Ross Willick

Introduction

Ross Willick is the former athletic director of Kenowa Hills High School in Walker, Michigan, a Grand Rapids-area district, who was fired in September 2026 after two law-firm investigations into the school’s strength and conditioning program found he had ignored safety and equity concerns in a football-dominated weightlifting class and retaliated against staff and students who cooperated with the resulting probe . The Kenowa Hills Board of Education voted 6-1 to uphold his termination on September 28, 2026, ending a two-year run as athletic director that capped more than a decade in the district as an elementary school principal and basketball coach . Willick contends he was made a scapegoat in a larger feud between the school board and the district’s football program, and a longtime former board member who resigned over the investigation has publicly agreed .

Background Information

Before joining the athletic department, Willick built his career in West Michigan basketball. He was a star player at Grant High School and Aquinas College in the 1990s and later coached at Kent City, where he led the Eagles to the Breslin Center — the site of the Michigan high school state finals — in 2004 . He then spent twelve years as principal of Zinser Elementary School in the Kenowa Hills district and coached the Kenowa Hills High School basketball team for two years before serving two years as the high school’s athletic director .

The controversy traces to the fall of 2025, when a female student wanted to enroll in a first-period weightlifting class at Kenowa Hills High School. According to reporting cited in the district’s own investigation, she was uncomfortable that the class contained no other girls and was dominated by football players. A staff member alleged the student was not permitted to enroll in the first-hour class because it was populated exclusively with male students, many of them football players .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Superintendent Cherie Horner commissioned the law firm Clark Hill to investigate a wide range of complaints, including sex discrimination and sexual harassment claims and ethics complaints involving the football program. In its memorandum, updated August 21, 2026, the firm wrote that it “did not find sufficient evidence to support sex discrimination or sexual harassment claims, except as discussed herein in connection with District’s strength and conditioning PE classes and programs,” while also finding that the investigation “did confirm poor leadership qualities in some of the high school administration” .

At an August 24, 2026 board meeting, Horner announced termination charges against Willick, and the board voted 6-0 to waive attorney-client privilege over two redacted investigation reports — one dated October 22, 2025 and a second dated August 21, 2026 — and to adopt the recommendations of the newer report . Attorney Marshall Grate of Clark Hill told the board the investigation’s findings “resulted in the disciplinary measures against the High School Principal and the Head Football Coach and the termination of the Athletic Director” . In the same sweeping session the board suspended head football coach Don Fellows for two games .

The district said the stated grounds for Willick’s firing were a Title IX violation connected to the first-hour strength class, alleged financial mismanagement, and an MHSAA violation after football coaches used the morning class to work with players and watch game film . Willick requested the hearing he was entitled to, retained a legal team, and lost: the board voted 6-1 to uphold the termination on September 28, 2026, and he was officially fired that day .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The investigation tore at the district’s leadership. Jeff Gustinis, an eleven-year member of the board of education, resigned on August 9, 2026 out of frustration with the process. “Ross took the brunt of the blame for a board that was unhappy with the football coach,” Gustinis said. “Why Ross took the blame is still unclear. That’s just not person that I know. If there was a kid in danger or rules being broken … I struggled with what I was hearing as opposed to what the attorney was saying.” Of his own exit, he said, “My message wasn’t being received. So I didn’t want to be part of it” .

Willick says the motive was never the strength class. “The Kenowa Hills lawyer (Marshall Grate) basically said to me, in my termination meeting, ‘you know this started because the Board of Ed did not like the football coach and the football program,’” Willick said. “So that’s where it started. It’s very clear. That’s where they started digging into anything and everything football” . Board president Erin LaBotz, closing the August meeting, insisted the investigations “were put in motion well before Dr. Horner became superintendent” and that the board’s commitment to student safety and equal opportunity “has to come first” . A petition in Willick’s support gathered nearly 400 signatures and urged Superintendent Horner to step down .

Current Status

Willick’s firing was upheld on September 28, 2026 by a 6-1 vote of the Kenowa Hills Board of Education following a special hearing process, and he is no longer the district’s athletic director . He has since hired a lawyer and plans to file a lawsuit over the dismissal, with a GoFundMe started to help cover his legal fees . Coach Fellows’s two-game suspension was self-reported by the school board to the Michigan High School Athletic Association after Willick’s dismissal, and Fellows fought the discipline . No criminal charges against Willick have been reported; the findings against him are the product of an internal, civil investigation, and the allegations are contested.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The firing ended Willick’s two-year tenure as Kenowa Hills athletic director and closed out a fifteen-year chapter in the district that included twelve years as a principal and stints coaching basketball, a striking fall for a longtime administrator. He has publicly signaled he believes he was sacrificed in a proxy war over the football program, a claim one former board member echoes, and his account has kept the district’s turmoil in the local news well after his dismissal . For the district, the case became the defining controversy of a new superintendent’s first months, complete with a resignation petition, a board member’s exit, and program-wide MHSAA scrutiny.

Sources

• West Michigan Ballers, “Is Kenowa Hills AD the scapegoat in an effort to oust the football coach?” — source
• Clark Hill memorandum for Kenowa Hills Public Schools (PDF), “Investigation of Complaints Relating to Non-discrimination, Equal Employment Opportunity, and Sexual Harassment” — source
• Kenowa Hills Public Schools Board of Education (PDF), “August 24, 2026 Regular Meeting minutes” — source