Donald Rodrigues, the former head basketball coach at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School, was removed from his position last week.

During a call to the Taylor Cormier Show on Monday, Rodrigues said that Athletic Director Ryan Methia told him there had been complaints about his coaching style and asked him to coach a little nicer, a complaint Rodrigues says he found surprising.

"I coached football with this gentleman, the new athletic director, for the last eight years so he knew how I coached," said Rodrigues "and to me it's not just coaching nicer it's just changing my coaching style, which was never verbally abusive, was never physically abusive, was just a passionate coaching style so I was really taken aback by that request."

Rodrigues says he implemented his "nicer" coaching style at a practice session and that it wasn't well received by his players.

"They had a meeting on their own and they had said to me 'coach we don't like the way you are right now we like the way you've always been, it was a losy practice we want you to coach the way you always have,'" said Rodrigues.

Rodrigues believes that, in the end, Methia caved in to incessant parental demands.

"I just think he was a young athletic director, he was feeling pressure from a couple of parents, and I think he just caved in," said Rodrigues "and instead of doing the right thing, and standing by his coach, he did the wrong thing and just did the easy way out for himself."

Methia issued a statement to the Standard Times saying they investigated issues regarding the climate of the basketball program and decided to remove Rodrigues " in the best interest of our students in that program and our school."

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