Booker T. Washington High School lost more than just 10 games in a winless 2018 football season.

Perhaps most notably, the school lost Heisman Trophy winner and Florida State legend Charlie Ward, who announced his resignation as head coach in March.

Since Ward’s return to Tallahassee as prep boys basketball coach at Florida State University School, details have emerged regarding the decline of a working relationship between Ward and athletic director Dredrick Bell.

Bell was Ward's direct supervisor and the person who would ultimately take his place as head coach in a selection process that raised its own questions due to discrepancies found in the school's hiring committee documents.

“It was a strained relationship. But that’s life,” Ward said after his departure. “You have coworkers who don’t get along, in a sense of style, personality, fit, all those things happen.

“I think we all have environments sometimes where there may be some issues going on, but that wasn’t the reason why I was not successful.”

Bell’s vision of a state championship-contending football program at Washington began with a winless record this season, a result that was admittedly not too surprising for the first-year head coach because of personnel decisions he’d made to reset the program from its foundation.

In order to implement that vision, however, Bell had to find a way back into coaching.

Ward’s Final Days

It’s not clear where or when Ward and Bell’s working relationship began to decline, but the friction that had grown between the two was little secret in the Washington football community — and definitely not in the team's locker room.

Ward's resignation letter to Bell, which the News Journal obtained through an open records request, details a “history of broken trust” in their working relationship, one which Ward said was scarred by a lack of “respect, trust, loyalty and honest communication.”

“I’d like to believe it was not your intention to be disrespectful, undermine my authority with the student athletes, parents and coaches or cause discord,” Ward wrote in the letter. “However, that is how I felt and what others saw.”

Ward goes on to detail his gratitude toward the coaching staff he’d had at Washington as he said they’d held the values he’d previously entailed, only making his decision to leave more difficult.

His decision to resign as Washington head coach on March 8 — concluding his tenure with a 10-30 record and no winning seasons — was not only a surprise to many Washington student-athletes, but school administrators as well.

Ward did not personally inform Bell of his decision to resign — something he wrote that he’d normally do out of respect for Bell’s position as athletic director — and expressed reluctance to do so because of their personal history.

Bell, for his part, denied ever having any issues with Ward.

"It was a working relationship," Bell said. "I think (Ward) is an outstanding person, and you're just not going to agree on everything. That happens. I never had any problems with him."

This week, Ward stood by his comments from April, but added he didn't want to address the issue any further.

Current Washington athletic director Joe Williams said he had plans to join Ward’s staff to work as a defensive coach this fall, only for those plans to be dashed with Ward’s resignation in the spring. Instead, he found himself moving over from his position as one of the school's deans to take Bell's spot as athletic director.

Williams also spoke to the improved financial state of the program upon Ward’s departure, while the former Heisman Trophy winner considered his work on the program’s facilities, academics and morale to be accomplishments.

“We saw great progress in those four years," Ward wrote in March. "Maybe not so much in record, but just structure. Building stability and respect in this area. I think we were able to accomplish those things and we were on the brink of getting it turned around, which hopefully, this year they can make those strides."

Bell was formally announced as Washington's new head football coach on March 24, and it was a process that didn't go without raising questions.

The Successor

As detailed in documents acquired and independently verified by the News Journal, hiring committee members met March 20 to select a new head football coach and P.E. teacher for Washington High.

Committee members were instructed to rank applicants and assign scores for each one. One point would be given to their “top applicant” on a given question, two points to their second applicant, three to their third applicant and so on.

The committee members’ rankings would be totaled and the applicant with the lowest score would be the seven-person committee’s highest-rated applicant, according to the committee’s signature sheet, a document which includes school principal Michael Roberts and assistant principal Sharita Williams and was signed by all seven committee members.

Four applicants are listed on Booker T. Washington’s final applicant tally sheet: Tate assistant and UWF offensive volunteer assistant Douglas Allen, Milton assistant coach Marcus Buchanan, Fort Walton Beach assistant coach Cedric Smith as well as Bell. Each of the four names is listed with more than 40 minutes of interview time on March 20.

With 334 points, Smith was the top-ranked candidate by a wide margin. Allen was the second-highest with 382 points. Buchanan was third with 388 points, while Bell finished with the highest total at 457 points.

According to the committee’s “Applicant Ranking and Scoring Instruction” document, which was signed by all seven members, Smith’s final score made him the committee’s highest-rated applicant while Bell’s final score made him the committee’s lowest-rated applicant.

However, the final applicant tally sheet flips these instructions.

The No. 1 is circled next to Bell’s name on the final applicant tally sheet, with Buchanan receiving the No. 2, Allen the No. 3 and Smith the No. 4.

Roberts, who oversaw the hiring process, did not return a call seeking comment.

Escambia County Superintendent of Schools Malcolm Thomas said he could not comment on the apparent deviation from the committee's original instructions, saying on Thursday that these committee processes are delegated to school leadership.

“For things like coaches, athletic directors or even teachers on a campus, you’ve got to distribute that (responsibility) because we’ve got 5,500 employees,” Thomas said. “There’s no way one person can do that. You let your leadership (handle it). People are going to have to evaluate and live with their choices.”

Four days after the committee met, Bell was named as the school's new coach.

Tanking for “Harvest Season”

The Washington football team struggled in Bell’s first season as head coach, coming closest to wins in single-possession losses to Pensacola High, Tate and Pensacola Catholic.

Varsity roster numbers remained an issue under Bell, just like in Ward's tenure, and the Wildcats did not field a junior varsity team in 2018, instead promoting numerous underclassmen into prominent varsity roles.

It was a calculated decision according to Bell, justifying the sacrifice of playing time for older players as an aggressive rebuilding strategy needed to reverse 12 years of program struggles.

“I made the decision that I was going to start it all over right now,” Bell said after a 35-14 loss to West Florida in the season finale. “We could’ve put some guys out on the field and we could’ve won two or three games, but we still would’ve had the problems in our program that we’ve had in the past.

“We’ll have a JV team next year mixed with some freshmen and we’re going to keep building. These guys that were sophomores will be juniors and seniors. We’re going to have a great football team. I’m proud of them.”

Speaking after the season, Williams expressed support for Bell’s right to operate the football program according to his plan, though he did say that there had been some negative feedback from the Washington community.

“With any program that you have, you’re going to have critics and you’re going to have people that have issue with the way things run, just like with any program,” Williams said. “I can’t say that we didn’t (hear criticism), but I can say that any and all concerns are fielded. We take them very seriously and we go about addressing things as they come about.”

Some of that criticism emerged long before Washington’s season started.

Members of Washington’s 1994 state championship football team penned a letter to Roberts, the school's principal, in late March expressing concerns over the program’s hiring process and final selection of Bell.

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Careful to clarify that they weren’t condemning Bell as a coach, the ’94 Wildcats expressed concern with “how this decision was made, the lack of inclusiveness in the hiring process, and the blatant disrespect of an entire generation of Wildcats.”

The letter specifies these concerns by pointing out that Washington has hired four coaches with losing career records over the last 12 years before lamenting that supporter organizations like the Washington High School Quarterback Club were not involved in the process.

“There was no communication on how the hiring process would actually be conducted,” stated the letter. “What was communicated was very different from what actually happened. Those closest to the program were not given the opportunity to add value to the hiring process.”

Much has changed at Booker T. Washington since Chet Bergalowski took over a 1-9 Washington program to lead the Wildcats to the 1994 Class 6A state championship, the largest classification title for any Pensacola-area school.

It’s been 12 years since Washington’s last winning season in 2006 and Ward’s four victories in his inaugural 2014 season remain the high-water mark for the school in that span.

In charge of the recovery now is a coach with a combined record of 9-43 in his last four seasons as head coach, a span which includes three seasons leading Marengo High School from Class 1A in Alabama from 2011-13.

Bell’s Marengo High program finished 0-10 in 2012 before rebounding to finish 6-6 with a first-round playoff loss in 2013. His Marengo High successor, Eberne Myrthil, finished five games over .500 in his first three seasons before breaking out with 10-2 and 9-4 records the last two years.

Whether a similar trajectory will come to fruition at Washington is yet to be seen, though Bell said that these painful program lows have always been part of a greater vision for the program.

“At first they didn’t understand the plan and then you’ve got outside elements,” Bell said. “You’ve got parents, the community, the school and all bearing down on you. People want to win right now, but hey, when you plant a crop, it doesn’t grow in one day. You have to wait until harvest season comes and we’re going to harvest next year.”

Eric J. Wallace can be reached at ejwallace@pnj.com or 850-525-5087

Contributing: Tony Adame, aadame@pnj.com