OUSTED CHS BASEBALL COACH FISCHETTI LANDS NEWARK POST

Fischetti

Former Columbia High School baseball coach Joe Fischetti, who was forced out of his CHS coaching job after former players' claims of bullying, is back on the field in an assistant coaching role at nearby Newark East Side High School.

East Side Head of Athletics Adrian Bosolasco confirmed the hire, but declined to comment further on it Tuesday.

East Side Head Baseball Coach Steve Campos, a former CHS freshman baseball coach, said he was glad to bring Fischetti aboard when he took the top coaching spot at East Side this year.

Campos

"East Side's been asking me to come back and I came back to take the job," said Campos, who had coached on the Newark campus from 2003 to 2010. "When the opportunity came up, I said, 'why don't you take me and Fischetti so we can all be together."

Fischetti left CHS coaching ranks at the end of last summer when the school board chose not to rehire him for the 2017 season. He remains a tenured physical education teacher at Columbia.

His departure ended a very lengthy and difficult time for the baseball program, which saw Fischetti accused of several instances of harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) dating back two years.

Those claims led to the hiring of an outside investigator last spring to look into the charges and the school board's decision to search for another coach for the 2017 season. One former student, David DeFranco, also filed a lawsuit against Fischetti, other coaches and the district claiming abusive treatment, which has yet to go to court.

Last fall, CHS hired James Whalen, a physical education teacher at Valley View Middle School in Denville who had been an assistant baseball coach at West Essex High School in North Caldwell since 2002, to coach the Columbia varsity baseball team.

Asked about having Fischetti as an assistant given his problems at Columbia, Campos said, "I'm happy to have him here, the kids love him ... Columbia's loss is East Side's gain."