Articles

McDonald resigns under pressure

Category: Metro Published on Wednesday, 16 May 2012 10:36 Written by Courier Newsroom

by Malik Vincent

In the aftermath of legal troubles, Allderdice head boys basketball coach Andre McDonald has resigned his coaching position and has done the same as a Pittsburgh Public Schools employee.

Named the 2012 New Pittsburgh Courier coach of the year, he led the Dragons to three consecutive City League boys basketball titles.

ANDRE McDONALD

Just weeks after his resignation, Allderdice has already re-hired Buddy Valensky, who is also a physical education teacher at the school. He previously served as their head coach for five seasons (from 2001-06). McDonald took over for him after the 2006 school year, where prior to that he served as an assistant on his staff.

McDonald appeared in court on May 8 for his preliminary hearing. After several attempts, he was unreachable for comment.

According to the criminal complaint, on March 6, in the bathroom of City Court, McDonald and another man told a witness in a drug and gun case that he shouldn’t have appeared in court and for him to keep quiet about the situation.

The allegations led to McDonald’s arrest and a charge against him for the intimidation of a witness.

He’s currently awaiting trial for the intimidation charge. School officials said that it is a policy of the Pittsburgh Public Schools to prevent employees or officials from going on record about any ex-employee, as in McDonald’s case.

McDonald also held a position at University Prep at Milliones as a paraprofessional, which is what most refer to as a teacher’s aide.

Valensky retired for what he described as “family reasons.”

“During my previous tenure, we played in three state playoff games,” Valensky said. “I’m going to sit down with (Allderdice principal Melissa) Friez and figure out what she wants done with the program, in the future.”

“He’s a good coach,” Justin Dobbs, a three-year starter on the basketball team said. “If there was anybody that they were going to hire, he’d be the guy for the job.”

(Malik Vincent can be reached at mvincent@newpittsburgh­courier.com or on Twitter @malikvincent.)