- January 25, 2025
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Daniel Fish told Flagler Palm Coast athletic director Scott Drabczyk on Jan. 15 that he was considering stepping down as the team’s head football coach, according to documents released by Flagler Schools.
Fish was dismissed as the team’s coach on Jan. 21 after leading the Bulldogs to a 9-2 record and a playoff appearance.
After the school district released a statement announcing the dismissal, the team’s second-year coach responded to a text by the Observer, saying, “I was never given an explanation as to why I’m not the head football coach anymore and I was reassigned as a teacher.”
But according to documents, Fish and administrators had several meetings and Fish has been investigated twice, the second time leading to a reprimand.
In a response to texts seeking comment to this story, Fish wrote, “I've been advised not to speak to the media right now. I would love to comment at a later date.”
According to a timeline written by FPC Principal Bobby Bossardet, on Jan. 15, “Coach Fish asked Mr. Drabczyk if he was aware that his Assistant Coach, Jake Medlock accepted a job (at Seminole High School in Sanford), and that Coach Medlock’s last day at FPC would be today. Coach Fish then stated, ‘I don’t know what my future holds for me at FPC’, and that he had been ‘thinking a lot lately’, and doesn’t know what he wants to do. He then informed Mr. Drabczyk that he was considering stepping down as the Head Football Coach for Flagler Palm Coast High School.”
The documents were released in response to a public records request by the Observer. Fish had been the subject of two investigations since he was hired on April 5, 2023. The second investigation led Bossardet to issue Fish a letter of reprimand on Dec. 17, 2024 “for being negligent in performing his duties and responsibilities in his teaching assignment.”
Bossardet reported to Michael Rinaldi, the district’s coordinator of professional standards, on Dec. 5 that Fish was inflating grades and not teaching any of the standards in the Personal Fitness and Fitness Issues for Adolescence classes. The Personal Fitness class includes health education and is a single-semester class that is required for graduation.
According to the timeline, “every student in all of his classes received a 100% for every activity he assigned throughout the year. It was also found that Coach Fish had identical gradebooks for all of his classes, despite the fact that he was responsible for teaching two completely different courses and curriculums. … In addition, it was also confirmed that Coach Fish was entering 100% grades for students who were no longer in his class.”
On Dec. 10, Bossardet wrote in the timeline, he met with Fish to discuss grading practices and instructional integrity.
“During the meeting it was confirmed Coach Fish had failed to plan and effectively implement instructional activities designed to achieve goals and objectives of the curriculum,” and “Coach Fish admitted that he had set his gradebook to automatically enter a 100% for every assignment listed,” Bossardet wrote.
In the timeline, Bossardet included the professional supports that Fish received and were available to help him.
During Drabczyk’s meeting with Fish on Jan. 15, according to the timeline, the athletic director told Fish he should focus on the football team’s banquet the following day and they would have another meeting on Friday, Dec. 17. At the end of the school day on Jan. 15, Bossardet wrote in his timeline, Drabczyk informed him that Fish was considering stepping down as head coach, and “I told Scott that I believe, at this time, it is within everyone’s best interest … that we move in a different direction with our football program.”
Fish had taught three Personal Fitness/Fitness Issues classes and three weightlifting/aerobic classes The students in five of Fish’s classes were all football players. In his reassignment, his second-semester Fitness Issues classes will not include football players.
Flagler School Superintendent LaShakia Moore told the Observer that a series of events led to the decision to remove Fish as coach, but it was initiated by Fish indicating he was considering stepping down.
If (he’s) considering leaving, we can consider going in a different direction.”
— LASHAKIA MOORE, Flagler Schools superintendent
“If (he’s) considering leaving, we can consider going in a different direction,” Moore said.
As for his status as a teacher, Moore said that teacher contracts are renewed at the end of the school year and an investigation of Fish is still pending.
The first investigation was based on football players being unsupervised in the locker room during practice on Sept. 19, 2023, in Fish’s first season. Horseplay in the locker room turned into a fight that then spilled onto the field.
One player said another grabbed his football girdle and tried to put a stick down his pants. “He tried to stick it in my butt,” the player said in a statement. The player was irritated when he got on the field, yelling profanities and punching a player in the back of his helmet, breaking the helmet, Fish said a statement, noting that coaches were unaware of what had happened in the locker room. According to statements, the player’s mother then arrived at the field, yelling at coaches.
Other players who had been in the room said the stick, which two of the players called a “pipe,” was used to help defensive linemen with their hip positioning. The defensive players were getting dressed for practice after a film session. The teacher/coach who was responsible for locking the locker room or supervising students if they were still inside was directed to be outside with another group of players. According to the report, Fish did not designate a back-up for securing the locker room.
Fish was issued a “Letter of Caution” for failure to assign adult supervision for the locker room.
On Dec. 5, 2024, when Fish was being investigated for his practices in teaching Personal Fitness, Bossardet met with Fish regarding an email he received from the registrar regarding improper contact with a student athlete at another school.
“I stated that I had serious concerns regarding his refusal to follow school, district, and state directives and processes," Bossardet wrote. "These concerns included, his absences from faculty meetings, failure to follow proper sign out procedures, failure to follow processes for submitting leave and requesting substitutes,” Bossardet wrote in the timeline.
Bossardet told the Observer on Jan. 23 that the school is planning to begin advertising for a new coach next week.
“This week we're focusing on the kids,” he said.
