Hunterdon Central Regional High School District has agreed to pay former wrestling coach Stephen Gibble $1 million to settle a wrongful-termination lawsuit that traced back to a 2014 incident at a Rutgers University wrestling camp. The district did not admit any wrongdoing in reaching the deal, which came shortly before the case was set to go to trial.
According to nj.com, Gibble filed the original suit against Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington in November 2016, years after the district removed him from his longtime coaching post. The outlet reports the district settled the case for $1 million and did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the deal.
Gibble, a 1980 graduate of Hunterdon Central, had coached wrestling at the school since the early 1990s and was a member of the NJSIAA Coaches Hall of Fame. He continued working as a social studies teacher at the district even after losing his coaching role, staying on until his retirement in 2024.
What Happened at the Rutgers Camp
The dispute began in July 2014, when Gibble was serving as a volunteer coach at a wrestling camp hosted by Rutgers University — an event that, per the nj.com report, was not a school-sponsored activity. The lawsuit alleged Gibble asked one of the boys at the camp whether he had access to firearms or other weapons, and a camp roommate said Gibble asked whether a gun cabinet had a lock. The boy left the camp early, and Gibble notified school officials about the departure himself.
Weeks later, on August 21, 2014, school administrators told Gibble he had violated the district’s harassment, intimidation and bullying policy. The boy’s mother filed a formal HIB complaint with the district on September 8, 2014. Gibble went on to receive a letter finding that he had violated the HIB policy and scheduling a review by the Board of Education, and the school board approved his removal as wrestling coach at a meeting on November 17, 2014.
Due-Process Fight Dragged On for Years
Gibble’s case became tangled in a long administrative battle over whether he was given a fair chance to respond. He alleged that the district’s determination of his policy violation came before the complaint was even filed, that officials denied his request for a hearing because he was a staff member, and that the district turned over only part of the investigative file.
An administrative law judge ruled in 2016 that the school district had violated Gibble’s due-process rights, and the state Commission of Education agreed. The matter was then sent back to the school board for review. A later Trinity & Farsiou summary notes that an Appellate Court decision upheld the state Office of Administrative Law’s ruling on Gibble’s right to a hearing.
Despite that outcome, the school board voted in November 2018 to reject the HIB findings altogether. That decision prompted Gibble to file an amended lawsuit, which included allegations that former Superintendent Christina Steffner wanted to replace him with someone she knew and revamp athletic teams with younger coaches.
A Hall of Fame Resume on the Mat
Gibble’s coaching record became part of the public record during the years of litigation that followed his removal. Per lehighvalleylive.com, his teams won four Skyland Conference titles and 11 of 19 sectional championships during his tenure as head coach. Accounts differ on the exact length of that tenure — lehighvalleylive.com cited a 348-119 record over 22 years, while a 2016 nj.com report on the dismissal ruling put it at 23 years with nearly 350 dual-meet wins.
Attorneys Steven Farsiou and Tracy Bussel represented Gibble throughout the case, according to Farsiou. Farsiou said school districts should handle disputes with fairness, due process, accountability and transparency in order to avoid costly litigation like the suit that just concluded.
For its part, the district said the settlement lets it focus on students’ emotional safety, growth and education, according to the same nj.com report that first detailed the $1 million resolution. The case closes out a legal saga that stretched from a single wrestling camp exchange in 2014 to a settlement reached more than a decade later, just as the matter was headed to trial.
