Football Coach Kicks Player Off Team For Missing Game, Gets Fired After 11 Players Quit to Show Support
Rio Americano High School football coach Christian Mahaffey tried to send a message when he kicked one of his players off the team for missing a league game to attend a baseball recruiting event. The response to that message was strong – 11 players quit the team in support of their friend. When administrators told the coach to bring all the students back, he refused and got fired.
Senior WR/DE Guillermo Salazar informed the coach that he would have to miss an October 13th game to attend a baseball showcase in Arizona. Salazar is a college baseball prospect. Instead of being a nice guy and letting the kid take advantage of a great opportunity, Mahaffey forced Salazar to quit. Principal Brian Ginter stepped in to resolve the situation. From the Sacramento Bee:
Ginter met Tuesday with the coach and told Mahaffey he was bringing back the 11 players with a one-game suspension “for insubordination.”
“He felt he couldn’t be able to coach effectively if that happened and that he would not do that,” Ginter said. “So at that particular time, I had to let him go.”
Mahaffey had been with the program for 17 seasons and had been the head coach for four years.
“I felt I was painted into a corner,” said Mahaffey, an off-campus coach who teaches special education in the San Juan Unified School District. “I tried to stand up for the right thing and still think I have. … I couldn’t coach a group of kids who bullied their way back on the football team.”
Mahaffey stands by his decision. [Sacramento Bee]
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35 Responses to “Football Coach Kicks Player Off Team For Missing Game, Gets Fired After 11 Players Quit to Show Support”
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October 3rd, 2012 at 1:47 PM
So this happened in Mexico?
October 3rd, 2012 at 1:48 PM
I’m gonna throw this out there based on a rough understanding of how commercials for Breaking Bad work: Principal Brian Ginter deals meth. Also, he did the right thing here
October 3rd, 2012 at 1:48 PM
Rio Americano High School
This is all sorts of wrong.
October 3rd, 2012 at 1:53 PM
Rio Americano High School football coach Christian Mahaffey
I don’t think his religion is relevant, unless he was sent to Mexico to convert the Indians.
October 3rd, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Rambo on a horse!
“Brian was put in a bad position, and he had to make a choice. I don’t agree with the choice, but that’s what a principal does.”
Tough deal for all involved. Can’t blame the player for seeking opportunity. But, he did put personal desire over team. If I was the coach, I would’ve start Salazar’s backup, with an eye towards that backup getting more time as Salazar returned.
How many of you in the commentariat have had that dilemma before? What did you do? What did your coach do?
I was never so good where I had that choice (miss a game in one sport for a college opportunity in a different sport).
October 3rd, 2012 at 1:56 PM
Beisbol?
October 3rd, 2012 at 1:56 PM
Entitled kids crying when they don’t get their way. Probably asked for a trophy when they quit, too.
Don’t join the football team if you’re not all in.
October 3rd, 2012 at 1:58 PM
Rio Americano High School
This is all sorts of wrong.
It is?
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:00 PM
Would he have kicked him off the team if a family member died?
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:01 PM
Coach can’t see the big picture…probably a terrible game manager anyway. The team is better off without him.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:02 PM
Strange combination?
Fuck this coach, get that money. “My part time job is more important than the rest of your life,” wanker.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:03 PM
I had to miss 3 games during my highschool career due to orchestra stuff (state tryouts, governor’s school tryouts, and a musical I was getting paid to do), and my coaches were perfectly fine with it. I did give plenty of notice, but they understood that a)it was just 1 game and b)regular season games aren’t that big of a deal.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:03 PM
Would he have kicked him off the team if a family member died?
You aren’t much good to the team if you keep missing games for funerals and bullshit. The team is your family now
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:04 PM
If the kid’s that good at baseball all the guy did him was a favor by freeing up more of his time to spend at the batting cage….When the kid never makes it higher than AAA ball he can thank the other 11 dopes that got him dragged back in to his secondary sport….
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:09 PM
Guy hits all 15 picks on his parlay… wins $725K on a 5 dollar bet when the referees stole a game from GB.
This story is prominently featured on a website that covers the league that tries to downplay the fact that a great deal of its viewers are gamblers.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:09 PM
Found this kid’s name on a couple of MLB draft lists as a RHP prospect, he made the right choice. 11 kids would not have walked out on this coach is he was liked/competent, 2 and 3 in this season.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:09 PM
Meathead coach thinking he’s Vince Lombardi. You’re coaching at the high school level, dumbass. A big part of your job as a member of the school staff should be trying to get these kids into college. To penalize someone for attempting to do this is as idiotic as any defense of his actions.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:13 PM
So the coach made the kid choose and he chose beisbol. Then his friends stood up to him and the principal tried to calm things down but Coach wouldn’t back down.
So far, tough to see how the coach did anything right.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:14 PM
Fortunately they still won their game against Oui Américain High by forfeit.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:16 PM
Beisbol?
borracho?
gordo?
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:18 PM
Rio American = American River, a waterway that runs along the east side of the school’s campus. I don’t know if you are all aware of this or not but California, where this school is located, has a long history of Spanish speaking. To whit, from wikipedia: The American River (RÃo de los Americanos during the Mexican-ruled period before 1846)
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:20 PM
starkington, laying down some knowledge
/knowledge es rey
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:21 PM
The goal of a coach is to help your players succeed in life, teach him to be a better man, etc. Yes, winning is what anopther goal is, but he’s not Vince Lombardi coaching pros. Any way you can get a kid to higher education through sports, you do it. Bad call by the coach.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:21 PM
check out the cleavage on that horse
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:22 PM
And these showcases are crucial for baseball players trying to get a scholarship. Especially if your high school coach does nothing to help you out.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:23 PM
this exact same thing happened to me! my junior year of highschool, I had made it to first chair tuba in the marching and concert bands. academically, I was taking AP physics and had the option of only taking the first semester or taking first and second semester…I wanted to do both semesters. the problem was that second semester band class conflicted with the class time for AP physics. I informed the band director that I needed to not have band because of AP physics but I wanted to participate in the concerts and continue my preparations for senior clinic where I had been practicing for my audition and hoping to make the state’s top band that spring. he told me he wouldn’t let me practice after school with the band if I didn’t take the class and so my only options sd he saw it were quitting band or not taking the second half of AP physics. I quit band right there on the spot. in protest of the director’s assholery, half the brass players (fellow tubas, trombones, trumpets) rallied behind me and quit too. I also lost my virginity that second semester which may or may not be directly related to not playing the tuba anymore.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:23 PM
+ 1 table dance and bucket of beers at Club Super Sexe Montreal
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:26 PM
next time miz, say ‘this one time at band camp’
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:27 PM
Ha!
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:35 PM
“Einstein’s Tuba” the feel good story of the year starring Michael Cera and Gabourey Sidibe in theaters 2013.
October 3rd, 2012 at 2:44 PM
Heck, at my high school, band members pulled more tail than football players, and a higher quality to boot.
Of course, the football team was 2-8 senior year while the marching band won best in state.
October 3rd, 2012 at 3:16 PM
Fortunately they still won their game against Oui Américain High by forfeit.
Fantastic.
October 3rd, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Heck, at my high school, band members pulled more tail than football players, and a higher quality to boot.
In the band, tail is slang for clarinet.
October 3rd, 2012 at 5:16 PM
Interesting to read the one-sided take on this article.
Terrible life-lesson for 11 kids.
If you don’t agree with something protest and get the people fired.
October 3rd, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Here’s a video from Dan Hawkins that sums up this event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je-gpy6Y_UA