Posted on 12/09/2005 10:59:07 PM PST by SmithL
Forget "Friday Night Lights."
For this Jefferson County High School football team, it was "Bloody Monday" that has put a head coach and four of his former players on opposing sides in a federal courtroom.
Four Jefferson County players cut from the team in October and their parents filed a lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court against head football coach Marty Euverard, Jefferson County High Principal Dale Schneitman and athletic director Craig Kisabeth.
Both sides agree that whatever happened on Oct. 10, a day the teenagers' attorney, Michael S. Kelley, called "Bloody Monday," in the football locker room led to the legal action.
But neither side agrees on exactly what occurred or why.
Players Derrick "Rabbit" Lowery, Jacob Giles, Joseph Dooley and Dillan Spurlock contend they were booted from the team because they circulated and signed a petition against the coach.
The petition, they insist, came after Euverard's alleged abuse, humiliation, degradation and dishonesty during his two-year tenure as head coach left them disillusioned with their "dream" of playing for the Patriots.
"This is not a lawsuit about money," Kelley said. "It's about the constitutional rights of these students being abridged."
Euverard, Schneitman and Kisabeth counter that the head coach did nothing wrong, nor were the four players punished for the petition. Instead, the trio says, the boys were dismissed from the team for insubordination.
"If (Euverard) had abused players, I wouldn't stand for that," Schneitman said. "I made an investigation into some of the allegations and found them to be unwarranted. Our investigation has us firmly behind our coach."
According to Kelley, parents of at least one of the players began keeping a detailed log of alleged abuses and improper conduct by Euverard and his coaching staff earlier this year. That log included an allegation that an assistant coach grabbed Jefferson County star rusher Chris Shiverdecker by the throat and shoved him in an incident last year.
Shiverdecker left the Patriots at the end of the 2004-2005 school year and transferred to Alcoa High School, where he recently earned MVP honors in this year's 2A state championship game. He is not a party to the lawsuit, however.
Euverard is accused in the lawsuit of delivering a "hard, opened-handed punch" to the side of another player's helmet, "which violently jarred" the player's head.
The lawsuit also details claims of improper mandatory off-season training and humiliating tactics to punish players who missed practices or training, including a prayer led by Euverard in which the head coach allegedly asked God "not to allow those wimps who didn't show up for practice a good night's sleep."
Euverard vehemently denied the allegations Friday, calling them "complete lies."
The log of alleged abuses was turned over to Jefferson County School Board Chairman Greg Sharpe, who declined Friday to turn over the document under the Tennessee Open Records Act.
"I have a document a gentleman gave to me in a personal meeting," he said, adding that he would consult with the school system's attorney about whether he should release the log to the News Sentinel.
The lawsuit alleges that Giles, a sophomore, grew so upset at the coach by mid-season that he drafted on his home computer a petition that read: "I hate Coach Euvard (sic) and I don't want to play for him."
Eighteen current players and two who had already quit the team signed it, more than half of the 39-player roster.
Kelley said neither Giles nor the other players presented the petition to Euverard, Kisabeth or Schneitman. Instead, the document was kept at one of the boys' homes, with the players intending to present it to Schneitman at the end of the football season.
Euverard and Kisabeth found out about the petition, informed Schneitman of an alleged plan to retaliate and then called a team meeting for Oct. 10, the lawsuit alleged.
At that meeting, Euverard summoned the players to his office and "interrogated" them about the petition and whether they had signed it, the lawsuit alleged.
Giles, Lowery, Spurlock and Dooley were booted from the team, as were at least three other players as a result, the lawsuit alleged.
Schneitman denied that on Friday.
"No player was dismissed because they put their name on a petition," he said. "The coach asked them to do something. They refused to do it. When the coach tried to address this situation with the team, these kids were out of line and were asked to leave."
Sharpe said he was "comfortable" with the way Schneitman and Kisabeth have handled the matter. Doug Moody, director of schools for Jefferson County, said he "fully supports" Schneitman's decision-making.
"I fully support the integrity and performance of Marty Euverard," Moody added.
Kelley on Friday threatened his own lawsuit against Moody and the school board after they refused to allow him to speak at a meeting Thursday. Sharpe acknowledged that the attorney was turned away from the podium but said the decision came because Kelley had already addressed the board about the controversy at its November meeting.
The lawsuit seeks $5,000 in compensatory damages for each of the four players, attorney's fees and a total of $200,000 in punitive damages. It also asks that the four boys be reinstated to the team and their dismissals "expunged" from their school records.
Just another big-dollar lawsuit that isn't about the money.
Otherwise known as a "slap." A slap to a helmet. A helmet that is intended to protect the wearer against the onslaught of a 320-lb. linebacker. And we're supposed to believe that a "hey, pay attention" slap caused serious injury to the kid?
Please. Cowboy up, boys.
HOCKEY!!!!!!!!!!!
A local football team experienced a very successful year, even made it to State while under the tutelage of their assistant coach (the head coach was "temporarily unavailable").
When the head coach returned, the team went to his house and told him they didn't want him around any longer, as they had been more successful under the assistant.
Where was the coach, you might ask? SERVING IN IRAQ.
Nice parenting on that one!
What about chess, in badminton you have contact with the birdie?
Organized "sports" are about what?
Not role models, good citizenship, or teamwork!
I say drop these taxpayer funded programs that do nothing more than scout for "talent" to be exploited by the pro's.
Unless the "pro's" want to begin underwriting them? I thought not!
I clearly remember "sports" in H.S., the jocks could commit murder if they wanted, students more interested in an education than "school spirit" and rah-rah for whatever team was playing that day were hassled to no end.
Our population keeps expanding, land is a huge investment for new schools, build on the current athletic fields and save the taxpayers a fortune!
Whatever the claimed benefit of H.S. "sports", this story only confirms that they are imaginary.
Wussy little primadonna football players. "Waah! I failed the test because I was at football practice! Raise my grade or I'll tell the coach!" If they had won a game or two that season, that argument MIGHT carry some water. In the meantime, the debate team, led by me, goes all the way to Nationals, and we all came back in time to ace our exams. The football team gets twenty-three pages in the yearbook and we get one page.
Little punks.
The wrestling coach at my brother's high school got fired because he smacked some kid upside the head and the kid's parents threatened to sue. After the kid graduated from high school and until Katrina (for obvious reasons), he couldn't walk into a single bar in New Orleans without getting his butt whooped.
That's about the dumbest thing that Ive ever heard. Yeah, lets get rid of high school sports- just brilliant.
Heh... naah. We all get along now.
My thoughts exactly. It's an oxymoron -- open-handed + punch.
What was worse was when the coach would 'get yout attention' by popping both ear holes with two open-handed punches (Imean slaps ). THAT would ring your bell.
I'd say tell these self-centered whiners that there's a big difference between talent and team. Also -- put on your big girl panties and deal with it!
And those panties may fit by the time those parents are done emasculating their sons.
But yet he wants $ 220,000+.
The fact that he drove the State MVP from the team by his behavior was very rich, and yet the administration seems to blindly support him. They deserve each other.
The fact that he drove the State MVP from the team by his behavior was very rich, and yet the administration seems to blindly support him. They deserve each other.
When a linebacker hits you, you can hit back -- you can defend yourself -- you can get even, and even more.
WHen the coach hits you, he's trying to humiliate you. You can't hit him back, evn though he deserves it. Your only act of retaliation is to quit the team.
Now, let's see -- the BEST PLAYER IN THE STATE QUIT THE TEAM !! What does that tell you? Read the damn story again.
You obviously have H.S. "issues", which I respect, but your response has NOTHING to do with what is alleged to have happened in this story. The coach in this story is an as*hole, both in his abuse of his team and his sneaky creepy 'investigation' of those who had had enough of him.
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