In one of the most bizarre prep coaching sagas of recent times, Weston (Ct.) High reinstated boys basketball head man Mike Hvizdo after he spent a month on the sidelines for previously appearing in a movie -- and not a pornographic one -- that school officials had deemed inappropriate.
As reported by the Norwalk Hour, Hvizdo was officially reinstated at the start of March, a month after he had been forced to resign on February 7. The coach was brought back just in time to preside over the Trojans first game in the Class M state playoffs.
That the Hvizdo saga reached the level it did is fairly shocking. The second-year coach was pushed into resigning after it was disclosed that he had participated in filming an adult-themed comedy called ‘Forbidden Fruit’, which depicted multiple sexual experiences but involved no nudity or any illegal actions. The film was brought to the attention of Weston administrators by a parent who termed the movie “a porn."
According to the coach, he took part in the film when he was in his younger 20s living in New York, yet that did little to sway the Weston administration at the time, with the school body determining that, “The existence of this film compromises Mr. Hvizdo’s ability to continue to serve as a coach at Weston High School.”
That apparently changed over a period of more than three weeks, with parents and town members advocating for a public hearing over the dismissal, then essentially taking over a monthly school board meeting to protest his dismissal. According to The Hour, more than 100 Weston citizens showed up at that meeting, with plenty speakers making impassioned pleas for Hvizdo’s reinstatement and no one speaking against him.
With the odds stacked against them, the Weston administration relented and reinstated a coach who has been as beleaguered by the events of the past month as his team has.
“I have to say the town of Weston is filled with a bunch of wonderfully loving people, and I want to believe that there are those type of people in every town,” Hvizdo told The Hour. “People didn’t have to stick out their necks for me, but they did and that’s just a tribute. It’s people fighting for what’s right.
“It’s been very difficult. It’s been surreal. It’s been shocking. It’s been tough, stressful, a lot of highs and lows, sadness, anger, frustration. It was like I lost a member of my family and I’ve been grieving. The good thing about it is I’m getting that family back.”
And getting them back just in time for the most important game of the Trojans’ year, a fairy tale ending to a what had been shaping up as a true horror story. That story keeps rolling, with Weston ekeing out a 54-53 victory in the CIAC first rounds on Monday, keeping Hvizdo and his team's latest show on the road.
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