Nothing to See Here: Firings? What Firings?
By Drew Gallagher
HUMORIST
At this time of year, it’s always nice to reflect on life’s blessings. As we gather with family and friends, trim the plastic tree, and remind ourselves that eggnog is not for those who are lactose intolerant, it is natural to think of the year gone past and the promise of the future ahead. Joy to the world … except for those who were fired from their jobs in 2024.
There were a number firings of local prominence in 2024 and most did not even get a bag of coal for the cold, harsh winter that lies ahead.
One such termination that pained me deeply was when Lee Enterprises, owner of The Free Lance-Star and 77 other daily newspapers, fired local journalist Steve DeShazo at the end of their fiscal year. I met Steve over 30 years ago when I was working as a stringer in The Free Lance-Star’s sports department and was a devoted reader of his in the decades since. Steve gave his life to our local newspaper and to journalism. He covered regional and national sports equally and produced columns at a head-spinning rate. He was the long-time Sports Editor and also interim Managing Editor for a period of time. Ask the five people who are left at The Free Lance-Star who was the most invaluable member of the staff, and I believe they would all answer … Steve.
(In fairness to Lee Enterprises, they also fired a bunch of award-winning columnists at their other newspapers, so Steve was not the lone casualty, but he was the only one who was a friend of mine.)
Another long-time FLS columnist who was unceremoniously shown the outhouse door in 2024 was Donnie Johnston. I never knew Donnie and rarely read his column, but that does not mean that there weren’t plenty of people in the community who loved Donnie’s unique way of telling stories. In an early effort to set the tone for the hopes of my column I even went so far as to assure readers that I would never use “polecat,” which was a favorite of Donnie’s to show off his Culpeper street cred. In honor of Donnie, I am breaking that promise to relay a story about my first visit to Fenway Park in the late 1970s.
As my family and I were walking back to our car after a Red Sox game that had gone into extra innings, a man was walking his dog and coming toward us in downtown Boston (downtown Boston as concrete jungle is important to this telling). As we were walking toward the man, a skunk came out of the dark and sprayed the man and his dog before scurrying back into the Boston night. The man’s evening had obviously taken an unexpected turn and he expressed his incredulity:
“You have to be f*cking kidding me! A polecat in f*cking downtown Boston?”
The man, by dint of his heavy New England accent, obviously had never heard of the word “polecat” and certainly did not utter it in that particular moment, but in Donnie’s honor, as a beloved columnist, I offer up that story with a tip of my 1970s-era Red Sox cap.
Steve and Donnie’s firings were all about the Benjamins, but a more recent firing is perplexing in that it does not appear to be fiscally motivated by a newspaper conglomerate trying to improve its bottom line. In fact, there has been no public reason given for the axing of local resident Mary Becelia who was the citizen representative to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library Board of Trustees in Stafford County. (I do not know Ms. Becelia, but anyone who volunteers for a citizen representative position to support libraries cannot have a total heart of darkness and probably even read the Joseph Conrad book once upon a time. I once volunteered for the Board of my Homeowners’ Association and was asked to resign the post after they realized I never attended the monthly Monday night meetings if there was a conflicting sporting event. They conceded that the college football championship was understandable, but when I missed a meeting because TBS was replaying the movie “King Pin” they felt that was a dereliction of my duties. Their point was not without merit.)
Ms. Becelia was not only “fired” but was apparently dismissed for “misconduct.” The Stafford Board of Supervisors to this point has refused to explain to her what her “misconduct” consisted of and efforts by the intrepid Adele Uphaus of The FXBG Advance have also met with silence from the Board. I, too, have known the sting of the executioner’s blade when being fired from a volunteer position which I would argue was also without “misconduct.”
Many years ago, when my son was playing travel soccer with a local club named Phoenix, the head coach of the team approached me about being Team Mom. I told him that I had never been a Team Mom before, but he felt I was uniquely qualified to spread vital information to parents before matches and tournaments like make sure your player remembers to bring their cleats and where was the nearest Chick-fil-A to the complex we were visiting.
That U-14 Orange team played like warrior poets that season … if warrior poets had a winning percentage just over .500 and could never beat teams from Loudoun County. Even though Phoenix espouses a club philosophy of: “… winning in itself does not measure player improvement or if a coach is doing a good job. If a team wins most of their games but the players do not improve, then the season is a disaster.”
Apparently, our head coach was not adhering to that underlying philosophy and our players were merely treading water in a sea of mediocrity despite the obvious love his players had playing for him. We were left to believe that we, coach and Team Mom, were a disaster (which seems especially harsh as an underlying guiding principle in any youth sports team philosophical statement). With a few matches left in the season, the coach was fired and was told that his Team Mom was fired too. When the secretary for Phoenix met me to take away my keys, I asked her why I was being terminated, and she sadly shook her head and whispered: “I don’t know.”
The head coach of that U-14 Orange team has recovered nicely and has been the boys’ head soccer coach at Riverbend High School for the past few years. I, however, was never again invited to be a Team Mom for a small club soccer team that could never beat Loudoun teams, and it haunts me like Marley’s ghost.
So, this holiday season I raise a glass to my friend Steve DeShazo, tip my Red Sox cap to Donnie Johnston, and hope that Mary Becelia gets answers.
And to the Phoenix soccer club, as a wise centaur once told Achilles after he was fired as a Team Mom for his son’s club soccer team: “We, the rich-haired Nymphs, sons of Zeus the aegis-holder, will outlive ten phoenix soccer clubs.” (It’s been 36 years since I last translated Latin so I might be a bit off there.)
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