Myself and a few other former Alco guys from different teams who knew him were in favor of the hire, because to answer your questions at the time of "Who is this guy" and Where did he come from"; he was an Alco guy all the way, played there, lead the 2005 team to a state title, was Player of the Year and then started a couple of seasons for Shepherd University. So for those reasons, for the fact that he'd been back home and coaching for a few years, was a classroom teacher and seemed to have the energy, internal buy-in and willingness to lead the program in a positive direction, the Alco side of town thought it was a good move. And early on, it was.
But there's two ways of looking at it now: either his run could be over because it just hasn't worked out, or, this is just an anomaly year where things beyond his control are why the Alco program is nowhere near the position it used to be in or needs to be in. Regardless, I doubt he gets replaced this year because things back home just don't move at that speed.
As far as your question of "Was the hiring process fair?" - that's a good question that I actually never thought about. There are factors that can indicate that it wasn't fair, but I don't know those policies because I don't work in public education. Bottom line is, and I touched on this in an earlier post on another thread about coaching talent in the area... who else would we have hired?
Not Foley, and not really any other Alco assistants at the time that I can remember. Especially not Scott Bauer because as we all identified last week, no one from that family is a good guy or can be trusted lol. Actually, for everyone with an IQ above 70, Bauer didn't want the head job because with having a family and being head baseball coach, it would be very hard for him or anyone in that position to be 100% dedicated to the head job and everything that it requires. We all agreed that he's a guy you want on staff though, no question about that.
So anyway, Nova, it seems like in typical Cumberland fashion, you were berated for asking those questions back then... smh. Hopefully the above helps with why Hansel was brought in without having angry Alco fans feel like you went all Tony54 on them.