At Linfield, ‘the Tallest Tree in the Forest’ falls

After 10 years as head men’s basketball coach at Linfield, Shanan Rosenberg has been fired (courtesy Dylan Wilhelm/McMinnville News-Register)

Updated 3/29/2023, 6:00 PM

Shanan Rosenberg is no longer the head men’s basketball coach at Linfield. That much we know.

Most everything else regarding the situation with Rosenberg is in flux, or a matter of opinion, or conjecture.

Over a period of 10 days, I interviewed 29 people, most of them willing to speak on the record about the coach’s demise after a decade running the hoops program for Wildcat country.

There are no winners here.

Rosenberg, 51, is out of a job. This week he is in Skylonda, Calif., to attend the memorial service for his father, who died of cancer on January 16.

Linfield is in the market for a new coach after the controversial dismissal of a mostly popular, largely successful figure who took a down program and made it relevant in the Northwest Conference.

It has been a rough year for Linfield, which in February agreed to pay a fired professor more than $1 million in a whistleblower settlement. In 2021, the professor — Daniel Pollack-Pelzner — publicly shared allegations of sexual misconduct from students and staff involving university board members, including school president Miles Davis.

Linfield administrators have taken their hits, too, for what many consider a conflict of personalities and wills between Rosenberg and athletic director Garry Killgore.

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Linfield athletic director Garry Killgore fired Coach Shanan Rosenberg after a verbal altercation with a parent in the stands during the season’s final game at Whitman

Rosenberg was fired on February 24, six days after a verbal confrontation with the parent of a player who was heckling him in the stands of Linfield’s final game of the season at Whitman. It was a shocking development involving a coach who had been reasonably successful through his 10 years at the school.

Killgore did not return my phone messages. Through Kelly Williams Brown, Linfield’s media and publications manager, Davis declined an interview. A message was not returned by Mike Jaczko, the father of a Linfield player and the one who initiated the verbal confrontation with Rosenberg during a game that seemed to be either the final straw or a convenient excuse for Killgore to get rid of what he considered an adversary.

I spoke briefly with Rosenberg — his friends, coaches and players call him “Rose” or “Coach Rose” — on two occasions. He was directed by his attorney, Craig Crispin, to not comment on the case.

“I’m not supposed to address anything,” Rosenberg told me. “I don’t understand the unrepairable part of the relationship with the college, which is officially why I was fired. But I am bound by a situation where there is not much I can say at this time.”

The 6-9 Rosenberg, an all-conference center for Cal Davis in the early 1990s, began his coaching career as an assistant at Canada JC in Redwood City, Calif. He spent three seasons as an assistant at Lewis & Clark from 1998-2002. Rosenberg’s first head job was at Foothill JC in Los Altos Hills, Calif., where he compiled a 186-131 record with eight playoff appearances in 11 years at the helm.

In 2013, Rosenberg took over a Linfield program that had gone 5-20 and 4-21 in its previous two seasons; his teams had the exact same records his first two campaigns. In his third season, the Wildcats were 11-14, but they were 15-11 the following season, starting a run of six straight winning campaigns. Linfield earned a share of the NWC championship in 2019-20 and 2021-22 and was 8-2 in conference games during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season.

“The program was in bad shape when he took it over — dead last in the conference,” says a Linfield insider, who asks to be unidentified. “He took them from last place to regular-season conference co-champions twice in a row. Rose is a great coach, and any of his players will tell you he is a great guy.”

The Wildcats took a step back this past season, going 10-15 overall and 7-9 in conference play, though they were still in the running for a playoff berth to the final game. Rosenberg’s record at Linfield was 126-114 overall and 81-73 in league play, including 106-59 and 58-21 the past seven years. He was twice named NWC Coach of the Year.

The 5-7 Killgore has been Linfield’s athletic director since 2017. He was head coach of the Wildcats’ track and field and cross country programs for 21 years and is a full professor at Linfield, having focused on exercise science instruction for several years before taking over direction of the athletic department.

To say Killgore and Rosenberg were not close would be an understatement.

“It is fair to say the relationship between Shanan and Garry has been strained,” says Larry Doty, Rosenberg’s predecessor as Linfield’s basketball coach.

“Before Garry became AD, they were cordial to each other,” says someone close to the situation, who asks to be unidentified. “Garry is not a good leader or manager. He talks about staff members behind their back. He sets himself up to look good and tries to take credit for things, but won’t take the blame when things go wrong. Shanan doesn’t respect his leadership.”

“It’s an apparent personal feud and (the firing was) a way for Garry to get Shanan out,” says Dylan Wilhelm, sports editor of the McMinnville News-Register. “Shanan is beloved by many people, but there were also some kids who felt they were singled out by him, felt he could be a bully, and would pick and choose favorites. It feels like both sides have points.”

In researching a story about the Rosenberg controversy, Wilhelm received an email written to the university by a former Linfield player that is critical of the way he was treated by the coach. I will share parts of the ex-player’s thoughts later in this article.

Williams Brown says the Whitman incident was simply one of a number of reasons for Rosenberg’s dismissal. She could not speak about individual instances of misconduct, but said there was a pattern of systemic bullying by the coach that led to multiple transfers and players quitting the team.

I didn’t talk to everyone, but I had a pretty good sample size of opinion, and I could find only one person who was critical of Rosenberg’s dealing with his players. That was Steve George, whose son Kellen George was a 6-6 forward who played for the Wildcats from 2020-22. Kellen averaged 4.7 points in 10.5 minutes per game in 2020-21 and then 1.3 points in 11 games before quitting the team in 2021-22. He transferred to Nevada, where he is not playing basketball.

“I never question Xs and Os or game plans, or ask why someone is coaching,” says Steve George, who lives in Reno. “My big thing (with Rosenberg) was, you’re at a D-3 school, and kids are actually paying to play there. It’s a Christian-oriented campus. The way he treated a lot of the kids, not just my son, was very unfair and with not a lot of respect.

“Everybody thinks they should play more, but kids should never ask a coach, ‘How come I’m not playing more?’ It should be phrased, ‘What should I work on to merit playing more?’ Kellen did that, and the coach really didn’t tell him anything and never played him after it. I took that as, (Rosenberg considered it) a matter of Kellen questioning his authority.”

George says during Kellen’s second season at Linfield, he attended a game in which his son didn’t get in. Afterward, they went to dinner.

“Dad, I really don’t want to play anymore,” Kellen told his father. “I’m not enjoying it.”

“Kellen called the coach to say, ‘I’m not going to come back after the winter break. I’m not having a good time,’ ” Steve George says. “That was a pretty adult thing to do. All this gentleman could say to him, was, ‘Kellen, we just don’t think you’re very good. We don’t think you can play.” Kellen was a bigger adult than the coach.”

George says he is aware of the popularity of Rosenberg at Linfield.

“I worked with the Boys and Girls Club for years,” he says. “The parents of bullies always think it’s no big deal, that they’re just kids being kids, until their kid gets bullied. Kellen is not the only kid who had a very negative experience at Linfield — not because he wasn’t a superstar or starter, but because he didn’t get treated very well, by a gentleman at that level whose job is to mold young men and help them become better adults. I was very disappointed.

“The sad thing is, Kellen played basketball from third grade on. After he left Linfield, five (college) coaches talked to me about him playing there. They wanted him to come, but he said, ‘Dad, I just don’t want to play anymore.’ That broke my heart, that he no longer wanted to get the joy of playing sports.”

But many sources say Rosenberg’s demise was the result of a power struggle between him and Killgore, and that the athletic director bears the brunt of responsibility.

“I would just say Garry thinks pretty highly of himself,” says Mark Swenson, an assistant coach for Rosenberg for the past three seasons. “He likes to be in control. Shanan is a strong-minded individual and runs his program the way he sees fit. Whatever run-ins they have had in the past have not been physical or vulgar or anything substantial. As I understand it, Shanan has no write-ups in his (personnel) file.”

Former Linfield assistant coach Mark Swenson calls Shanan Rosenberg’s dismissal “a travesty”

Actually, Crispin alleges there was at least one confrontation that turned physical.

“At one point, Mr. Killgore was upset about something Mr. Rosenberg said,” Crispin told me. “He physically assaulted my client by pushing him forcefully in the chest and yelling at him.

“During another incident, Mr. Killgore slammed his fist on the desk and screamed at him. Mr. Rosenberg was so distressed and fearful for his safety that he reported the matter, along with the previous physical assault, to Linfield human resources.”

It seems doubtful the physically imposing Rosenberg feared for his safety against the smallish Killgore, but I have never met either man. Certainly most of their disagreements — and I’m not suggesting they had them often — were verbal.

“They don’t like each other,” says another source close to the scene who asks to remain unidentified. “Shanan is a giant Paul Bunyan of a man, super smart, who thinks he is the smartest guy in the room.  Put him in the room with Garry, who also thinks he is the smartest guy in the room, and you are going to have an issue. Shanan is a little brash, but he is not a bully. I like Garry, but he is the athletic director for the wrong reasons. He is not looking to help the athletic department; he is trying to create a personal legacy.”

Says a member of the athletic department: “It was two dynamic personalities digging in their heels. The problem with what has happened with Rose is it could divide the department. It’s not the kind of attention we need.”

The reference, of course, is to the sexual misconduct case with the Board of Trustees and a couple of other recent controversies that shed a bad light on the university.

“I’m not happy about what’s been going on at Linfield,” says another source. “There has been a decline in the integrity of the school since Miles Davis took over. A lot of alums feel that way. A lot of academics — pre-Miles Davis professors in particular — would agree.”

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Any discord between Rosenberg and Killgore came to a head during an incident at Whitman on February 18 in the Wildcats’ final game of the season. According to several accounts, it was not the first time the parent Jaczko had voiced his displeasure at the coach from the stands.

“At a previous game, (Jaczko) had been chirping at him and getting nasty,” Swenson says.

Earlier, (Jaczko) told Coach Rose to shut up, stop talking to the refs and ‘coach your own players,’ “ says Kasey Downing, mother of sophomore guard Jake Downing. “(Jaczko) went to a half-dozen games this season and always had something negative to yell at Rose.”

Late in the game, Jaczko — whose son, Alex, was a starting forward and the team’s third-leading scorer — yelled at Rosenberg from his seat near the Linfield bench as play went on, with the Wildcats behind in a game they lost 79-65. Many parents and players heard what became an exchange between the two. Here is Swenson’s version:

“(Jaczko) yelled, ‘Put the seniors in.’ Shanan turned around and said, ‘Sir, I’m the coach. The seniors have played. I’ll decide who is going to play.’ It got a little testy. The guy kept at it. Finally Shanan said, ‘If you want to talk about this, let’s talk outside in the parking lot afterward.’ You could have interpreted that as a challenge, and Shanan gestured at him, but he never left the bench, and nothing happened.”

“They did not get in each other’s face,” assistant coach Isiah Quintero says. “There was no physical altercation. They didn’t get anywhere close to each other. After the game, nothing happened.”

Scott Nelson, an associate vice president for communications at Linfield, said after reviewing the incident, “the university determined (Rosenberg’s) actions did not meet the standards of professionalism and sportsmanship that had been communicated to him, and which are expected of our coaching staff.”

Killgore has made no public statements about the matter. But rather than seek out Jaczko for his version of the altercation, or get Rosenberg’s side of the story, he swiftly fired his coach.

Eric Hjort was sitting behind the bench when the exchange occurred. His son, junior Jacob Hjort, is a reserve guard on the team.

“(Jackzo) was sitting 10 rows up,” says the senior Hjort, who says he coached 15 years at the high school and college levels. “The whole gym heard him. In fairness to him, he didn’t want the coach to get fired. It was an emotional parent on a night when he wanted to see all the seniors in the game, and he yelled something to the coach.

“I know Shanan wishes he’d have ignored it. We all have bad moments, but the coach did not use profanity. He said, ‘If you want to talk to me, come after the game and we’ll talk.’ The university report said the coach angrily gestured toward the fan, but he was not trying to start a fight. Not even close.”

The irony of Jaczko’s complaints: Linfield’s five seniors — Jaczko’s son Alex, Reece Gibb, Carson Bonine, Mikey Hinkle and Jack Stallard — had already played in the game at Whitman. In fact, they started — and had started 10 games of the last 11 games this season.

“Coach Rose honored our seniors in more ways than we deserve,” says Reece Gibb, one of the seniors and a starter. “He has always been great to seniors and giving them their respect. None of us were worried about that. He wasn’t disrespecting us in any way.”

“Coach Rose started (the five seniors) as an ode to them, for being loyal for the program,” Quintero says. “That’s why (Jaczko’s comments) were confusing to Coach Rose.”

Swenson says Rosenberg was still dealing with the death of his father.

“There were a lot of pressures on him, including if we won the game, we’d make the playoffs; if we lost, our season was over,” he says. “There were some emotional issues to deal with, and it was tough on him.”

Other witnesses offered their accounts.

“It was an emotional moment, but it wasn’t anything too serious,” says freshman guard Trey Bryant, the Wildcats’ leading scorer. “(Rosenberg) being fired for that wasn’t the right thing to do for the program and the players.”

Sophomore guard Trey Bryant, the Wildcats’ leading scorer this past season, calls former coach Shanan Rosenberg “a beautiful person and a very knowledgeable coach” (courtesy Dylan Wilhelm/McMinnville News-Register)

Freshman Chase Bennett was in the game and missed the disturbance.

“It wasn’t that much of a scene, if we were playing and the game didn’t stop and I didn’t even notice it,” Bennett says. “Teammates told me it wasn’t threatening or anything like that.”

Kasey Downing was sitting two rows up in the stands when the incident occurred.

“It was not our Senior Night (which was held a week earlier at home against Lewis & Clark) and (Jaczko’s) kid — a wonderful young man — started and was in the game,” she says. “And (Jaczko) is yelling, ‘Put in the seniors’? Rose didn’t do the right thing, either. He lost his cool, but did I take what he said or did as a threat? Not at all.”

Several sources said Jaczko stopped assistant coach Loren Gehrke after the game to offer an apology for the incident, and that Gehrke relayed that to the staff in the locker room. Gehrke did not return multiple calls from me requesting confirmation.

A video of the incident was taken, “but it’s not public,” says Williams Brown, who said she could not allow me to see it. She said the video was not particularly clarifying, anyway, with garbled audio.

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Two days later, Rosenberg was alerted by Linfield officials that he was under suspension. Four days after that, the coach was called to a meeting with Killgore and Erik Stenehjem, the school’s interim human resources director. Rosenberg brought Swenson and Hjort with him.

“The first thing (Stenehjem) says is, ‘What’s the crowd for?’ ” Swenson says. “Shanan says, ‘I’m not sure why I’m in here or what I’m being charged with. I wanted these guys with me.’ I introduced myself to him. I served as a vice president for a Fortune 500 company — Compass Group, the second-largest food company in the world — for 27 years. Eric gave his background.

“Garry did not say a word. (Stenehjem) handed Rose a severance letter and said they were terminating him effective immediately. They didn’t allow him to address what happened on that Saturday night or didn’t explain anything more about why he was terminated.”

The letter said Rosenberg could accept either an immediate firing or take 21 days to review a severance proposal that would provide compensation in exchange for agreeing not to sue the university or Killgore.

“What am I being fired for?” Rosenberg asked.

“An unrepairable relationship with the university,” Stenehjem said.

Hjort asked Stenehjem a question.

Says Hjort: “I said, ‘I’m here as a character reference for the coach. I don’t believe any parent or player was interviewed about what happened at Whitman. Have you investigated what happened?’ He said no. I just laughed. He said, ‘I don’t discuss personnel issues.’ ”

That same day, a group of players, along with three parents, convened on campus and asked to speak to Killgore. They were told the athletic director could not speak “about personnel matters.”

They walked from the athletic facility to the office of Davis, who was in a board meeting when the group arrived. The day before, a letter signed by a group of parents and players was sent to both the president and AD.

Lamenting that there had been “zero communication” about Rosenberg’s suspension, the group said that if he wasn’t reinstated as coach, they would take the matter to the media, secure legal representation and provide evidence that the Linfield athletic department and administration has a history of not supporting the men’s basketball program.

The president came out of the meeting and met with the parents in a room. The group presented him with dozens of letters of support for Rosenberg from parents, former players and players. The Linfield player roster collectively put together a letter in support, requesting in conclusion, “We ask that our voices be heard.”

“We said, ‘If you’re not going to communicate with us, we’re going to get in front of you any way we can,’ ” Hjort says. “I’ll give the president some credit. He sat down with the three of us for 45 minutes. He did most of the talking. Mostly, he shared personal stories.”

Another parent in the meeting says, “He met for us with 30 minutes, and he talked for 23 of them.”

According to another source: “Davis said to the parents, ‘I welcome lawyers. When you involve lawyers, you get to the bottom of things.’ He also said that he is not afraid of the media. (The parents) were shocked he would say something like that, with all the bad press coming to Linfield over the past two years for misdeeds… students calling for him to step down, alumni saying they’ll never donate again, a couple of trustees resigning … Davis has become known for doubling down on sticking his head in the mud when people are bringing him concerns.”

Killgore was hired as athletic director in 2017. Davis became president the next year. Davis is a controversial and somewhat flamboyant leader who quotes such as Joel Osteen, Quincy Jones, Bruce Lee, Buddha, Upton Sinclair and Muhammad Ali on his Twitter feed.

Many sources say Davis and Killgore are close and that Davis seems to rubber stamp decisions made by Killgore.

“Davis and Garry are super tight, because Garry has been a ‘yes man’ to him and had his back when something went wrong,” one source says. “Garry, the president and the board of trustees are kind of crooked. Davis was going to have his back, and the board was going to have (Davis’) back.

“There is no oversight between him and the president. It used to be that the vice president of student affairs and the dean of students were the overseers of athletics in between the president and AD. Davis somehow pulled off dissolving that. You need that oversight. There isn’t a college president in the country who knows what’s going on day-to-day in their athletic department. Garry has been able to operate with no accountability.”

Ten minutes after the meeting with Davis and the parents, Killgore sent an email to the players, telling them that Rosenberg was fired and there would be a meeting with them the following week.

“That’s the first time the players ever got communication on the subject,” Hjort says. “There was no communication for four days” after Rosenberg’s suspension.

Three days later, Stenehjem and Killgore met with the players in a classroom at Linfield’s athletic facility. Killgore did most of the talking in this one.

“Mr. Killgore told us he’s not legally allowed to tell us much,” Jake Downing says. “They were professional about it, I guess, but it’s frustrating for the players.”

“He told us Coach Rose was let go,” Bryant says. “He talked a little about the process of trying to find a new coach, and his desire to have two or three of us players involved in the process. We were all very disappointed, bummed. We were really confused.”

“It was a brief conversation,” Gibb says. “We tried to politely ask (Killgore) questions. Unfortunately, he said all of our questions were things that could not be answered.”

“They were trying to cover it up by saying they were going to have a meeting with us and acting like they cared about us,” Bennett says. “The meeting seemed pretty shallow. They were saying they wanted to hear what we had to say, but they weren’t listening to us. They had already made their decision. ”

Does he sense they don’t care?

“A little bit, based on their actions,” Bennett says. “There was not much communication and transparency with the players. If they really care about the players, they would have at least considered what the players thought was best, and that was keep Rose as our coach.”

“It seems they’re kind of hiding behind ‘we can’t say anything,’ ” says another player, who asked to be unidentified. “I understand liability issues, but you have to give up something. I think (Killgore) needs to speak up. There are a lot of guys in the locker room questioning whether he cares about doing things in the best interest of the program.

“The whole situation hasn’t been handled well. They said they want players to be on the committee to hire the new coach. Some of the guys are concerned about whether our opinions are going to matter.

We were told (there would be) no retaliation if we speak our minds. But how can we trust that?”

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Several head coaches have lost jobs since Killgore became AD in 2017, including those in volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer.

The situation with men’s soccer seems cut and dried. Adam Howard was coach from 2016-19, with an overall record of 16-50-4 and a NWC mark of 10-39-7. Under Howard’s direction, the Wildcats never finished better than tied for fifth in conference. In two seasons not counting a shortened Covid season, his successor, Andrew Duvall, is 6-28-3 and 4-21-3.

“I felt like Garry and I got along,” says Howard, now the boys coach at McMinnville High. “He was trying to be supportive of our program. He went to a bunch of our games and met with our players. I never had any issues with Garry.”

Women’s soccer was a different story. In five seasons as head coach from 2015-19, Cole McCool’s teams went 52-32-14 overall and 41-25-14 in conference play. The Wildcats finished fifth in the NWC his last two years after finishing second, fourth and tied for third his first three years.

McCool was fired in 2019 and replaced by Steve Simmons, who had been head coach of both the men’s and women’s program at Linfield from 1996-2000. During that time, the Linfield men posted a record of 59-40-3, including 21-1-1 the final season in which the Wildcats won the NWC championship and reached the NCAA Division III semifinals. Over that span, Simmons’ women were 23-65-6 overall and 14-57-3 in conference action.

Simmons had gone on to coach nine seasons of men’s soccer at Oregon State from 2009-17, where he compiled a record of 67-83-15. Not counting the Covid year, Simmons is 18-31-11 overall and 14-25-9 in three seasons at the Linfield women’s soccer helm.

In 2018, Killgore hired Simmons as an assistant athletic director. Simmons currently oversees the men’s and women’s soccer teams and serves as an advisor for the women’s lacrosse coaching staff. McCool believes Simmons was put into place so he could take over as coach of the women’s soccer program — at least in part to save finances.

“I was paid a part-time wage,” says McCool, now director of coaching for the Bend FC Timbers and Thorns. “I was living in Portland and commuting while I was also coaching youth club soccer. Then I got let go, and Simmons (already being paid a salary as an assistant AD) is hired.

“For the most part, Garry treated me fine. He was attentive. He helped when I needed help on things. Was he available and supportive? Yes.

“But the way the firing went down, I didn’t appreciate it at all. Based on success, it didn’t make sense. I understand it was financial-driven, but Simmons was brought in and, three months later, he’s the coach. It seemed premeditated. We were building up and getting better. The way Steve came in and the way I got fired was unprofessional. Based on the relationship I’d had with Garry, it seemed completely out of the blue.”

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Many of Rosenberg’s friends, along with Linfield basketball parents, players and alums, rallied to his defense in the days after his suspension and, ultimately, his firing. I reached out to many for their observations. I’ll start with that of Swenson, who served three years as Rosenberg’s assistant at Linfield for three years after 30 years coaching at Lewis & Clark.

Rosenberg’s dismissal “is a travesty,” Swenson says. “It’s clearly not a situation the would result in a termination. Rose has done such a great job during his time at Linfield. He has developed a program based on love and family and service to the community. He has done everything you could do for a program in the name of the university.

“For yelling back at a heckling parent, he loses his job? Shanan knows he was a little out of line, but you don’t terminate someone for that. I’ve seen so many coaches do many things more grievous than what Shanan did … it pains me to see him treated unfairly like this.”

Quintero, who served on Rosenberg’s staff the past two years, also believes the coach was treated unfairly.

“Rose really cares about his players, and the players care about him,” says Quintero, a 6-8 center who played at Corban. “Within 30 minutes of our interview when he hired me, I could tell he was genuine about that.  All of our players support him. I know that for a fact.”

Says a staff member at Linfield:

“Rose is far from an angel. His allies paint him as a saint, but let’s just say he’s not. The players like him. He coaches with tough love, but with respect. He coaches hard, but pours a lot of love into each kid. Almost to a man, every kid likes and appreciates him, even though some of his style is ‘my way or the highway.’ ”

“His coaching style is not ‘in your face,’ ” Quintero insists. “He gets fired up like every coach. It’s not meant to degrade a player. He is challenging them because he wants them to be the best version of themselves.”

A coach of another program at Linfield offered this:

“The players don’t all love Shanan, but most of them do. Most of them respect him. I watched practice for 45 minutes early in the season. He gets into them a little bit, but he was just coaching them. He did an excellent job with that program.”

Several players expressed support for Rosenberg.

“He is a good coach and a better person,” says Chase Bennett, the freshman guard. “I’m disappointed the school is not keeping him as coach. It doesn’t seem right. I have nothing but good to say about him as a coach and a person. His work and success at Linfield speaks for itself. What is most impressive about him is how he cares about his players and how he develops them as people. The most important thing he does as a coach is make us better people and develops us into young men.

“Rose is old-school. He is going to coach you hard, but he is also there for you when you need him. He lets you know you’re loved and really cares about you. Everyone knows when he’s getting on you, he just wants to get the best out of you, which is what makes him such a special coach.”

Jake Downing is a sophomore reserve guard who played 15 games during the 2022-23 season.

“I have nothing but positive words to say about Coach Rose,” Downing says. “He has done nothing but treat me with respect. I’m sad to hear that he got fired. Really disappointing. I loved him as a coach. He was a large reason why I came to Linfield. He’s an amazing man.

“He is all business. He is a very real person who loves the game of basketball. He wants the best in all of us. He shows he cares by being tough, but he is a really nice guy. He always has our best interest at heart. I really like that about it.”

Reece Gibb played four years for Rosenberg.

“We all love Coach Rose so much, it is heartbreaking to see him in this situation,” Gibb says. “The support he has gotten through all of this shows how many lives he has impacted as coach. All of us players have been good at being there for one another. That is because of him and what he teaches.

“He is a fantastic coach. His basketball knowledge is amazing, the way he is able to analyze the game. He is there for you 24/7. A lot of coaches say it, it’s cliche — ‘I’m here to make you better people, not just players’ —  but he truly emphasizes and lives by that.”

I brought out a description of Rosenberg’s coaching style I had heard from one person. Is Rosenberg a hard-ass?

“He is in the way coaches should be,” Gibb says. “He wants to win. He wants the best out of us. Sometimes that takes intensity. None of us think it’s personal or over the top.”

One player who asked to be unidentified scoffed at Davis’ assertion that student-athletes attend a college because of the school.

“About 55 percent of students at Linfield participate in athletics — it’s an insane number,” the player says. “You don’t come to Linfield to go to school. I came here because I wanted to play for Rose. If you are taking away the reason a lot of us come, I am questioning your values and loyalties to us.

“The players haven’t had a voice in this. We begged, we pleaded with the administration to allow us to be heard. It doesn’t feel like that has been valued at all. There are alumni who have reached out. It doesn’t matter. Whatever (the administration) says goes.”

The player says Rosenberg “has a big, fiery personality. He speaks his mind, for sure. He speaks it to the players and he speaks it to others. Most of us respond well to that. That makes him who he is. It rubs some people the wrong way.”

The player attended the meeting with Killgore and Stenehjem.

“They told us they want a good person and a good coach,” he says. “We know Rose is a good person; everyone has their moments. There are a lot of college basketball coaches who are dicks; he is not one of them. He is clearly a good coach. So they had what they wanted, and now they have let him go.”

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A number of former players weighed in on the man they played for, including Kyle Maloof, who was at Linfield from 2015-17. Maloof now teaches U.S. history and just completed his second season as head basketball coach at his alma mater, Claremont (Calif.) High.

“I was in Coach Rosenberg’s second recruiting class,” Maloof says. “I had eight schools talking to me (out of junior college). He was the only one who came out to personally see me.

“When I first met Coach, I was struggling with various challenges in my life. I was lost, lacked direction and had low self-esteem. From the beginning, he saw potential in me that I had not seen in myself. He took me under his wing and invested his time and energy into helping me become a better person. There were times when I was going through stuff and my parents weren’t there, so he was the adult I would turn to.”

Maloof calls Rosenberg “very demanding” as a coach.

“It can be hard to play for him at times, but when you look back on it, you can understand where he is coming from,” Maloof says. “He is going to push you harder than a high school coach would. But I use many of the things I have learned from him with the young men I now mentor.

“Coach Rosenberg’s coaching and mentorship has been life-changing for me. Since the day I graduated from Linfield, Coach has always checked up on me, asked about my family and remained a mentor in my life. I would not be the person I am today were it not for him.”

Dempsey Roggenbuck was Rosenberg’s most acclaimed player, first-team all-region as a senior in 2021-22, honorable mention All-American — Linfield’s first basketball player with All-America recognition since the 1970s. Roggenbuck is now a staffing consultant in aerospace and technology living in Portland.

“Coach Rose is the reason I went to Linfield,” Roggenbuck says. “I can’t say enough about his character, the example he sets and the expectations he has for his kids. He is a pretty incredible person, honestly. He has been a great coach, a winning coach, a hard worker who knows how to get the most out of his kids.

“I never imagined something like this could happen. The disbelief over this has transferred into sadness about Linfield in general and its future. It is hard to start a whole new program again. To see everything we built there over time come to an end is sad.”

Ryan Cali has a unique relationship with Rosenberg. Cali played for him at Linfield, then worked under him for three years there as a strength coach. Now in physical therapy in San Jose, Cali says the decision to fire Rosenberg “is the result of a personal vendetta from the people who are in power positions and make decisions that can affect someone’s livelihood and reputation.”

“Rose is like a second dad for me, a father figure,” Cali says. “He holds all the players to a high standard. He coaches hard, but he loves harder. He always makes it a point to tell his players if they need anything, if they want to talk about anything, his door is always open. His phone is always available to call and text him. He’s that type of guy. That’s if you are a player or a coach.

“His record speaks to how good he is as a coach. There were players who didn’t make it. Not to say he wasn’t fair, because he has always been fair.”

Jordan Clark was a first-team All-Northwest Conference selection as a senior in 2017-18.

“I’m talking to you right now as a student in medical school in New Jersey — Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford,” Clark says. “I am in the first year of a four-year program. I had a great relationship with Coach Rose. I told him I wanted to be a pediatrician. He wrote recommendation letters that helped me get into school. It shouldn’t go unsaid what a great man he is. It is beyond just basketball. I feel for what he and his family are going through.”

As a coach, Clark says, “He was definitely tough, but I come from a hard-work background. He was great to work with. Coach Rose has the best interest of his players deep down. You can talk to him, ask him what you need to work on. He helps build boys into young men after four years in his program.”

Riley Bruil was one of Rosenberg’s most reliable players. The 6-foot guard started every game of his four-year career (2015-19) and is Linfield’s career leader in 3-baskets made. He works in sales for a small company in Sumner, Wash.

“I have nothing but great things to say about Coach Rose,” Bruil says. “He was the reason I chose Linfield. My decision to go there didn’t have anything about the school.  From the moment I met Coach Rose, he has been nothing but a phenomenal man and a role model for me. All the way through my four years, he was like a father figure, always there for me and my teammates.

“Coach was there for everyone on the team at any moment, whether a starter who played tons of minutes or the 19th or 20th man on the bench. You were still important. He is always trying to coach, mentor everyone, and not just the top player. We were brutal my first year. We turned it around. Even when we were losing, he was always positive, supportive.”

Bruil says he is “heartbroken” over Rosenberg losing his job.

“Look at what he has done for Linfield and the community, running camps and being a figure around the area,” Bruil says. “He always supported local businesses and groups and was involved with community service. As a team project, we cleaned up Third Street (in McMinnville). I believe it was his idea.

“The successes of the program, the people who have come out of Linfield better people because of him … it is ridiculous what has happened. A lot of us alumni are embarrassed to say we are from Linfield.”

•

Eric Hjort’s son, Jacob, was injured and played in only six games this past season. That doesn’t deter Eric from being one of Rosenberg’s biggest parent supporters.

“Jacob transferred from Whitworth and came to Linfield because of the coach,” Eric says. “He still had a great experience. Shanan is one of the top coaches around, no question. He is one of the most respected coaches in D-3 basketball.

“His accomplishments and record speak for itself, but as a parent, he is a better person than he is a coach. His impact on people is more important than his knowledge of coaching basketball. Not only is he an excellent coach, but a role model that all parents and players would want their kids to play for. “The irony is, you hear about parents or players, or both, running coaches out of their jobs. Here, so many of us were trying to keep a guy’s job, and basically the president and AD were running the guy out.”

Hjort believes the dismissal of Rosenberg “is a byproduct of a toxic athletic administration and atmosphere — not just this incident, but with a lot of others. This particular case was exposed and brought to the forefront. Hopefully this will result in changes made in the athletic program. They want to solve the problem by parting ways instead of sitting down and finding a solution and teaching everybody that this is how we are going to work with each other. There is an athletic director who is not interested in figuring out what is best for the program. It’s what is best for him.”

Kasey Downing, Jake’s mother, says she is “disgusted” by Rosenberg’s fate.

“I could use a lot of four-letter words,” she says. “This has been a devastating time for Jake and a lot of the boys. They are losing a really great man who is so invested in their well-being.”

In the aftermath of Rosenberg’s dismissal, Downing says she has been “moved beyond belief” by the support the coach has received.

“I’m glad so many others feel the way we do,” Downing says. “He has been fantastic with our son. It is more than his coaching ability. If my son were at the side of a road or a hospital, Rose would be there in a second.

“This didn’t need to happen. You could have sat down in a room and hashed things out. The players were never notified what was happening until the coach texted one of the dads. They wouldn’t meet with the players. Didn’t want to take a look at the letters (of support). No counselors were involved. I made six calls to the president, four to the athletic director, and never received a call back. It’s just not right. We paid a lot of money for him to attend an institution of higher learning. To have them ignore their student-athletes is super disappointing.”

Another mother, who asked to be unidentified, spoke about Senior Night at Linfield.

“Coach did a beautiful job with it,” she says. “It was lovely. He had these beautiful canvas pictures of each of the seniors. He must have paid for them, because we have no budget. He talked about each of them. He is the kind of guy who is very sincere. He was so good to the kids. Even the kids who didn’t play a lot really respect him.”

•

Larry Doty coached the Wildcats for 26 seasons (from 1987-2013). The former Linfield three-sport athlete coached two teams to conference crowns (in 1998-99 and 2000-01), but finished

with five straight losing seasons, going 5-20 and 4-21 the last two seasons. Doty was a full-time faculty member from 1987-2022, teaching a full load of classes in the health and physical education department until his retirement last spring.

Doty says he and Rosenberg are friends.

“We have a really good relationship,” Doty says. “He was the guy who took the program over for me.

I didn’t have anything to do with the process of picking a new coach. I wasn’t on the search committee. (Former AD) Scott Carnahan was the one who hired Shanan. I liked Shanan as a pick. When he came up to Linfield after he had gotten the job, he stayed at our house for a few days as he was recruiting, going to campus, meeting with players. 

“Shanan has done a really good job with the program. He is a good recruiter, a good X’s and O’s coach. He has brought in good talent. He has done a good job of getting the program up to where it competes at a championship level every year and at developing young people.”

Doty goes to very few Linfield games. He watched the Whitman game on-line.

“Even if Shanan lost his cool, that is not something that would warrant a dismissal because of all the good things Shanan has done for the men’s program over a decade,” he says. “This year, he played 25 players on varsity. Most coaches would say that makes it impossible to keep everyone happy. It says a lot about Shanan and about the program.”

An admirer of Rosenberg’s from afar is Aaron Landon, who recently completed his third full season as head coach at Division II Saint Martin’s in Lacey, Wash. From his first to second season at Saint Martin’s, the Saints improved from 7-22 to 18-9 and he was named GNAC Coach of the Year. (The league is a step up from Linfield, which plays at the NCAA Division III level.) This past season, Saint Martin’s went 24-7 overall and won the GNAC regular-season title at 15-3.

Saint Martin’s coach Aaron Landon calls Shanan Rosenberg “one of the tallest trees in the forest in the coaching world in the Northwest”

“I look up to Rose,” Landon says. “I am a bit younger. He was coaching JC ball when I was a player. He was highly regarded in California before he came up to Linfield.”

Landon was an assistant coach at Concordia for two seasons before getting his first head job at South Puget Sound CC the same year Rosenberg was hired at Linfield.

“I got to know him pretty well,” Landon says. “Then one of JC players — Tyler Watts, one of my favorite kids — transferred to Linfield. When he spoke about playing for Rose, that’s when I realized what (Rosenberg) was really about. He has been sort of a mentor to me.”

Landon says he has seen Rosenberg run a practice and watched many games Watts played in at Linfield.

“As a coach, he is super smart,” Landon says. “He has been around a bunch of ball, so he’s really good at having a feel for the game and making in-game adjustments. My admiration is more based on getting to know him through Tyler, hearing what he is about behind the scenes. What Rose meant to him was a big deal. As a coach, that’s who I want to be.”

When he heard about the suspension, Landon wrote a letter to Davis and Killgore on Rosenberg’s behalf.

“The Pacific Northwest is big, but it’s a tight basketball community,” Landon says. “I wanted them to know this reaches farther than your players. He has mentored a lot of young coaches like me. My experience with him isn’t unique. Every coach calls him ‘Rosie.’ He has made time to get to know a lot of us when he had nothing to gain from it. He mentored me when I was coaching a 2-22 JC team.

“(To fire Rosenberg) is short-sighted and small picture. There’s so much at play with a guy like that. He is one of the tallest trees in the forest in the coaching world in the Northwest.”

•

Attorney Craig Crispin is contemplating a lawsuit against Linfield for firing client Shanan Rosenberg

On March 6, attorney Craig Crispin sent a letter to Davis and the university’s board of trustees. Crispin declined a request to show me the contents of the letter.

According to The Oregonian, Crispin gave notice that if Rosenberg doesn’t return to his job under “appropriate circumstances,” he plans to sue Linfield, seeking up to $2.5 million in damages for wrongful termination.

In the letter, Crispin said Killgore “has treated my client with extreme hostility, retaliation and harassment. Mr. Kilgore’s toxic and retaliatory conduct has resulted in the departure of five female employees in the athletic department and the termination of five coaches over just the past four years.”

Crispin also accused Davis of recently calling the mother of a current player and telling her he was contacting former team members regarding alleged racial incidents involving Rosenberg. Sources say that was Emma Johnson, the mother of Donavon Johnson, a freshman guard on this year’s team. Johnson, who is black, played in nine varsity games.

“These efforts at after-the-fact fabrication of a racist justification for firing Mr. Rosenberg is evidence of ‘consciousness of guilt’ over the lack of basis in the decision to fire my client,” Crispin wrote.

Says one source on campus who asked to be unidentified, speaking of Davis and Killgore: “They’re circling the wagons, searching for things to hang on Rose.”

Says a second source: “I can’t say I was surprised when Davis was calling those guys, trying to find dirt.”

I reached out to Emma Johnson, who responded via text, “I appreciate your job but don’t intend to go on record with anyone.” Two sources told me Johnson is a strong supporter of Rosenberg and respects the job he did with her son.

At least one black player was unhappy under Rosenberg at Linfield.

Chase McClain played seven games as a freshman guard during the 2019-20 season. He sent a copy of a letter he had written to the university to Dylan Wilhelm of the News-Register detailing his complaints.

“I had many incidents that I felt were quite wrong, inappropriate and racist,” McClain wrote. “Many (people) speak (about Rosenberg) as a positive, humble, welcoming and overall well-rounded person. I saw the complete opposite.”

McClain wrote that Rosenberg “was a very self-centered person and had the mentality ‘my way or the highway.’ He wasn’t an honest person and made me to believe he is racist … not only to myself, but to my assistant coach, who is black, and also my teammate (Eythan Henry), who is black.”

(From 2018-20, Jonathan Willis, who is black, served as an assistant on Rosenberg’s coaching staff. In 2020, Willis left to become head coach at South Puget Sound CC. Crispin said after Willis’ departure, Davis attempted to “interrogate” Rosenberg about it.

(“Mr. Rosenberg reported the matter to Human Resources, who responded that the process and inquiry were inappropriate,” Crispin wrote in the letter.

(“They seemed to get along just fine when Jonathan was there,” an inside source says. “Things went a little south when Rose took a couple of prospective Linfield recruits with him to South Puget Sound.”

(Willis is no longer coaching at South Puget Sound. I was unable to reach him.)

McClain detailed three points regarding what he considered Rosenberg’s transgressions.

One focused on playing time.

“No matter how hard I went in practice, outside of practice, in the gym, I never got to see the floor,” McClain wrote. “During my recruitment, (Rosenberg) told me I would be a starter and I would do great in his program and at the school. This was a false imaged (sic) he displayed to me. His true colors came out after time went on being on his team.”

McClain wrote the coach rarely recruited black players and played only white players. (Clark and Bryant are two examples why the latter assertion is untrue.)

McClain was ineligible during “Jan term” due to poor grades, “but I was still able to attend team conferences (and) meetings.” McClain wrote that three months earlier in his dormitory, he had said the “n word” while a song was playing, “and somebody reported it.” McClain was called into Human Resources to discuss the matter.

At some point — evidently at a team meeting — “Mr. Rosenberg thought it would be a good idea to discuss the incident … and put his opinion into play. He said, ‘Black people are destroying themselves and their community when they say the n word, black rappers saying the n word, rapping about drugs, guns and money and h*es.’ ” McClain wrote that he felt Rosenberg “was inappropriate and racist because it didn’t involve the team at all.”

During a road trip to California, Rosenberg paid for the players’ dinners and instructed them to order the same meal. McClain wanted another dish, so he asked the waiter if he could order it and pay for it with his debit card. He was told he could. McClain said everyone was served except him. When he asked, he said the waiter told him, “Your coach told me not to bring your food, that it was very disrespectful to buy something else when somebody is offering to pay for your dinner.”

“Mr. Rosenberg doesn’t accept people who don’t play by his rules … he’s manipulative in situations like this example,” McClain wrote.

McClain wrote Rosenberg “should no longer be associated with Linfield or other schools based off of the track record he has accumulated over the years with many incidents that involve race and other inappropriate behaviors.”

There are relatively few black players participating in men’s basketball in the NWC. One source estimates Rosenberg has coached 10 African-Americans since 2015, including two this season — Johnson and Bryant, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder.

There are few black students attending Linfield in general. According to a recent Linfield Demographics and Diversity Report, there are 28 “black or African-American” students among an enrollment of 1,392.

Bryant calls Rosenberg “a beautiful person and a very knowledgeable coach. He looks out for your best interests. People misunderstand him. He can be really hard on you sometimes. It’s just tough love.”

Bryant says he has not been contacted by Davis about Rosenberg. I asked if he felt he had been treated fairly by the coach.

“Yes,” he says. “I love Coach Rose.”

Clark, who is black, told me he has not been contacted by Davis about Rosenberg.

Bruil, who is white, offered this on the subject of race:

“Coach Rose was one of the people who opened my eyes to people of different backgrounds. He talked about where people are coming from. You don’t know what is going on in people’s lives. I learned a lot from him and from teammates of different ethnicities. I never in my years there witnessed any problem (with racial incidents).”

Perhaps Killgore weighed the thoughts of the likes of Chase McClain and Steve George and ruled their opinions are more righteous than the many Rosenberg supporters.

Or maybe there is something to the belief of many that Killgore has had something against Rosenberg for some time and used the Whitman incident to get rid of him.

Says one former member of the Linfield athletic department:

“Garry was a very good professor. He is out of place as an athletic director. He has a tendency to want to be friends with everybody and puts that ahead of his job. All of a sudden, brush fires come up and you don’t address them and solve them, and all of a sudden they become a forest fire, and now you have a problem. This situation didn’t grant a firing. It’s evidently an accumulation firing rather than one incident. If it is, why do you let it accumulate? You head those things off way back when.”

•

When I asked Crispin this week if there is any scenario by which Rosenberg could remain as Linfield’s coach, his answer was “doubtful.”

The amount of the severence offer? “That is not something I can reveal,” he said.

I asked the attorney about the chances of filing a lawsuit against Linfield.

“We are now evaluating our options,” Crispin said. “I don’t want to reveal yet what my legal theories are or how we’re going to measure damages. We are still evaluating on how to proceed. I have not yet had that kind of conversation with my client.

“We will sit down together and try to decide what is best to him in respect for the university and his players, which has always been his foremost concern. He is a dedicated member of the community who was always making an effort to promote Linfield as a good institution. That makes it all even more distressing to him.”

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