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GREENSBORO — Three employees at Northern Guilford High — including its principal and athletics director — resigned Friday in the midst of a widening investigation into the school’s sports programs.

Principal Joe Yeager, athletics director Derrell Force and Louis Lawson, the school’s head custodian, resigned as the school system said it was looking into student eligibility and other issues, which it did not specify.

School administrators asked the three men to resign, sources said Friday.

Efforts to contact Yeager and Force were unsuccessful.

Lawson’s attorney, David Brown, said Lawson was asked to resign because administrators believed he was impeding the investigation. Lawson spoke with school officials Tuesday.

“When they didn’t get the answers they wanted they asked him to leave,” said Brown. “(Lawson) thinks he was cooperative.”

Lawson is the father of Jacob Lawson, a prospect once ranked among the nation’s best middle school basketball players, who showed up at Northern as a freshman in August 2007. At the time, Lawson’s family lived in Caswell County, which would have made Lawson ineligible to attend Northern.

A few days before the start of school, Yeager hired Louis Lawson as the school’s lead custodian. Children of parents who work at a Guilford County school can attend that school regardless of where they live.

Brown said Jacob Lawson’s eligibility was not an issue in Louis Lawson’s resignation.

“This has nothing to do with (Jacob Lawson’s) status at Northern,” he said. “Obviously the school system is investigating a lot of things at Northern, but this student’s eligibility is not part of that investigation.”

Meanwhile, school officials on Friday said it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation.

“I am confident that we will succeed at focusing Northern High School on achieving academic excellence in an environment that fosters our core values,” Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green said.

Pat Spicer, an instructional improvement officer for the system, will serve as the chief administrator for Northern. She told faculty at the end of Friday that Yeager had resigned.

“We’re committed to coming right back after spring break and making things just as easy for the kids as we can,” she said.

Sharon Parks, a physical education teacher and volleyball coach at Northern, will serve as interim athletics director.

School board member Amos Quick said the school system has been investigating Northern in recent weeks.

“There have been indications that perhaps the school system needs to question and get some clarification at Northern on some athletic issues,” Quick said.

A source within Northern’s athletics program said Friday  the school’s football, baseball and basketball programs are under investigation. The source asked not to be named because of the pending investigation.

On Thursday, head basketball coach Stan Kowalewski said: “I can tell you unequivocally that nothing’s wrong with our (basketball) program, and that I am fine.”

About Kowalewski’s employment status with Northern, the school system said he “is a nonfaculty coach. Coaches are appointed season by season. The basketball season has concluded.”

In March, the News & Record published a story about the controversy surrounding the success of Northern Guilford’s basketball team, which went on to win the state 3-A championship. Some coaches and fans said Kowalewski used his connections aggressively with a local Amateur Athletic Union basketball program to funnel Guilford County’s best talent to his program.

Several players on Northern Guilford’s roster also play for the Greensboro-based North Carolina Gaters, the state’s largest AAU basketball program. Kowalewski is vice president of the Gaters and one of the program’s coaches. He denied recruiting players or their parents to move into Northern’s school district, which would be a violation of N.C. High School Athletic Association rules.

Force told the News & Record last month all but two of Northern Guilford’s players live within the school’s boundaries, supported by a Guilford County Schools investigation last year over similar complaints. Two players have received special assignment from the school system to attend Northern, he said.

Yeager told the News & Record then that Lawson was hired based on his experience. Lawson was a school custodian in Caswell County.

“Do people really think I would hire someone to take care of a $42 million school because his son can play basketball?” asked Yeager, who said he learned Lawson’s son was a basketball player during the job interview.

The Lawson family has since moved within the school’s boundaries, Yeager said.

News of Yeager’s sudden departure surprised Northern parent Barbara Farrell, whose daughter is a freshman. She said she has known Yeager since he began meeting with parents two years before the school opened and was impressed with him.

“I think he had a great vision for the school, a great vision for the kids,” she said.
 

Staff writers J. Brian Ewing and Jennifer Fernandez contributed to this report.
 

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com
 

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com