Nothing divides a town like a fight over a high school coach.

Upper St. Clair split in two this week when the school board fired girls' soccer coach Wayne Capra in a 5-4 vote. The board yesterday hired David Gray, a 27-year-old assistant coach with the boys' team, to replace Capra.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette
	Dan Mazzarini, whose daughter, Mary Ann, plays on the Upper St. Clair High School soccer team, hangs his head in the entrance of the school district office yesterday morning after the school board replaced former Coach Wayne Capra.

Capra won 80 percent of his games in six seasons at Upper St. Clair, going 112-24-10. In the process, his teams won four Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League championships.

More important, Capra seemed to win over 95 percent of the young women who tried out for his team.

One former player, who was not a starter in her days on the team, drove for 13 hours to speak on his behalf at a board meeting. Another girl who did not make the team told of how Capra continued to show interest in her after tryouts, counseling her on how she could get better.

"He dedicates his life to not only improving the soccer team, but also to enriching the individual lives of his players," said Taryn Bird, who was the Upper St. Clair soccer captain in 2002. "I find great pity in the fact that the school board is willing to overlook his accomplishments and strong attributes solely to please a few complaining parents."

Jeff Joyce, a school board member who was Capra's most vocal critic, said he received more than a few complaints about the coach. Joyce estimated that he heard from 15 people who were dissatisfied with Capra.

Of those complaints, Joyce said, perhaps three or four dealt with playing time.

The greater issue, according to Joyce, was Capra's "off-field fraternization with certain parents." This gave him and his program an appearance of unfairness, Joyce said.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette
	Upper St. Clair school board member Jeff Joyce, at right, listens to speakers during yesterday's board meeting to hire a replacement for fired soccer coach Wayne Capra.

Bird's father, Kelly, said Joyce's claim was nonsense.

"I have three daughters who have been captains of the team and Wayne didn't even know where I lived until this year," Bird said.

Diana Smyrl, whose daughter played for Capra, said she was puzzled by the school board's intense interest in who coached girls' soccer. Capra was endorsed by the school superintendent, high school principal and athletic director, yet the board ignored those recommendations and micromanaged to orchestrate his removal, she said.

Coaches get fired all the time, but big winners usually are axed only in extraordinary cases.

For instance, Bob Shannon, perhaps the nation's most famous high school football coach, was fired in East St. Louis, Ill., after winning six state championships in 20 seasons.

Shannon angered the school board in 1995 by saying theft was rampant in the athletic department, a charge that proved to be true. East St. Louis' athletic director subsequently went to prison for embezzling money that was supposed to be spent on student-athletes.

But, Shannon said, it did not matter to many parents that he exposed a corrupt system. Any number of them, he said, were happy to see him go because they were unhappy with their sons' playing time.

Ted Petersen, Upper St. Clair's athletic director, said playing time was a primary factor in the complaints he heard about Capra.

"If a son or daughter is playing, people don't care if the coach is a criminal. If their kids are not playing, they come up with the most nit-picking points about the coach," Petersen said.

Petersen considered the girls' soccer program a resounding success in every way under Capra.

"He cared more about the girls than winning. To say he was a winner is also accurate," Petersen said.

One of the complaints made about Capra was that trophies awarded for individual performance were named after former players, including one for his own daughter, Amber.

Capra never coached his daughter at Upper St. Clair High, nor did he name a trophy in her honor. He inherited that system, but offered to eliminate names on all individual awards to appease those who found it offensive.

Veronica Bluey, wife of school board president David Bluey, said the carping about trophies was evidence that critics had little of substance to use against Capra.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette
	Kelly Bird, head of the boosters for the Upper St. Clair girls' soccer team, at yesterday's board meeting.

Two of Bluey's daughters played for Capra. In their early years, she said, they complained about lack of playing time. Then, as they improved and earned their spots in the lineup, their complaints ended.

The campaign against Capra, Veronica Bluey said, involved "a minute minority" of Upper St. Clair's 19,700 residents. Not a single complaint against Capra was ever aired at a public meeting.

Instead, almost everyone agreed that Capra produced winning teams and practiced sportsmanship all the while.

"I've seen a lot of games, but I've never seen him yell at a player or a referee, no matter how outrageous the call," said Bill Quest, a fan of the program.

Resident Dan Mazzarini said Capra's firing sent a message that even a good and conscientious coach can be fired because politics overrides performance.

"It's appalling. It's also stereotypical of everything wrong with Upper St. Clair -- a few people with an agenda getting their way," Mazzarini said.

David Bluey, the board president, supported Capra until yesterday's vote. He said it was time to move on, so he yielded to the board's five-member majority and joined in voting for Gray as the new coach.

As for Capra, his primary job is as a supervisor for a railroad company. But, he said, he has received eight or 10 feelers from other schools. He hopes to coach again.