PROVO — Timpview High is looking for a new head football coach, even as the former coach continues fighting for his job.
Timpview administrators began advertising for a new coach on Friday, May 4, on the Provo School District website.
Coach Louis Wong, who led the program for seven years after working as an assistant before that, was suspended without pay for 30 days pending termination on Tuesday, March 14.
The advertisement doesn't mean Wong won't prevail, it just means that the district did not overturn its original decision within that 30-day time frame. State law requires districts to give teachers at least 30 days notice before terminating them.
The day after Wong was suspended he told the Deseret News that he planed to fight the decision, which came after the state and the district conducted audits that raised questions about how finances were managed by the school and the coaching staff.
Wong undertook the first step of what could be a lengthy appeal process on April 26 when he met with the Provo School District's Human Resources director Cindy Wright. Wong's attorney Elizabeth Dunning said after that meeting that she felt very positive about the conversation and reiterated that Wong planned to continue working to solve the problems, which he asserts were institutional and not personal, and regain his job.
Wong was hired as head coach of the Timpview football program in 2005. During that time he amassed an unprecedented 77-10 record (.885 winning percentage) in seven seasons, and the team was region champion or co-region champion every season that he coached. He also won state football titles in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Wong was 20-3 in playoff contests. His .897 winning percentage is tops all-time in Utah.
Under him, Timpview won 36 straight football games from 2006-2009, which is a Utah state record.