Controversy has erupted in Dearborn over the decision to fire veteran wrestling coach Jerry Marszalek at Fordson High School.

Marszalek has coached wrestling at Fordson for 35 years and he is considered something of a legend in the high school wrestling community in the state, but the school recently decided not to renew his contract. Marszalek says he was told by Fordson principal Imad Fadlallah that the decision was made in response to complaints from parents in this predominately Muslim community over alleged proselytizing by Trey Hancock, a former volunteer assistant coach for the team who is also a Pentecostal minister. At a recent school board meeting, according to the Detroit News, more than 200 parents from the school came to support the principal’s decision and expressed anger at Hancock’s attempts to convert Muslim students.

The problem for the school, however, is that none of the incidents referred to in those complaints is connected to Hancock’s activities as an assistant wrestling coach. Hancock has not been a volunteer assistant for the team since 2005, when Fadlallah ordered Marszalek to keep him away from the team after he baptized a Muslim student. But Hancock told the Michigan Messenger that the incident had nothing to do with him being involved with the wrestling team. The boy that he baptized, who was of Yemeni descent, was a close friend of Hancock’s son and had been attending Hancock’s church for two years before being baptized at a church retreat. Hancock notes that the baptism took place before the wrestling season had even begun the first year the boy was on the team.

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The other incident referred to by the school and by critics of Hancock is his attempt to convert a teenage Muslim girl. The Detroit News mentions an ongoing divorce case where this issue has been raised. But Hancock again argues that this had nothing to do with the school. The mother of the girl came to his church complaining of abuse by her husband, and the mother and daughter began attending the church. The girl was not involved with the wrestling team in any way, and any discussions they have had took place in church, where the girl and her mother voluntarily attended. Hancock wonders, quite reasonably, why this is the school’s business at all and says that he understands quite well where the line is drawn between what he may do as a private citizen and what he may do as a coach at a public school:

“I was a head wrestling coach at Creswood for three years prior to coming to Fordson. There’s not a single boy I’ve coached who would tell you that I preached or witnessed or did a Bible study or anything with those kids. The situations they’re referring to involve people who approached me in my capacity as a minister totally unrelated to anything to do with the wrestling team or with the public school. I know not to mix the wrestling team with the ministry of the church. There are boys who belong to the wrestling team that also go to my church, but they belonged to my church long before they were part of Fordson High School as students.”

Marszalek likewise told the Messenger, “All of the time that I’ve known Trey Hancock, I’ve never seen him proselytize at all. All of these allegations involve things totally outside the program with people who came to his church for unrelated reasons.” After the baptism situation in 2005, Hancock could no longer be a volunteer assistant coach, but his son was on the team, and Marszalek could not prevent him from going to wrestling meets to watch his son participate. But that, says Marszalek, was enough for Fadlallah to claim that he was not following the order to keep Hancock away from the program, and that is why his contract was not being renewed. Both Marszalek and Hancock say that what is really going on is that Fadlallah is giving in to community anger over Hancock’s private actions as a minister, which the school should have no say about whatsoever.

In fact, they say, it is Fadlallah who has violated the separation of church and state here by involving himself in the private religious lives of students and employees. Hancock told the Messenger that after he baptized the 15-year-old boy, Fadlallah called the student into his office and berated him over it. In Islam, particularly in the more conservative circles, apostasy is considered one of the worst sins imaginable. In many Muslim states around the world, converting to another religion from Islam is a crime punishable by death. Hancock says the young man he baptized has faced tremendous pressure and harassment in his community because of his decision and that they had talked about the fact that this would happen so that the boy knew what he was getting into by deciding to be baptized as a Christian.

Marszalek says he is considering legal action in the case but has not made up his mind yet. Multiple calls to Principal Fadlallah for comment were not returned.