Anaconda hires Norris, Saltenberger as head basketball coaches

After nearly two months of uncertainty, the Anaconda School District Board of Trustees passed motions Wednesday evening to hire Dakota Norris as the next boys coach and Andy Saltenberger as the girls coach.

Both motions passed unanimously inside Anaconda High School's Little Theater, where the board sat at tables upon the stage.

Norris is the current athletic director and assistant principal at Anaconda High School, and will report to principal Erik Swanson, according to superintendent John Sullivan.

Saltenberger was the previous Copperheads girls coach but resigned ahead of an April 14 board meeting during which the board was to vote on whether or not he would be retained. Because of his resignation, no action item regarding his possible rehiring was taken during that meeting.

Saltenberger's assistant coaches Mark Torney and Mary Sandoval were hired in the same motion alongside the head coach.

Previous to becoming the athletic director and assistant principal, Norris was the athletic director, head boys basketball coach and head golf coach of the Deer Lodge Wardens.

Norris replaces Rochi Estes, nephew of Copperheads legend Wayne Estes, whom the board voted 6-1 to not retain on April 14, despite recommendations to rehire by both Norris and Sullivan.

Rochi Estes was not in attendance Wednesday.

Approximately two dozen people sat in the theater seats at the start of the meeting. Three individuals gave public comment during the allotted period before the board voted on the motion to hire Norris. 

All three chose neither to discuss nor argue the impending outcome of Wednesday's meeting, but rather the process and actions of the board and administration that led to it.

Outspoken Anaconda community member Blake Hempstead said Norris being hired as the basketball coach after supporting Estes' renewal two months ago is a bad look.

"It seems ... not right," Hempstead said in comments that lasted more than three and a half minutes. "Optics are huge in this case. I never want our school to look bad in the public eye."

He went on to compliment Norris.

"I'm not saying anything negative about Dakota," Hempstead said. "I knew him as a coach at Deer Lodge and as an athletic director. I thought he did a great job."

Ron Estes, Rochi Estes' father, stood just inside the double-door entrance to offer his comments to the board. The elder Estes expressed that he felt his son was treated unfairly.

"What did he do wrong?" Ron Estes said. "It can't be wins or losses. We've got programs that have won just a couple of games. It can't be that. It's got to be personal reasons."

Ron Estes also claimed that Rochi Estes was "wandering around here having no idea what's going on." Rochi Estes told The Standard's Matthew Kiewiet that he was "blindsided" by the board's decision on April 14 not to retain him.

Sullivan offered some explanation to Ron Estes' assertion that administration did not communicate with Rochi Estes.

"I did talk to Rochi. The board asked us as an administration to go in a new direction. So a new direction means hiring a new coach," Sullivan said. "We interviewed to hire and move the program in a new direction. That is what we were tasked to do and that's what we did.

"I did visit with Rochi so to say that he was not visited with is not factual. He understood where I was at."

Sullivan then addressed the complaints that Rochi Estes was not interviewed in the latest round after he applied for both the boys and girls positions. 

"My job is to move the school forward. Any position that comes open, whether it's a terminated position or it's another position, and the board says 'we no longer want this person' you need to find somebody and move in a new direction," Sullivan said. "We do that with cooks, we do that with janitors, we do that with teachers and now we're doing that with coaches. 

"We had applicants. We interviewed who we thought the board would accept as a new direction."

Community member Cathy Markee was the last in attendance to give public comment before the board voted to hire Norris. She said she was at the meeting on April 14.

"Over and over you (the board) said 'but they can reapply, but they can reapply, but they can reapply,'" Markee said. "They reapplied, he didn't even get an interview. I think that's wrong. I just think you should know that I think it's wrong."

After the meeting, Norris said he still supports Rochi Estes.

"The optics do look bad but I do believe in my heart that I did everything possible to help retain Rochi," Norris said.

In a phone interview prior to Wednesday's meeting, Rochi Estes said that while he feels like the job should still be his, he still wishes the best for the team.

"I'm gonna miss that time, that relationship, the coaching, the comradery, everything that goes along with being a coach. I'm going to miss all of that," he said. "I hope nothing but the best for our kids. I hope they win every game. I hope they win it all. (It's) not gonna matter whether I'm the coach or not. I still hope for the best for those kids." 

Rochi Estes also said he turned down an offer to be an assistant coach for Norris.

"I'm not too interested in being an assistant coach for a shady system," Rochi Estes said. "I love Anaconda. I love the game of basketball. The reason I became a coach in the first place was to try to make our program successful."

Following the motions to hire new basketball coaches, the board also hired a new high school cheer advisor. The motion to hire Mary Norris, of no relation to Dakota Norris, was passed unanimously.