When Jeff Kearin was hired as football coach at Taft in 2021, the school had 27 players on the team and a winless abbreviated COVID-19 season was coming. The Toreadors also had no home field last season waiting for a new all-weather field to be completed.
Now there are over 100 players for the team, a new stadium will open this fall and Taft won a City Section Division III championship in 2021.
So why did Kearin announce on Thursday that he was resigning as the program progressed?
He said he resigned in support of assistant principal in charge of athletics Neezer McNab, who has faced disciplinary action and potential demotion from the school’s principal, Daniel Steiner, over how she told students to avoid music to reject.
“She’s a great administrator,” said Kearin, a former head coach at Loyola who came to Taft after McNab’s hiring.
McNab is a past chairman of the City Section Board of Managers and a current CIF representative of the City Section on the State Federated Council and member of the CIF Executive Committee. Her husband is former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame football coach Joe McNab.
“She is always there for all student-athletes,” said City Section Commissioner Vicky Lagos.
“This was not my plan,” Kearin said of his firing.
McNab has gone through the appeals process within the Los Angeles Unified School District and continues to serve as assistant principal pending the outcome of her litigation. A LAUSD spokeswoman said all personnel matters are confidential.
