Lehi fires O'Connor; star player leaving

LEHI — The Lehi Pioneers are looking for a new girls basketball coach, and the 3A MVP is looking for a new school.

Just a day after coach Mike O'Connor was fired, Michelle Harrison petitioned the school and the Utah High School Activities Association to allow her to transfer to 4A Mountain View in Orem.

"She can't deal with those people who've treated her so bad for two years," said Judy Harrison, Michelle's mother. "This isn't about the coach. It's about Michelle. . . . I don't trust any of them."

Judy Harrison is concerned that with O'Connor gone the situation at the school will only get worse for her daughter, who is being heavily recruited. The junior received 120 recruiting letters in the mail just this week.

The mother said she knows moving to Mountain View will be controversial, as the Bruins have been accused in the past of recruiting and are a perennial power in girls basketball, winning a state title eight of the past nine seasons. They also own a 2001 national title and have produced three of the past four Deseret Morning News Ms. Basketball honorees.

"We pulled up in front of Mountain View and just laughed because this is last place we thought Michelle would ever go to school," Harrison said Friday. "She wants to stay in Utah County, and she knows a lot of the players from summer clinics and camps."

Harrison said she is making the move because O'Connor was the only buffer between her daughter and what she sees as vindictive, dishonest and jealous parents who've taken over the program. The coach came under fire from a group of parents last year when they accused him of showing favoritism toward Harrison and being verbally abusive toward other players.

Principal Sheldon Worthington issued a letter last spring supporting O'Connor and asking parents to come to him with concerns. Several parents and players went to an Alpine school board meeting in August, and then Worthington began another dialogue with parents and players.

He declined to talk in detail about the rationale behind the firing Thursday of O'Connor, who has coached the program for three years and earned back-to-back region titles for the Pioneers.

"We just decided to go in a different direction," Worthington said. He's not sure who will take over the program.

O'Connor said he wasn't surprised by the decision as he'd heard rumors for more than a week. He was startled that there was no discussion about why he was being let go.