Details emerge behind Daniel Fish's dismissal as football coach at Flagler Palm Coast (Florida): Report

Fish was reprimanded multiple times before being let go from his head football coaching position

Flagler Palm Coast head football coach Daniel Fish talks with the team during practice, Thursday morning, Aug. 8, 2024. / David TuckerNews-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Daniel Fish guided Flagler Palm Coast to a turnaround season in 2024.

From 3-7 in 2023 to 9-2 last fall. Then nearly a month after the season had ended, he was let go as the team's head football coach. But why?

It left many to wonder what happened off of the field that made administrators at the school decided Fish was no longer suited to be the lead man of the Bulldogs.

According to a report by FlaglerLive.com, details have emerged behind Fish being let go at Flagler Palm Coast, which include multiple letters of reprimand by the school and disciplinary action.

Daniel Fish let go as Flagler Palm Coast (Florida) Head Football Coach: Report

Per the report, back in October, Fish was handed a letter of caution regarding an altercation that occurred in the team’s unsupervised locker room.

The incident, per the report, was a student chasing another student with a stick which turned into a more violent altercation between the two. With the two students wrestling each other on the ground, one student that observed the altercation said “All the boys were wrestling around on the floor and were laughing."

The report goes on to state that Flagler Palm Coast principal Bobby Bossardet had reported Fish to the district office with the following: 'failing to instruct his students according to the standards, was failing to keep accurate records for students, was inflating grades and was not teaching any of the standards for the course that was a graduation requirement.'

It was the second letter of reprimand that likely did Fish in as the program's head coach, with report stating that Bossardet told his then-head football coach: 'Should you exhibit negligent teaching practices in the future, it may result in further disciplinary action up to, and including, your dismissal from employment with Flagler County Schools.'

With the letters of reprimand and series of disciplinary actions taken against Fish, he was dismissed on Jan. 17th as Flagler Palm Coast's head football coach. The report states that Fish is still apart of Flagler Palm Coast's faculty, however.

Bouncing back from a difficult 3-7 season in 2023 at Flagler Palm Coast, Fish was able to lead the Bulldogs to a 9-2 record this past 2024 campaign.

It ended up being a banner season for the Bulldogs, as they qualified for the Class 7A playoffs and falling controversially in the region quarterfinal round to Spruce Creek, 36-35.

The nine victories by Fish was the most by a Flagler Palm Coast head coach since 2017 when former Mainland lead man Travis Roland, who is now at Camden County (Georgia), guided the program to a 10-1 mark. 

Now for third time in the last five years, the program will be in search for another head coach to lead the Bulldogs.

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