Video of HS Coach Hitting Girl in Head with Volleyball
A girls high school volleyball coach in New Jersey finds himself apologizing yet again for an issue that just won't go away -- thanks to the Internet. The issue is his hitting one of his own players in the head with a volleyball.
It happened last October during a Southern Regional High School match. Coach Eric Maxwell says he was angry by a serious of calls that cost his team a point. He picked up an errant ball, and intended to throw it at a wall. Instead, it hit one of his players in the head. The incident was caught on video.
show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drq9pXKWm0Q&feature=player_embedded
Maxwell immediately apologized, sending a letter to the parents of his players, saying in part:
It is with deep regret and humility that I write this letter. My actions on the court yesterday were unprofessional, unsportsmanlike and embarrassing. I feel that I not only embarrassed myself but also Southern Regional and our volleyball program. There are no excuses for my behavior and I simply ask for your forgiveness as you have entrusted me with the welfare of your daughters.
Maxwell said his players rallied around him, telling him what happened was no big deal. That should have been the end of the story, but with the Internet, stories never end. After the video was posted to YouTube and the national sports blog Deadspin.com picked it up, the story had legs again.
"For us, it was ultimately over in a couple of hours," Maxwell said. "I took care of it immediately. It was over in the minds of players and parents."
"You see a short clip like that, but no one knows what preceded it. I'm not condoning my behavior in getting upset and yelling at a referee, but my intent was to throw it off the wall. It certainly looks like I threw it at her," he said.
Southern Regional School District Superintendent Craig Henry said the incident was an anomaly and completely out of character for Maxwell. "This coach is a faith-based individual and he is moved to emotion every time it comes up. He's a class act in everything he does," Henry said.
Even still, Henry said Maxwell is now being closely monitored, and will be on probation for one year.
"It's a very regrettable and unfortunate situation, and it should not have occurred. It was an exhaustive investigation, and Coach Maxwell is mortified that it occurred," Henry said.
While Maxwell, the team, and the school would like to put this in the past, it may not be possible.
"But the Internet has provided a forum for anything and everything to be put out there. In the age of the Internet anything can be perpetuated," Henry said.
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His behavior is completely unacceptable! I don't believe his explanation for a second...In the video you can clearly hear people saying "he gets kicked out every time".
"Coach" Maxwell, you should do the only right thing and step down. You should seek help for your anger issues, and if you can then act like a respectable human being, possibly come back.
Oh, stop the protest everybody. He's a "faith-based" individual. Sorry for the trouble, coach. If you had been an atheist or agnostic or a muslim -- well, then you would have been fired .
But you're faith-based! So get back to coaching.
This coach should be gone. Period. Gone. He literally picks up a loose ball and hurls it at his own player's head. "I was throwing it against the wall"?
Um, no you weren't. You were pretty much throwing it at your player's head during a game with a crowd present.
Gone.
That the agnostic, the atheist , and the Muslim are all faithless? That seems to be your implication and it makes no sense whatsoever.
I think we all know you actually meant 'Christian' when you said "faith-based individual". What we don't know is why you didn't simply make the connection.
Are you lacking the stones to debase Christians , and choose instead to muddy the waters with substituted terms? If so, why should you be taken seriously?
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
You have no idea what was in this guys mind or heart. You are part of the larger problem in the country, knee-jerk reactionism. He made a mistake. No one got hurt, no one died, no one was maimed. He apologized, several times, asked for forgivness, and it appears was throughly investigated and not found to have the intent of hurting his player.
The school , team, and most importantly, the player and her parents, the ultimate decision makers here, have forgiven him and moved on. Why would you care or demand a pound of flesh from a situation in which you have no stake?
I admit the "faith based" comment was weird, and I would be totally against granting him any leniency based on religion , but I think that leaving that aside, he should be allowed to remain a coach. From that video I can't say for sure whether it was an accident or not, but if both the coach and the players (who, after all, have the most reason to be concerned) insist it was an accident, I'm not one to contradict them.