High School Football Coach Put On Leave Over ‘Push-Up’ Punishment
A Texas high school football coach was suspended after some players needed medical attention following a workout. This story was investigated by FOX 4 News.
The principal at Rockwall Heath High School said steps are being taken to determine exactly what happened. The school district said it hired an “independent third party” to investigate the incident.
The school’s head football coach is accused of requiring a group of football players to do a large number of pushups. Coach John Harrell has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation is underway.
In a letter to parents, the school said the incident happened on Friday during an off-season football program. It didn’t say how many pushups the students had to perform, but a person who emailed FOX 4 said it was several hundred assigned as punishment.
The school said several of the athletes ended up needing medical attention and “some” were hospitalized. The letter did not mention how many went to the hospital and didn’t specify what was wrong with the students. According to a parent of a child who’s hospitalized, it was 300 pushups in an hour with no break or water. One parent said, “As a parent, we send our kids to school trusting that they will be cared for at the highest level. That has been the case until this unfortunate event.”
Brady Luff, a junior captain on the football team, said he was at the workout, and he believes coach Harrell was not punishing players, but instead, instilling discipline. “I’m praying for all the sides that are in the hospital. They’re my brothers,” Luff said.
He said water was available and players were free to leave.
His mother Stephanie Luff is also defending the coach. “So, if anything was going on with this situation that I thought these kids were being harmed, I would’ve been the first person up at the principal’s office or wherever I need to go to have this shut down.”
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