Earl White was fired in November and exonerated in February.
Now, the former Lithonia head football coach can only hope the controversy that led to his team forfeiting four games in 2009 doesn't keep him off the sidelines in 2010.
White got to keep his teaching job when a DeKalb County tribunal found him not guilty in February of the charges that led to his firing. But he doesn't have a coaching job because Lithonia moved to hire one of White's assistants, Marcus Jeklks.
"The process showed I was innocent of all charges,'' White said. "It was not my fault what happened. But I'm a successful coach who's out of a job. That's not a good feeling.''
White's story is one of the more interesting ones that arose from the 2009. But it's not been reported by the media.
When relieved of his coaching duties in December, White was accused of insubordination for hiring a private investigator to confirm that rival Stone Mountain was using players who lived in the Lithonia district. Stone Mountain wound up forfeiting five games as a result.
White also was charged with knowingly using 11 ineligible players of his own. Lithonia's ineligibles were living in the proper district but were not properly placed on the roster supplied to the Georgia High School Association, according to White. Two were found to be academically ineligible.
The tribunal found that it wasn't White's responsibility to ascertain his players' eligibility. The tribunal also found no written stipulation against a coach or school employee hiring a private eye.
After a suspension, White again is teaching physics and chemistry at Lithonia and is under contract through the next academic year.
White accepts he won't be Lithonia's head coach. He just wants people - especially his peers in the profession and potential employers - to know the rest of the story.
"The process showed I was innocent of all charges,'' White said. "It was not my fault what happened. But I'm a successful coach who's out of a job. That's not a good feeling.''
White said he had no regrets about hiring the private eye.
''I had to have someone else verify that the kid did not live there because they [the GHSA] weren't going to listen to me,'' White said. "I had to have concrete evidence these things were going on. And I would do it again. If would turn in my mother if she were taking away my athletes and taking them somewhere else.''
White hopes to coach in the fall. He can show that he improved the program at Lithonia, which had lost 29 of the past 30 games before he arrived in 2008. Without the forfeits, Lithonia would've had its first non-losing season in seven years.
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