Both were key figures in Dunbar’s football team forfeiting Weeks 9-10 games this past season for playing an academically ineligible player. Pullen was Dunbar’s athletic director, a position he has since resigned from. Powell is Dunbar’s head football coach.
Those forfeits allowed City League rival Belmont to qualify for the playoffs and knocked Piqua and Cincinnati Princeton out of playoff contention. Dayton Public Schools and the Ohio High School Athletic Association have ongoing investigations into the circumstances of those forfeits.
Pullen, 62, is the most successful basketball coach in the storied program’s history. In 12 seasons Dunbar is 265-50 with four Division II state championships and two more final four appearances. In the 2011-12 season Dunbar was 28-0.
A Nashville, Tenn., native, Pullen also was Dunbar’s girls head coach from 1998-2004, compiling a 109-29 record and going 44-0 in City League play.
Dunbar’s boys split two games during last weekend’s season-opening play, beating Meadowdale and losing to Newark. Powell has been Dunbar’s head football coach the last four seasons. Pullen is a classroom teacher at Dunbar and Powell is a paraprofessional. Pullen declined comment.
Dunbar’s next scheduled game is Friday at Belmont.
• Duke sophomore Luke Kennard (Franklin) scored 20 first-half points and had a career-high 35 in a 94-55 defeat of visiting Maine last Saturday. He hit 11 of 16 shots and 4 of 9 threes to go with eight rebounds. Kennard has started every game and leads Duke in scoring (19.4) and rebounding (6.7).
Duke (8-1) plays Florida on Tuesday in the Jimmy V Classic in New York (9:30 p.m., ESPN).
• D’Mitrik Trice (Wayne) is a freshman guard at Wisconsin. A top sub, he’s averaging 6.8 points, 2.2 assists and 1.9 rebounds. He had a season-high 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting in a 90-70 defeat of visiting Oklahoma last Saturday. Wisconsin (7-2) hosts Idaho State on Wednesday.
• Michigan State 6-5 sophomore guard/forward Kyle Ahrens (Versailles) had six points and four rebounds in his first career start, an 80-76 defeat of Oral Roberts last Saturday. MSU (5-4) hosts Youngstown State on Tuesday.
• West Virginia senior Ashley Woolpert (Springboro) finished her Mountaineers women’s soccer career in a 3-1 loss to USC in the NCAA Division I national championship on Sunday at San Jose, Calif. A top sub, Woolpert had one goal and three assists for West Virginia (23-2-2), which was ranked No. 1 in the nation.
• Wayne head track and field coach Mike Fernandez will be inducted into the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame next month at Columbus. A Wayne grad, Fernandez will be among two coaches and four athletes to be inducted on Jan. 27 at the Hilton Easton.
Fernandez has been the Warriors head coach since 1998. He was a Warriors assistant coach on the 1995 Division I boys state title team and was head coach in 2000 when Wayne won the D-I boys title. Wayne boys also have placed state runner-up twice and third three times with Fernandez as head coach. Wayne has had 11 individual state champs and one relay state champ in that time.
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