Photo Credit Craig Small

UPDATED June 11, 2010 – In a phone interview with CollegeLAX on Friday, Mike Wood explained what happened that led to the termination of his contract.

“I knew I had some issues with [Athletic Director David Currey],” said Wood.

Wood went on to explain that he was hired for a little amount of money and lived with it. After taking the Panthers to the National Championship game in 2008, Wood went to Currey and asked him for a raise. Currey stated that “your contract is what it is.” Wood left the office and went straight to the President of the University’s office and told him thanks, and that he would be leaving. The President was surprised and talked to Wood and agreed to give him a raise, but Currey would have to give it to him. According to Wood, from that point on, Currey butted heads with Wood every time Wood asked for something.

The following summer, Wood tried to organize a camp, but couldn’t get the support from the school. The next year, Wood again went to the school and asked for a camp but again was denied.

Wood also stated during one season, Currey thought he scheduled too many home games and made Wood move the UCLA game from Chapman to UCLA which incurred a greater cost for the lacrosse team.

“I was hosting a lot of games, but apparently it was more that [Currey] wanted to host,” said Wood.

During the 2009 Christmas Break, Wood scheduled a one day camp but went through the University rather than the Athletic Department which caused further tensions.

“After two years of asking for a camp and told no, the third time I’m not going to go ask the same guy,” said Wood.

Furthermore, Wood scheduled to play BYU on Feburary 13, a game which was nationally televised, and a marquee game on the schedule. However, that night happened to be Senior Night for the Chapman Men’s Basketball team. Wood scheduled the game in the summer, before the basketball scheduled had been released.

“Currey asked me what I was doing, stating that we can’t play due to the basketball game. He also wanted us and BYU to share the same locker room,” said Currey. The game went on but not without a fight.

Wood also coached on the Chapman football team and stated that in the first two years, he had positive end-of-season reviews but at the end of the 2009 season, he had several complaints that he was written up for.

Wood also stated that at the beginning of the 2010 lacrosse season, Attackmen Andrew Clayton was hit in the face with a ball during warm-ups. Wood told him to talk to the trainer. The trainer took a quick glance and said Clayton had a concussion. Clayton returned to Wood and was livid. Wood went to the trainer and “laid into her” which Wood admitted was a bad decision. The following Monday, Wood was in Currey’s office with a written citation.

“Between the football write up, the yelling at the trainer, and the going behind the back to get a camp, those were my three strikes,” said Wood. “I’m a little brash sometimes. Everything I was trying to do was to improve the lacrosse program. I’m going to stand up for what I think is right.”

The final straw was when Wood wanted to host the SLC Tournament. Wood and Currey agreed to have the games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The SLC voted to have the first games on Thursday and not Friday, but Currey put up a fight, which led Wood to go behind Currey’s back and again seek the help of the University President. The tournament ended up being held on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Wood met with Currey on Monday and said the meeting lasted no longer than 5 minutes.

“‘You’re not going to be renewed’, I asked him why, he said ‘you know why’ and that was basically it,” said Wood.

June 10, 2010 – CollgeLAX has learned that Chapman Head Coach Mike Wood was fired on Monday.

Wood was hired in 2007 and quickly established himself as a top-notch coach at the MCLA level. Wood won back-to-back SLC Championships and narrowly missed a third in 2010.

Wood led the Panthers to the Championship game in 2008 and 2009 and a final four appearance in 2010. Wood amassed an amazing 49 wins and a mere 8 losses in his tenure at Chapman.

CollegeLAX will have more as the story develops. Discuss the latest MCLA happenings in the CollegeLAX Message Forums.

Please email if you have any additional information on the situation.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 10th, 2010 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Blogs, MCLA News, SLC, Tim Haslam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.