Juanita High School has fired its state hall-of-fame baseball coach after his first losing season in 33 years.

Gary Groenen, 67, won three state championships, six KingCo Conference titles and had a 498-264 record that included seven state-semifinal appearances. The Rebels from Kirkland finished 4-15 last season.

The firing comes three years after Juanita named its baseball field after Groenen.

Groenen said Principal Jane Todd called him into a meeting about three weeks ago with athletic director John Appelgate and said some parents had complained. Groenen said he was asked to resign and refused. He later was fired.

"I feel sick about the whole thing," Appelgate said last night.

He declined further comment except to say, "I'll tell you what it's not: He had no improprieties whatsoever ... Gary Groenen is an A-plus person. ... A group of parents didn't run him out. ... It's not because he had a losing season. ... Age was not a factor."

The firing is the second headline-grabbing coaching vacancy in four weeks. Karen Blair, one of the state's top girls-basketball coaches, resigned at Lynnwood's Meadowdale last month, after clashes with parents. She accepted a job at Ballard.

Groenen said the main complaints were that pitchers had thrown too many pitches and that there hadn't been enough live batting practice. He said he used a scorebook to show that pitchers hadn't been over-used. Groenen didn't have more batting practice because he said there wasn't room for simultaneous varsity and junior-varsity practices while one team hit.

Groenen also said that a couple of players made reference to him being "too old" in player evaluation forms. The coach said he had been aware of some parental unrest, and one parent circulated an evaluation form about him.

Groenen said the principal and AD wanted him to come back next year as an "honorary coach" to get his 500th win. His reaction then was, "That's a disgrace."

He says he isn't interested in coaching at another school.

"I've been a Rebel all my life," he said. "I'm done."

Notes

• Rob Morrow is the new boys basketball coach at Renton's Hazen High. Morrow was the video coordinator for the Washington men's basketball last season and has been an assistant at Kentridge and Tahoma.

• Longtime assistant Danny Graham has been promoted to baseball coach at Federal Way.

Seattle Times staff reporter Sandy Ringer contributed to this report.