LINCOLN -- Lincoln Community High School is awaiting the result of an investigation into a racial-discrimination claim before deciding if its baseball coach will return next season, according to a school official.

The school board declined to renew Pat Hake's coaching contract at its June 15 meeting.

Two weeks earlier, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) received a complaint alleging that the district and Hake discriminated against a black student-athlete, department spokesman Jim Bradshaw said Friday.

The district was notified that OCR opened an investigation June 18, said Robert B. Bagby, who became superintendent July 1.

He declined to say if the board's decision not to renew Hake's coaching contract in June was a result of the complaint. School board president Rick Hobler did not return a request for comment.

LCHS Activities Director Sam Knox said the school is not actively looking for a new coach and that school officials are waiting for the OCR complaint to be resolved before moving forward.

"I guess you could say we're in a holding pattern right now," Knox said. "We're waiting to see how the whole situation plays out."

Coach denies allegations

Hake, who came to LCHS in 2000 from a high school in Kankakee, remains a teacher at LCHS.

"I have been a head coach for 15 years at Lincoln and Kankakee and have established that I do not use race as a factor in my coaching decisions or life," Hake said in a statement Friday. "I consider hard work, team play, and skill when making difficult decisions involving playing time and positioning of players.

"That is what I was hired to do and I have met those expectations. I will play players based on what myself and my staff feel is best for our team. Race does not factor into those decisions. The players, coaches, and students that have been around me know this to be true. This has been my character and always will be."

The complaint alleges Hake did not allow the unidentified student to try out for a certain position in spring 2009 and that the district later retaliated against the student and his parent for complaining to the district about a racially derogatory remark. The student was later demoted to the junior varsity team, the complaint alleges.

The opening of an investigation does not imply that OCR has made a decision about the complaint's merits, Bradshaw said. If OCR determines LCHS violated federal civil rights law, the school could lose federal funding.

Most OCR investigations are completed in less than six months, said Bradshaw, meaning this one could be concluded by December. The team can start official practices March 1, Knox said.

Hake's Railsplitters went 16-21 last year but advanced to the sectional championship game. The team is 170-141 during his tenure, according to Illinois High School Association records online.

Enrollment at LCHS in 2008 was 922 students, and 90.6 percent are white, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.