N.Y. baseball coach cleared of all charges following year-long suspension
Steve Mandl has been through a lot in the last year. The George Washington (New York) High baseball coach, who has more than 900 wins in 29 years and two city championships, spent the 2011 season on the sidelines, after the PSAL suspended Mandl one year for illegally recruiting Fernelys Sanchez from Lehman (New York) High.
There was just one problem: Nobody could prove he ever illegally recruited Sanchez. As the New York Daily News reported, Lehman High baseball coach Adam Droz filed a formal complaint against Mandl back in 2011, claiming the George Washington coach had talked Sanchez into switching schools.
After filing a grievance of his own with the teacher's union, Mandl -- who was initially suspended on Feb. 15, 2011 -- tried to get back on the field in the meantime by filing an action with the New York State Supreme Court, but his motion was denied. The decision forced him to wait out the entire grievance process and miss the season.
During the suspension, George Washington went on to win PSAL Class A city title without him. After suffering what Madle called a year of "hell," he was formally cleared of all charges and his record was "wiped clean of all wrongdoing." He also received $5,000 in lost wages for agreeing not to sue the city for defamation and dropping his grievance.
"I'm back to coaching and I'm happy to get my name cleared. It's just unfortunate I had to suffer the way I did. That's the crazy thing," Mandl told the New York Daily News.
Mandl was able to put the entire ordeal behind him when he was allowed to return to the field this season. But you have to think having his record wiped clean and lost wages returned allowed him to officially move on from the situation.
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