Portsmouth football coach let go after one season

PORTSMOUTH — For the second time in five months, Portsmouth High School will be searching for a new head football coach.

Matt Kestler, hired to coach the Patriots in mid-July, was told on Thursday he will not be rehired for a second season after a job evaluation meeting with Steve Trezvant, the school's athletic director.

“I didn’t even get a reason why I’m not coming back. I wasn’t given an answer why I wasn’t rehired,” Kestler said. "Not who or why. It was just decided. I’m more disappointed than angry. It’s difficult to swallow. I’m still processing it.”

When contacted by a reporter, Trezvant said, “I cannot comment on it because it’s a personnel matter.”

Kestler recalled moments of the morning meeting between them.

“[Trezvant] literally said, 'I just left the principal’s office. We thank you very much for the season, but we’re going to repost the job and look for a new staff. We’re going to go in another direction,'" Kestler said.

“For his part, he said he advocated for us. He was really the only one who had a true understanding of what we were dealing with. So it sounds pretty political to me. It comes from people above him.”

Kestler was hired a month before the first official team practice after Ryan Moniz, the team's coach the previous eight seasons, was not reappointed by the School Committee on a 6-0 vote following an investigation into a student's death.

Some football players, upset that Moniz lost the job, opted not to play on Kestler’s team. A serious car accident prior to the start of the season sidelined three more players, two for the entire season.

Senior starting quarterback Kyle Bicho, an all-state selection the previous season, went down with a season-ending injury in the fourth game. Portsmouth won that game to even its record at 2-2, but the undersized Patriots were hit with more injuries and finished with a 2-8 record, including a 51-14 loss to rival Middletown in the annual Thanksgiving clash. It was Portsmouth’s first losing record in 11 years.

“They clearly weren’t happy with the results of the season,” Kestler said. “We did everything we could with a terrible situation. This season was not indicative, whatsoever, of me and my staff’s capability to coach these kids.

“We were practicing with 24 kids most days. The sad thing is, I don’t get a chance to correct and rectify things in my second year because there is not going to be a second year. Apparently, if you don’t go to the Super Bowl in Portsmouth, you’re gone.”

Kestler said some parents and people outside the program, whom he would not identify, hold undue influence over the program.

“To me, there are some influential people in town who really shouldn’t be as influential as they are,” Kestler said. “I’m disappointed in the people not having a grasp. You can’t just bow down to your parents and let them run the thing.

“I really wish I could debate some football with those people who think that I was not doing my job. I was hoping logic would overcome the squeaky wheels around town. But I’m not surprised. Unfortunately I don’t see what’s going to change.”