The Bayonne Board of Education settled a roughly three-year-old lawsuit with former High School Head Football Coach Dwayne Williams for $150,000 earlier this year, documents show.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Court records show that the six-count lawsuit filed in March 2022, shortly after the Super Football Conference Controversies Ethics Sportsmanship Committee recommended that Williams be placed on probation, was set for a June trial before a January settlement.
The suit contended that Williams was removed due to discrimination and retaliation, among other things, as opposed to a fight that broke out on the football field. The settlement indicates that Williams can never work for the BOE in any capacity again.
“I’m clearing my name for something that I know I didn’t do, that’s number one, the second thing is for the kids from that 2021 football team, the kids that busted their butts all season long to get to the playoffs and the superintendent taking that season away from those kids,” Williams, who now coaches in Jersey City, said in an interview.
“Those are the two main concerns: Me clearing my name and those kids getting their football season cut short when they were going to the playoffs. Those are memories for them for a lifetime and the memories of that senior class got is something that that guy took away from them.”
While Williams had some support to be re-hired, the Bayonne BOE ultimately voted 7-0(1) to appoint Jerome Hayes to replace him in January 2022, as HCV first reported.
The Hudson County Sports Hall of Famer said that if the school district had a problem with him, they could have settled it amongst themselves, but reiterated that the did not feel that the student athletes should have lost their season over it.
Williams also challenged the notion that it was his fault that some Bayonne football players got into a fight with their opponents from Barring High School on October 29th, 2021.
“Number one, like you said, I was there, none of them [the school administrators] were there. None of them was there, not even security was there. Security was … outside the gate and cars or upstairs because the game was in Bayonne High School’s control,” he asserted.
“Barringer’s got good kids over there, it’s just one incident that caused something, but for the administration to throw something at me without even being there to support those kids … for them to win that game, they’re going to the playoffs [and] you’ve got no administrators there … Along with security that was supposed to be there that wasn’t there.”
School officials, including Superintendent of Schools John Niesz, who was named as a defendant in the suit, did not return inquiries seeking comment on Monday.
The lawsuit settlement also includes a non-disparagement clause, which says that none of the parties will speak out against each other.
“I think the whole situation was a foul situation that could’ve got handled another way, because by right, state rule says as a football coach, as a head coach, it’s a one-year term,” Williams said in a statement.
“So they could’ve very easily waited until the season was over, let these kids go to the playoffs, the season’s over, and talk to me ‘you know Dwayne, we’re not gonna renew your contact.’ But instead, they want to blame me for something that you don’t know if I had anything to do with anything.”
