BHS grid coach hired on 3-2 vote

Decatur Daily Democrat:

Nate Andrews traveled nearly 90 minutes to Decatur on Tuesday evening, along with his wife and young daughter, to meet his prospective new employers and to witness his official hiring as Bellmont High School's new head football coach.

He left Decatur some two hours later, visibly upset after the North Adams school board — in a deeply divided 3-2 vote — barely approved his employment.

Board president Michelle Stimpson and member Deb Bergman cast the votes against hiring Andrews. Prior to the vote, Stimpson said she was dismayed that a recent story in the Decatur Daily Democrat basically had announced Andrews as the school's new grid coach. "I won't be a rubber stamp" for decisions made by school officials, she said.