Are prep coaches private citizens or public figures?

Amy: High school coaches can achieve a lot of notoriety in the communities where they work their magic. In some places, with the right personality and a little success, a coach can even become a home-town hero.

But are high school coaches actually public figures or public officials as the law defines? The Utah Supreme Court has been asked to decide as part of an appeal by former Lehi girls basketball coach Mike O'Connor.

Chuck: Can I get back to you on this one? With free two-day shipping I could have all nine seasons of "L.A. Law" and Susan Dey in hand by the end of the week. Maybe the series dealt with this near the end of its run when all the interesting legal story lines had been exhausted.

Amy: OK, so it's not the BYU-Utah game for excitement. But for the thousands of high school coaches trying to teach other people's kids something valuable, it could be a significant issue.

O'Connor, who still teaches at Lehi High, was fired from his coaching job after parents took their complaints about him to the Alpine School Board. He, in turn, sued the parents for defamation.

Lawyers for the parents assert O'Connor is a public official and/or public figure and therefore, much harder to defame. One argument presented before the higher court was that he became a limited-use public figure by responding to the parents' accusations.

Who needs a law degree to decide that issue? Since when does responding to something someone says about you in a public forum make you a public figure?

Chuck: I don't expect the Supremes will require much jurisprudence to tell us O'Conner is indeed a public figure — albeit limited in scope. If he isn't, parents' ability to publicly question a coach's motives or challenge their competence will be severely limited.

Arguably, I'm a limited public figure for my weekly ramblings here. And don't think the e-mail hoards aren't wise to it either. They cyber-badger me, writing ad nauseam how talentless and unfunny I am — realizing I can't sue to take away their iPod home theater system. Besides, they'd probably trot out the "truth, as a defense" defense and win anyway.

Amy: I would agree you are a limited public figure, but that's because you actually have some power and maybe a little name recognition, although I wouldn't want to be you in a crowd of soccer fans.

A public figure is a person people should recognize. A public official is a person responsible for more than the Lady Pioneer practices. A public figure is Marie Osmond. A public official is Rocky Anderson. They are people with power.