Ever Been Stabbed deep in the back?

I'm sure it has happened to many and in a much more extreme way but here is my situation, let me know what you think.

Been at a HS since I graduated helping coaching and then full time coaching for 9 of the 12 seasons.In those 12 seasons Head coach that coached me retired and became the AD and his replacement did it for 6 years then retired and I was brought in as the 3rd head coach in the schools 30+years.

I did all the little things pretty much was like we all are: head fundraiser, head coach, asst. coach, etc... you get the idea.

My first year taking over as HC we had not had a winning record in 15 years and it was 15 years earlier before the next one.

I had a kid who was ineligible at the end of the school year heading into my first year. He was allowed to make up some work to raise his grade above the eligible line. He told me he did so, I contacted my AD and said Johnny made up his work can you verify that he is now eligible to play? AD gets back to me yeah he is good to go.

We start the year off 1-3 but the 3 losses are by a combine 15 pts, the week of our week 5 game Johnny's teacher emails me and says , is Johnny going to ever make up that work from over the summer? Long story short Johnny never did it, AD never checked real hard, and we had to forfeit our one win ( a 40 point drubbing) and lose johnny our starting MLB and center.

We had a JV player steal $200 of fund raising materials from us and suspended him from the team, the next week he was flashing the middle finger at the varsity bus as we left for our game, I kicked him off the team, notified parents. Parents complained and AD put him back on the team.

We had team dinner's every Thursday before the Friday game, we have to sign out the cafeteria and the AD was in charge of making sure the table s were all set up. I roll in to help the parents around 5pm and there are no tables to be found. I get a hold of the AD on the phone and he yells at me I'm not the F@$%ing janitor do it yourself.

Then in the off season of my first year I tried to upgrade some small things in the weight room and in the stadium and was always told no because it would require him to fill out a bunch of forms.

Going into my second year as HC I was pretty resigned to the fact that it would be my last but was torn because I really liked the kids. Week 1 we were locked out of our own school at halftime, our kids were harassed and attacked on their way to and from t he school while the D yucked it up on the track watching.

Homecoming we received a delay of game penalty to start the game because the band would not get off the field in time.

Things were set up at this school to where there is clear fear of repercussions for speaking out or up.

I went into the principals office after the last game and respectfully resigned sighting personal reasons. I was wished luck and told if I needed help down the road to come ask. My AD on the other hand after playing for him for 3 years and coaching under/for him for 12 wrote me a one line email saying "thank you for your time the last 2 years."

Extremely long story short I am now interviewing for assistant jobs and did not list my AD or principal as a reference. Apparently when called about me my AD i saying something that is raising red flags with people. It is just amazing that he just wont let me move on and I almost feel handcuffed/blackballed.

Thanks for letting me vent and I would love to hear any thoughts on it or any similar situations.