Highland’s varsity boys basketball season may be over.

That’s the word from the Rams’ varsity players, who have decided that until head coach Ty Pearson resigns, the team will not return to the court. Highland has two-regular season games left on its schedule, plus the beginning of the 5A District 5/6 tournament.

Highland’s game against Madison, scheduled for Wednesday night, has been canceled, Pocatello-Chubbuck School District 25 spokesperson Courtney Fisher confirmed to the Idaho State Journal. The freshman and JV games will go on as planned.

The Rams’ varsity players say they aren’t quitting, just sitting out until the school replaces Pearson. The varsity players say they will return to the court if assistant coaches Jared Godfrey and Chris Ball take over for him.

The varsity players said they expected Pearson to resign this week. But on Tuesday afternoon, he sent a text to players’ parents and informed them that he would be returning to coach the team the rest of the season. 

Highland athletic director Travis Bell replied to Pearson’s text in support of the coach’s decision to remain coach of the team. In a 3:37 p.m. Tuesday text to the team, Bell alerted them of a 4 p.m. practice at the high school, but the only players who showed up belonged to the JV team. During a break in that practice, Pearson emerged from the gym, and the Journal requested comment from him, but he declined.

The Journal contacted him again on Tuesday evening but he was still mulling the decision whether to comment.

Over this season and previous ones, the Rams’ varsity players said they have grown frustrated with Pearson and they can no longer play for him. So far this year, Pearson has led the Rams to a 7-12 record, including a 48-87 (.355) record total and no trips to the 5A state tournament — which the Rams say illustrates how far back their frustration goes.

The varsity players told the Journal that because of Pearson, who’s in his sixth year as the Rams’ head coach, the team cannot reach its full potential. The varsity players have criticized his late-game coaching decisions, a lack of continuity throughout different levels of the basketball program and an on-court play style that fluctuates too often for their liking.

“He has these practice plans that we go through, and they’re never followed,” senior Bradeon Kelley said. “He’s very disorganized. But at the same time, he’s the most organized person outside of it. So it’s kinda weird. I just feel like he goes too far ahead of himself before can do what he’s doing in the present. He gets kinda ahead of himself, and we never follow our practice plan.”

“Sometimes when our plays will be working, and we’ll be scoring off them,” junior Jayden Wright added, “and sometimes Ty will go away from them and call a different play and try to switch it up. We just want consistency calling plays and in-game situations. I know it’s hard, but we need a coach that’s good in that type of situation. Games really do come down to that.”

Players also shared that they felt like Pearson made incorrect decisions in close games, like in a loss to Century on Saturday, when Highland held a 3-point lead in the final seconds. In those types of situations, some coaches opt to intentionally foul the other team, sending them to the free throw line for two shots, stopping them from trying a game-tying 3-pointer. Wright says he brought that idea up. Pearson, he says, decided against it. Moments later, Century freshman Isiah Harwell made a game-tying triple, sending the game into overtime, where the Diamondbacks prevailed.

It’s those types of decisions, the varsity players said, that stop them from playing like they did earlier this season in a win over Rigby, one of the state’s best teams.

Highland’s varsity players said they like Pearson as a person, adding that they enjoy classes with him and talking with him. They just don’t feel he’s the right person to lead their basketball team.

On Monday morning, the varsity players met at the high school with Pearson and Bell to voice concerns. Players informed Pearson and Bell they would like a change at the head coaching position, and if one did not come before the end of the season, they would not return to action.

Later Monday, Pearson texted his players and notified them of another meeting, this one at 5 p.m. When the team arrived for the meeting, which included Pearson, Bell, Godfrey and Ball, silence ensued. The varsity players said that eventually Bell told them that Pearson would remain their coach.

The varsity players said they then took a vote on whether they wanted Pearson to be their coach. The outcome was that they would not return to play with him leading the team but they said he left before they could inform him of the verdict.

The varsity players said they were under the impression that Pearson would resign because of the vote’s outcome.

“We thought everything was resolved at that point,” senior Fischer Anderson said.

But on Tuesday, after it became clear that Pearson might not be resigning after all, the parents of the varsity players joined Pocatello-Chubbuck School District 25 Superintendent Doug Howell in a meeting at the district office to share their concerns. Howell told the parents he would look into the situation concerning the team.

It’s unclear what’s going to happen next with Highland’s varsity team, but unless the players and their coach can find middle ground, the season appears to be headed for a premature end.

This story has been updated to include Pearson's all-time record at Highland.