Jon Carpenter rarely minces words.
Perhaps, then, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that upon vacating his position as Capital’s head football coach, Carpenter was plenty outspoken in regards to what went behind the decision of giving up a title he held since 2010.
“I knew last year that it was time,” Carpenter said. “It’s hard for this ole Cabin Creek boy to get used to downtown life. Everybody thinks that everything is equal and all kids are treated fair and they’re not. I’ve spoken out about it and it didn’t go very well. Me running my mouth kind of shortened my effectiveness.”
The downtown life Carpenter references is the Kanawha County Board of Education, with whom Carpenter has taken issue with on several fronts.
“I’ve seen three different bond levies come through Kanawha County where Capital kids didn’t get anything,” Carpenter said. “Until recently and for thirty years, 65-70 percent of the revenue we generated from football went to Kanawha County schools.”
In 2018, Kanawha County residents passed an excess levy tax rate increase that generated enough revenue for the county board to approve a new artificial turf surface at seven of the county’s eight high schools — all but Capital.
Capital, which calls the University of Charleston Stadium at Laidley Field its home, ran into further issues when repairs to the venue ran behind schedule in 2018. That led to the Cougars being forced to find other facilities to hold practice and the issue was compounded by damage from a June 2019 tornado.
Carpenter estimates that over his last three seasons with the Cougars, “50 days of practice were cut short, canceled or removed in some way.”
“It’s a lot of reasons,” he said. “UC plays Thursday night games. Two years in a row, they worked on the turf causing us to miss practices. It was gut-wrenching to go to meetings and hear people talk about safety and then for two or three years, I’m putting a football team out there that wasn’t always the safest. A lot of powerful people will tell me off camera that it’s wrong, but nobody speaks up or helps you out.”
Carpenter was also outspoken with the lack of recognition for Capital at Laidley Field. He guided the Cougars to an unbeaten season in 2014 that culminated with a Class AAA championship. The Cougars were runner-up the following year and have four state titles and three-runner up finishes since 1989.
“Everybody in Kanawha County has a brand new stadium and a place to be proud of. There’s not even a sign at Laidley Field that celebrates the history of this place. It sure seems like they don’t want these kids to be proud of themselves. It’s always been hard for me to swallow that. I always spoke out against it, but you speak out against things like that, nobody ever says, ‘let’s fix it and you’re right.’ When they want rid of you, they tighten it on you.”
Additionally, Carpenter took issue with what he discerned were different standards in regard to player eligibility at Capital. In 2017, four CHS players were ruled ineligible for a postseason game against University after they had participated in a youth all-star game in Poca.
“I’m the only coach in Kanawha County that’s had kids ruled ineligible on transferring,” he said. “I’ve lost my mind and become ashamed that I couldn’t protect kids. Four kids I’ve seen ruled ineligible after transferring to Capital when I’ve seen kids transfer from Capital, not even have an address and play at other schools.”
Carpenter, who expects assistant coach Mark Mason to be named Capital’s next head coach within the next week, did oversee plenty of success in his tenure.
In addition to a 92-33 record and the lone state title, Capital had six straight state semifinal appearances spanning 2013-2018. In 2015, Capital defeated Martinsburg in a semifinal, which stood as the Bulldogs’ last loss to an in-state team until 2020 when they were upended by Spring Valley to stop a 57-game in-state win streak.
“The thing that I’ll always remember is how accepted I’ve been in the community,” Carpenter said. “I was a 33-year-old from Cabin Creek when (former Principal Clinton Giles) gave me this job. I always knew how blessed I was to have the job and I was always in awe, because I know I’m a lot different than most people. I always tell people, we may not have had the most structure or organization, but we always showed up, tried to have fun and love on them and it always worked out. We had a bunch of fun.”
A special education teacher at Capital, Carpenter will now have more free time with his family. He and his wife, Leslie, have two adopted daughters.
“You learn through the adoption process that when you love something as much as we love Capital High football and you can’t provide for them, you have to give it up,” Carpenter said.
The 45-year-old Carpenter doesn’t foresee himself coaching again.
“I’ve got a real sense of loyalty,” he said. “I don’t think anybody would hire me if it wasn’t for kids from Charleston. You wouldn’t even know my name. I burned my ship when I got here and knew I’d never go anywhere else. The only place I would do it was Capital.
“I can’t imagine anybody being more of a poster child for the importance of education, how it can change your life and how it can change who you want to be. If somebody had told me at 18 I’d be the coach at Capital, I couldn’t have imagined. But when you come here, you realize real quick all kids don’t come first. If you don’t have somebody on that school board or in political positions, you’re not going to be treated fair.”