Newport Harbor High School has suspended the boys’ basketball program indefinitely because of “criminal threats” against Coach Larry Hirst and his wife, Principal Michael Vossen said in a statement.

“Possible suspects at this time include individuals associated with the NHHS boys’ basketball program,” Vossen wrote in an email sent to parents of players Saturday. “Due to the severity of this incident, and for the safety of our staff members, effective immediately the boys’ basketball program is suspended pending further investigation.”

The Daily Pilot first reported the story on its website Friday night, the day before Vossen’s email went out to parents. The Pilot also reported that Hirst resigned as coach Friday.

A parent of one of the players said the alleged threats came in the form of ominous notes left at Hirst’s home in Huntington Beach earlier this month. Another allegedly was left on the car of Hirst’s wife, Sheridan, who like her husband is a teacher at Newport Harbor.

The parent, Mark Okey, said six players, including his son, were pulled out of class on March 13 and questioned by a campus police officer for more than an hour about the notes.

“She said, ‘You know why you’re here,'” Okey said Saturday. “My son raised his hand and said, ‘I think I speak for everybody when I say I have no idea why we’re here.'”

Okey added that the players all denied leaving any notes and said they didn’t even know where Hirst lived. Okey said that a week after the interview, a Huntington Beach police detective interviewed two other players from the team.

The watch commander at the police station Saturday night, Lt. Mike Freeman, said he had few details about the case.

Hirst responded to an email but referred all questions to Vossen. He told the Daily Pilot that he was “numb more than anything” about the events leading up to his resignation.

“It’s just that time to go,” Hirst said. “I come from an era that may need to be a past era.”

Vossen told the paper: “I’m just extremely upset that we lost a really good coach as a result of this.”

Hirst, 50, had spent 16 of his 28 years as a coach at Newport Harbor. He had a long run of success with the Sailors, but the program struggled in recent years. Hirst took a leave of absence as coach in January, amid a 10-game losing streak. Hirst didn’t explain the leave at the time, but he told The Orange County Register’s Steve Fryer: “Someday, we’ll sit down and I’ll let you know what’s going on.”

The Sailors finished the season 7-17 and went 2-8 in the Sunset League.

Okey, who is president of the basketball program’s booster club, said he and other parents were led to believe by Vossen that Hirst would not return. Okey said the coach has come under heavy criticism from some parents for his teams’ performance over the past few years as well as his coaching style. Okey accused him of being overly negative and critical with the players and said that several of the players had talked about quitting the team.

But at a meeting with parents and boosters on March 7, Vossen said Hirst would return as coach.

“There was no ‘I hear you. Things are going to change.’ There was none of that,” Okey said. “Vossen says, ‘My decision’s final.'”

“Coincidentally, five of the six players that were pulled out of class and interrogated about these notes were the sons of the parents who spoke out at that meeting about the coach,” Okey said. “To me, this seemed like direct retaliation.”

Vossen, reached by phone late Saturday night, said he never insinuated to Okey or any other parent that Hirst would not return as coach. “At that meeting on March 7, parents were told that Coach Hirst and I were going to talk at the end of the season.” Vossen declined to comment on specifics about the alleged threatening notes, citing the police investigation.

Okey said one of the notes left at Hirst’s home said, “Leave, die or go away.”

“Clearly that’s concerning, and I think there’s no place for that kind of stuff to happen,” Okey said. “But there’s been no evidence to link any members of the program to the events that happened to the Hirsts.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or lhall@ocregister.com