Almost three weeks after he was fired from his position as the Greater Houlton Christian Academy girls basketball coach, Vaughn Farrar said he still has no idea why he was let go.

“I need to move on,” he said Monday afternoon. “Yes, it was hurtful.”

In a statement given to the BDN, Farrar explained that GHCA board of directors chairman Wayne Watson called him at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 15 to tell Farrar his contract would not be renewed, and his wife, Shelly, would not be serving as the assistant coach.

“He said there would be no further discussion and that’s the way it is,” Farrar said in his statement. “To all of a sudden be told this is quite a hatchet job.”

Watson declined to comment Monday evening, referring to a statement the school released on Nov. 21 in which the board of directors said “privacy laws prevent the school from commenting on personnel matters.”

Farrar was heading into his fourth season with the Eagles, who went 39-19 in his three years. GHCA also won three Eastern Maine Class D tournament games, the biggest of which came last year with a 64-61 victory over then-defending state champion Lee Academy. The Eagles also won three sportsmanship awards under Farrar’s leadership.

Farrar, a Hodgdon resident who works as a deliveryman for UPS, was with the GHCA program six years, first with the junior high team.

Two summers ago, Farrar said, he was called to a meeting at the McDonald’s in Houlton with athletic director Terry Cummings.

At that meeting, Farrar said, he was told headmaster Mark Jago “had a problem with me” and Cummings speculated that the problem stemmed from Farrar’s disciplining Jago’s daughters for being late to a practice.

“I’ll let you fill in the blanks as to what the rest of my career was like under this scrutiny,” Farrar said.

At the end of the 2005-06 school year, Farrar said Cummings told him Farrar would not be recommended for the position, but about 11/2 weeks later, Watson called Farrar to let him know the GHCA board had voted him in as coach and so he was free to do a summer program with the team.

Farrar took the girls to tournaments at Lee Academy and Fort Fairfield. Shelly Farrar was hired by the GHCA board as assistant coach in September and in the weeks leading up to the start of the season Vaughn Farrar said he attended a coaches meeting at the school and a mandatory meeting for all basketball coaches in Presque Isle 10 days before tryouts.

But Farrar said the morning of Nov. 15, six days before the start of the first day of tryouts and practice, Watson called with the news that neither Farrar would be coaching. He said he wasn’t told why the board’s initial decision to let him coach had changed.

“The fact that I can’t even be given a reason and no one else can know why, either, is ridiculous,” Farrar said. “[The administration] left that door open to a lot of speculation. You’d think I must have done something horrible. One thing about this coach is that I have nothing to hide. My life is an open book and I surely did nothing to warrant this. Let your light so shine among men, stand up and be counted.”

The Eagles graduated just one player, Farrar’s daughter, forward Lacey Farrar, and returned starters Amanda Livezey, Jessica Jago, Megan Korhonen and Emma Boutilier.

In his statement Farrar praised the GHCA teachers, thanked community members and said he’d be rooting for the Eagles, “big-time.”

“… I would like to wish you the best this coming season,” he said. “You are the best and I truly believe you have all the tools to win it all this year. You are the team I started with at GHCA and I was so looking forward to finishing with you.”

The Eagles open their season Monday, Dec. 11, at Easton. Cummings, who coaches the boys basketball team, is also coaching the girls this winter.

Vaughn Farrar said his firing had nothing to do with his son Drew’s decision to transfer from GHCA to Houlton High School. Vaughn Farrar said his son, a senior guard, had been thinking about transferring before Watson notified Vaughn Farrar he wouldn’t be back.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.