randolph coached in the college ranks locally for a couple years before moving to high school hockey coaching in Duluth. The last 32 of his 36 years coaching high school hockey have been with Duluth East, during which time his teams have been to multiple state tournament appearances and won two of the school's three state championships.
You can watch his entire 12-minute speech below.
Our news partners at WDIO report that the Duluth School District offered a confirmation that a human resources consulting firm prepared an investigation report on Randolph, but said they would not release the report due to it containing "private personnel data and private educational data." It has not been clarified what specifically led to the investigation.