Parents and students packed the Penn Hills Board of School Directors meeting Tuesday to discuss whether football coach Neil Gordon should be re-signed to a supplemental contract for next season.

Mr. Gordon had to reapply for that job last month. In 21 seasons as head coach, his teams compiled a 156-74-2 record, won WPIAL and PIAA championships in 1995, captured five conference crowns and made the playoffs 16 times, including the past 10 years.

One of the key issues was a box found in his office last month that contained hundreds of unopened college recruitment letters for student-athletes. Some parents said the letters could have had an impact on the colleges their children attended if they had received them.

Carol Wilds, mother of senior football cornerback Donald Wilds, said recruiters from the University of New Hampshire and the University of Maine told her numerous attempts to reach Mr. Gordon about Donald garnered no response.

Sean Devine, offensive coordinator for the University of New Hampshire, said he called Mr. Gordon twice at his home before contacting athletic director John Peterman to arrange a meeting with Donald.

Mr. Devine said Mr. Gordon returned a follow-up call about a week after the visit with Donald and "highly recommended" him for the team.

"For me to have someone sit in my house and tell me they didn't get a return call from a person that I had a lot of respect for as a football coach, I was deeply saddened," said Ms. Wilds during public comments.

She also said Donald will likely attend a school at a lower level of competition than New Hampshire, which is NCAA Division I-AA.

"Slippery Rock University and Clarion [of NCAA Division II] are his two choices, when he could have been at a Division I school," Ms. Wilds said. "Who knows what else was in that box?"

Louis Rash, father of former Penn Hills football player Joseph Rash, said a current player called him and told him the box contained letters from the University of Maryland for his son.

Mr. Rash said he doesn't know whether his son would have chosen to attend Maryland if he knew of the recruitment letter, but "it should have been his choice."

Joseph Rash is enrolled at the University of Akron.

"I just think you don't have the right to play God with kids' lives," Mr. Rash said.

Junior lineman Cory Kircher raised serious allegations that Mr. Gordon not only withheld information about an inquiry from the University of Notre Dame, but also kicked him in the knee while he was on the field with an injury and cursed at him. At least four players in the audience raised hands to say they witnessed the incident.

John Fischetti, an assistant coach under Mr. Gordon for 10 years, said the sole responsibility for recruitment is on students and parents, and they should have been more proactive to ensure players were recruited.

"The role of the high school head coach is an absolute minimal role in the [recruitment] process," Mr Fischetti said. "He is basically a tape duplicator and a mailman.

"But to say he doesn't care about his players and their futures is preposterous."

Mr. Fischetti added that a letter from a college doesn't necessarily mean it is recruiting a player.

"The bottom line is, if he's good enough and he has the grades, he'll get recruited," Mr. Fischetti said. "If not, he won't get recruited."

Mr. Gordon did not attend the meeting and was not available for comment yesterday.

A wide range of players spoke for and against Mr. Gordon during public comments. Although the opinions varied, junior running back Chris Darby read a statement on behalf of the entire team that showed a desire to start fresh.

"As a collective group, we came to an understanding that change in our program may be beneficial to the viability of the future of Penn Hills football and the student-athletes," read Mr. Darby.

"As a cohesive unit of dedicated athletes, without a coach, we are the equivalent of an army without a general.

"We understand many qualified individuals have applied for this position, but no choices have been made. Before anything is finalized, [we] players wanted it to be known, since we feel change must be made, please take into consideration the opinions of the people that will be most affected by it ... [the] players."

Penn Hills officials said a coach will be hired after the interviewing process ends. There is no timetable for that.