Leo coach Shawn Frison says he is being forced out in an attempted coup by assistant coach Fred Cleveland Sr.
Frison, who is 66-25 at Leo, says he had a physical altercation with Cleveland after a game in downstate Washington on Saturday.
Cleveland, whose son Fred Jr. is the team’s star player, was the head coach at UP-Englewood for three seasons. Leo entered the season with high hopes to make a run to Peoria in Class 2A.
“Outside after the game we get into a verbal altercation,” Frison said. “He’s grabbing me, I’m grabbing him, kinda tussling. [The tournament director] comes out and kind of broke it up. I got on the bus and came home.”
Frison says that Cleveland called Leo administrators and claimed Frison punched him.
“No punches were thrown, nothing happened,” Frison said. “[Cleveland] has a relationship [with the tournament director] so he is Cleveland’s only witness and he is using that to have a coup to throw me out. Fred has been threatening to call the archdiocese and get me fired.”
Cleveland says that Frison hit him in the face.
“The guy pushed me and hit me in the face,” Cleveland said. “He went wild at halftime, turning over chairs and screaming that this was his team. This is even though we were winning. The kids were confused. He couldn’t handle me making suggestions. I told him you need to learn how to respond to adults. He pushed me. I’m taking my bluetooth off and he hit me in the jaw. That is when [the tournament director] came out and [Frison] walked off.”
Frison said the relationship with Cleveland has been rocky since the season began.
“We lost the first game this season and Fred came in the locker room and said he doesn’t associate with losers,” Frison said. “This has been building for awhile. [Cleveland] has spit in my face for not following his coaching advice or his substitution patterns. He’s been threatening to take his son and leave.”
Cleveland says he never threatened to remove his son from Leo until Frison hit him.
“I told him I didn’t want the job,” Cleveland said. “I left a program I had built. Now that program is in the Red. I left for my son.
“[Frison] has been threatened by me since day one. Since the time I came over with [UP-Englewood] and beat him at Leo when he had the bigger and better team. I coached under Nick Irvin at Morgan Park and made suggestions. Under Gary London at Hales. He has a problem because he has never been an assistant coach. He went from training little kids to being a varsity coach.”
Leo president Dan McGrath declined to comment on Frison’s claims of being pushed out.
“I’m not going to dignify them with a reply,” McGrath said.
Mike Holmes, Leo’s athletic director, confirmed that Cleveland is taking over as interim coach. He framed Frison’s departure as a resignation.
“Shawn has a lot of stuff happening with his mom,” Holmes said. “He just didn’t think he would make it through the year. As much as he wanted to coach he didn’t want to leave in the middle of the season. He resigned and we will let [Cleveland] take over and have some other guys help out. It’s something he felt was best for the program.”
Frison, who graduated from Leo in 1987, says that is untrue.
“My mom is sick but that has nothing to do with this,” Frison said. “This is the most painful thing that has happened to me in my life. I sacrificed for this job. I was making $300,000 and I came back to Leo to help out my school.
“My son is at Leo. He’s a great student. Leo was going to be his stage so he can go to college. That has been taken from me because they want to give this job to Fred.”
The No. 12 ranked Lions play at Loyola on Friday.
Shawn Frison at Leo
2015-2016: 24-9
2016-2017: 19-9
2017-2018: 20-6
2018-2019: 3-1
TOTAL: 66-25
Fred Cleveland Sr. at UP-Englewood
2014-2015: 11-10
2015-2016: 9-15
2016-2017: 16-10
TOTAL: 36-35
