Long-time THS coach wants to know why he was forced out

TRINITY — For more than 40 years, Mike Sink coached teams, manicured sports fields, and fixed lawn mowers and scoreboards at Trinity High School.

Now all he wants to know is why he was asked to turn in his keys and resign from his coaching positions.

“I was forced to resign, I did not resign on my own,” said Sink, who for weeks sent letters, emails and phone calls to school representatives in an attempt to find the reason why he was forced to resign. “They did not give me a reason. They said their hands were tied and they had to let me go. I was in total shock. I didn’t leave my house for two weeks. I don’t know what I did. I don’t have a clue.”

That meeting with school officials took place on April 11 — with games still remaining in the girls’ soccer season — and Sink said he’s been searching for a reason ever since. Sink said once parents heard of the situation, phone calls, letters and petitions were sent in an attempt to reinstate him. 

Although Sink says he doesn’t believe this is the reason, a player on his girls soccer team who was injured in an automobile accident a few weeks before Spring Break sat out until she told Sink she was cleared for an April 9 game against Southwestern Randolph High School. The player’s parents had given permission for their daughter to play that day and had documentation from her doctor. She played a few minutes in a game that Trinity won 7-0.

The next day, according to Sink, the team’s trainer asked the player how she was feeling and the player said she had played a few minutes in the game.

Later, Sink was told by THS Athletic Director Robert Mitchell that the Bulldogs would have to forfeit the game and Sink would be put on probation per a decision by the NCHSAA.

“Then they call me in for a meeting and (Principal Dr. Brian Toth) looks at me and says HR said you have to turn in your keys, you are done and can’t do anything else at Trinity High School,” Sink said of the April 11 meeting. “He said if you need to go over to the fieldhouse and get your stuff, you can do that. We trust you to turn the keys in. To this day, I don’t know what happened.”

The problem, most likely, was that the player was not cleared by the school trainer. One would think that coaches, trainers and personal physicians would all work together, but that was not the situation in this case as Sink said he was under the assumption that with a doctor clearing the girl to play, it was okay. Sink said he had not talked with the THS trainer. The situation potentially raises the question of who is more valid to make that decision, a personal doctor or a school trainer?

Sink says he asked numerous people in numerous local educational entities what he needs to do to get his job back, but no one will give him an answer on why he lost it in the first place. 

“The only thing I got from (Randolph County Schools Superintendent Stephen Gainey) was that it was not a county school issue,” Sink said. 

Mitchell and Dr. Gainey were contacted and both said they couldn’t comment on the situation. Efforts to reach THS Principal Toth were unsuccessful.

Sink said he was beginning to transition from leadership in the girls and boys soccer programs as well as the girls basketball program to coaches who would take over in the 2026-27 season. He said he planned on retiring from head coaching, but still wanted to be an assistant.

“My plans were already in motion,” said Sink, who was set to hand over the reins to his son Nathan Sink for boys soccer, Zach Brown for girls soccer and Molly Welch for girls basketball. All three had already been named as Sink’s successors.

Sink, who retired from Northstate Telephone, said this has nothing to do with complaints from parents because all have been very supportive during a year which he calls one of the best we had in a while. Trinity finished 9-11-1 overall and 6-6 in conference play after the forfeit was applied.

“I was going to come back, continue what I have been doing, then step back and enjoy it,” Sink said. “Three games left in the year. I’m still speechless. Nobody has talked to me.”

If it did have to do with playing a player before being cleared by the trainer, that would have repercussions. However, talking with the player’s mother, she said her daughter was given permission to play by her and her doctor and that the trainer never had one discussion during the entire time of the incident.

The mother confirmed the player never suffered a concussion from the automobile accident and they have talked to lawyers in order to help Sink get reinstated.

Sink, who was a member of the Randolph County School Board from 2020-2024, said he is hurt, bitter, upset, feels betrayed, but mostly “lost” by the situation.

“I went back to one game and sat on the visitors’ side,” Sink said. “I didn’t want to disrupt the team. When the game was over, they invited me onto the field and into the fieldhouse and the girls surrounded me. I will and have done anything for anybody. I just want to know why.”