The Cedar Grove Board of Education agreed late last year to pay former longtime football coach Ed Sadloch and three assistant coaches a total of $900,000 to settle claims they were unlawfully fired, according to documents obtained by NJ Advance Media.
The settlement was approved by the board at its Oct. 29 meeting. The board, which provided a copy of the settlement agreement in response to an open public records request, did not respond to a separate request for comment.
Steven D. Farsiou, a lawyer representing the four coaches, said in a statement the case “should have been resolved a long time ago.” But he credited the current board with helping resolve the lawsuit.
“To be clear, Coach Sadloch nor the other coaches did anything improper,” Farsiou said. “The entire situation was completely mishandled from the beginning.”
The seven-page settlement agreement ends a legal saga that began in September 2013, when five Cedar Grove High School football coaches, including Sadloch, were abruptly suspended.
School officials in the Essex County district did not offer a reason for the suspensions at the time, but some in the community publicly speculated that the coaches had been accused of bullying after labeling a player the “Riddler” for asking too many questions.
Sadloch was back coaching after a one-game suspension. Two of his assistant coaches returned shortly after. The remaining two coaches were kept on administrative leave for the entirety of the season, according to their lawsuit.
The coaches later found out a player and his family filed a bullying and harassment complaint a month before the suspensions, the lawsuit said.
None of the coaches were informed when the school’s “anti-bullying specialist” launched an investigation, according to the lawsuit. The specialist allegedly found one of the assistant coaches placed “tape on the student’s practice jersey in the shape of a question mark.”
The coach put the question mark on the student’s jersey to make him aware “that he over analyzes” while playing, the anti-bullying specialist said.
The anti-bullying specialist cleared Sadloch and the other coaches of any wrongdoing. But the fact that they weren’t told until after the investigation concluded allegedly robbed them of the chance to defend themselves.
In December, the coaches appealed the suspensions. More than a year later, in March 2015, an administrative judge ruled in their favor, according to their lawsuit. Finding the coaches' due process rights had been violated, the judge ordered their personnel files scrubbed of any mention of the case.
Sadloch and three of his coaches — Brian Gogerty, Michael Weber and David Sinisi — sued the Cedar Grove Board of Education in September 2015, in the middle of the football season. They alleged the administrative decision “did not and could not” address financial compensation for the episode.
The fifth coach who had been suspended declined to take part in the lawsuit, Farsiou said.
At the end of the season, Sadloch was told his contract with the district wouldn’t be renewed, according to an amended version of his lawsuit filed in 2017. After 25 years as Cedar Grove’s head football coach, he was allegedly given five days to clean out his office.
Sadloch retired from coaching in 2023 after a 51-season career, the self-proclaimed “winningest coach in Essex County.”
During his tenure in Cedar Grove, the Panthers won 203 of 268 games. The team also made 20 appearances at the NJSIAA playoff finals, winning five, Sadloch’s amended complaint said.
Farsiou said in his statement that Sadloch was “a legend” and a nationally recognized figure in high school football.
“He is retired now, but he earned the right to go out the way he wanted,” the attorney said. “He lost out on coaching opportunities based on this situation. It is shameful what the school did to him.”
After he left Cedar Grove, Sadloch took other coaching jobs, before ending up at Bloomfield High School, where he spent two seasons as an assistant coach.
When his retirement was announced, Sadloch said it was time to step down. “I’ve had a tremendous time coaching,” he said at the time.
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AJ McDougall may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @oldmcdougall.
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