Former Mullen head coach Dave Logan
DENVER - After Dave Logan, the head coach of the Mullen High School Mustangs varsity football team, abruptly left the program, many students decided to protest his dismissal. Logan spoke publicly on Thursday afternoon and said he will coach again and it will probably be next season.
PHOTOS: Students protest Mullen coach dismissal
Droves of Mullen students marched around the school Thursday morning to voice their confusion and disdain for the decision.
READ: Players react to Logan firing
Logan spoke to the media outside of 850 KOA radio on Thursday where he is an afternoon host. He also does the play-by-play for the Denver Broncos games.
"My preference would have been a different outcome," Logan said.
Logan says he was given two reasons as to why he was let go. First, he is not a full-time educator and he is not a Lasallian educator. Lasallian is a form of Catholicism, the branch which Mullen follows.
"I don't begrudge [Mullen President] Ryan [Clement] and [Principal] Jim [Gmelich] for making a decision that they thought it was in the best interest of the school long term," Logan said.
Clement, the new president of the school, says the football programs status played a large role in the decision.
"You think FedEx fast, IBM business, and Mullen football," he said.
Clement says that makes the coach's job that much more essential at the school.
"Coach Logan is a great coach. He's a man of integrity. He does a great job in all that he does. But he's just not here as often as necessary for the head football coach at Mullen," Clement said.
Logan admits he's not in the school as much as, say a math teacher, but he says people should not question his dedication.
"This didn't have anything to do with my commitment to the football team, because if it did, that would be contradictory to the truth," he said.
According to students at Thursday morning's protest, they will continue to hold up signs and chant until they are either given a reason why he was asked to resign or until he is reinstated.
"He was told a couple weeks ago that he was to resign," Mullen junior defensive lineman Collin Albershardt told 9NEWS Wednesday afternoon. "But he denied that and wanted to keep coaching here. Then, the board met today and made a decision that he was to no longer coach here. Him or his coaching staff."
News hit the students this week.
According to a Mullen student Thursday morning, if that reasoning is accurate, students are still confused. The student claims of the 23 varsity coaches, only four of them are full time.
Logan says the support from the students was heartwarming.
Logan had an overall record of 90-11 and coached the Mustangs to three state football championships He was also named the 2010 Colorado High School Coach of the Year.
In, his last season, the Mustangs finished 9-3 overall and ended fourth in the state.
Clement says the school will immediately start a national search for their next football coach.
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