#Elite NYC private school fires football coach over ‘culture’

The headmaster at an elite Brooklyn private school “canceled” his varsity football coach because the successful athletic program supposedly generated a “toxic” culture, furious parents told The Post.

Audrius Barzdukas, head of Poly Prep Country Day School, sacked Kevin Fountaine, who had worked at the Dyker Heights school for 19 years, the last five as head coach, just as the team’s Oct. 26 practice session started, sources said.

Fountaine, a 55-year-old former NYPD cop, was told to immediately leave the $53,000-a-year school, and his players were told of his exit as they were gearing up for their Oct. 30 playoff game.

“It was shocking, emotional. Kids crying. Everyone crying. It was traumatic,” said a member of the coaching staff.

Fountaine’s ouster led some parents to fear the worst.

Poly Prep’s football program had been rocked by accusations of years of sexual abuse by former coach Philip Foglietta, who left in 1991. The school settled a lawsuit over the abuse in 2012 and issued an apology to victims in 2014.

But the football program had regained its luster in recent years. Poly Prep alum Isaiah Wilson, who was coached by Fountaine, was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in 2020 and was recently signed to the New York Giants’ practice squad.

It was Fountaine who restored Poly Prep football, one parent said.

“That’s one of the beautiful things that Fountaine has done. He’s come to a broken program. He’s brought so much incredible love, inspiration, motivation to it,” the mom said. “He’s created . . . this incredible program.”

She and others said there was no hint of scandal with Fountaine.

“I know Kevin Fountaine is of the highest degree of character and probably the most kid-first coach I’d ever been associated with,” said Craig Jacoby, a former Poly Prep athletic director who hired Fountaine in 2002.

Now families are demanding answers from Barzdukas, who, according to the parent, told some of them: “I’m the headmaster. I make these decisions.”

Barzdukas also told parents that “the football culture is toxic” and “we don’t need this on our campus,” the mom said.

As an example, he cited an argument that involved not Fountaine but Mike Camardese, the junior-varsity coach who was given the ousted coach’s job.

Camardese was accused of using foul language at a JV game on Oct. 25, the parent said.

Barzdukas, who gathered the team in the school’s chapel to explain Fountaine’s exit, also claimed players were cutting classes and being disrespectful to LGBT people, according to the football-team staffer, who was at the meeting.

“He repeated ‘culture’ like hundreds of times and really disparaged the kids,” recalled the staffer, who said Barzdukas gave no specifics.

One football player did cut class, but had been reprimanded by Fountaine, the staffer noted. It seemed as if Barzdukas was trying to justify the firing by “putting it on coach Fountaine and also putting it on the kids,” the staffer said.

The parent said Barzdukas also told the team that girls had been complaining that the players had made them feel uncomfortable.

That claim may be related to a group of female students griping about one boy on the team who was called “creepy” on an Instagram page by students, the parent said.

The mom said Barzdukas also blamed parents for not behaving properly at games.

“It’s this weird narrative that he’s trying to create, and it’s bulls- -t,” she said.

Founded in 1854, Poly Prep counts Dolphins coach Brian Flores and ex-Knick Joakim Noah among its grads. Jon Bon Jovi’s son Jesse Bongiovi played football and lacrosse there.

Fountaine did not return requests for comment.

Barzdukas, who came to Poly Prep in 2016 from Harvard-Westlake School in LA, where he was athletic director, said the school “would not comment on personnel matters.”

“At Poly, we care deeply about promoting a culture rooted in integrity, civility and respect, and when necessary, we take decisive action to protect this culture,” he said. “Every member of our community — faculty, staff, students, parents — has a role in modeling our core values.”