Patrick Touhey is no longer the Niles girls basketball coach, an outcome to which he is both disappointed and confused.

Touhey, who coached the Vikings for six seasons and posted a record of 73-63 with a pair of district championships, says he doesn’t quite understand why he was told by Athletic Director Jeff Upton that he would not be retained as head coach.

The move was made even more perplexing to Touhey after he took an 0-21 team filled primarily with freshmen two years ago and posted a 14-9 record this past season with the same squad.

Touhey said he was scheduled to meet with Upton to go over the summer schedule and discuss gym time. Upton told Touhey he would like to discuss “other” things.

“I went in and sat down and literally within 10 seconds I was told it was time for a coaching change,” Touhey said. “Nothing specifically was given to me as the reason for that.”

Upton, in an email release, said “We appreciate the coach’s contributions to the team, as well as to the Niles School community. And we wish him well moving forward. We will begin searching for a highly qualified coach to lead the team next season.”

The athletic director has declined to comment on or to address Touhey’s specific claims.

Touhey has been left wondering why he was dismissed. He feels that his on-court performance doesn’t have anything to do with it and he feels as if he has built the program up to where it no longer rebuilds, but “reloads.”

“When I was hired there was no youth program here,” Touhey said. “They told me when I interviewed that they were looking to hire someone who would put in the time to get a youth program going. I did that. Our seventh grade has now been in our program for three and a half years and it was 9-1. Our sixth grade team is even better. So what is the reason?”

Touhey believes it all began last spring when he and Upton met to discuss the summer program. The coach says he was accused of violating MHSAA rules about contact during the summer.

“In his opinion, he felt I violated MHSAA rules and I was too demanding on the kids,” Touhey said. “I have been doing this for 15 years and I know what the MHSAA rules are. Truth be told, a lot of the kids on our team come from a single parent family and those parents love the fact that we keep their kids around the gym and out of trouble.”

During their meeting, Touhey told Upton that the changes the athletic director wanted to make were setting him and his team up for failure.

“I told him I would not coach to fail,” Touhey said. “Jeff took that as a resignation.”

Touhey said he, Upton and former Niles Superintendent Richard Weigel met to address the issue. Weigel reinstated Touhey.

Touhey believed when he got an email that night from Upton it would be to issue an apology.

Instead, Touhey said that Upton remained adamant about his belief that the coach was in violation of MHSAA rules and that he was too demanding on his players.

“But I will make sure that next summer I have my own rule book for the program,” Touhey claims the email said.

Weigel resigned earlier this year and Touhey said there is no coincidence that he is no longer the girls coach.

“I did not resign,” he said. “I wanted to be the Niles coach. I didn’t freely give up that job. What I said was that if I’m not wanted here it’s not a good place for me to be. He shook my hand and that was it.”

Touhey added that he knew when he tendered his resignation back in February after a parent began texting his wife complaining about his coaching, it was the beginning of the end.

“I decided I would go away quietly,” Touhey said. “I rescinded my resignation because the parents, the players and the community asked me to reconsider. But I knew that was the beginning of the end.”

Touhey will continue to coach, even if it is during the summer. Touhey said he is in no hurry to jump into a new job.

“I am coaching an AAU team made up of kids from Niles, Brandywine and St. Joseph,” he said. “I am enjoying coaching kids from other schools. Maybe I will start my own conditioning program. I don’t know.”

Touhey also did not rule out returning to the sidelines to coach high school basketball again.