Mattituck baseball coach Steve DeCaro placed on administrative leave

Longtime Mattituck baseball coach Steve DeCaro has been placed on administrative leave from his full-time district job as a physics teacher following “complaints of inappropriate behavior,” superintendent Jill Gierasch said in a statement.

“We take all matters of this nature very seriously as providing a safe and secure environment for our students to succeed is of utmost importance for us,” Gierasch said. “We are currently working on securing a leave replacement physics teacher to fulfill our instructional needs.”

DeCaro, who was placed on leave Oct. 9, declined to comment. He has a 246-142 record in 16 seasons as Mattituck’s baseball coach and has been named Newsday’s Suffolk coach of the year twice in the last four seasons.

About 200 people including a handful of baseball players appeared at the Mattituck board of education meeting last Thursday to express their support for DeCaro, according to a story in the Suffolk Times.

By Jim Baumbach

jim.baumbach@newsday.com

Jim Baumbach is an award-winning investigative reporter at Newsday, where he has worked since 1998. He spent two decades in the sports department, where he covered every professional team and league, including events such as the Super Bowl and World Series.