Arizona’s high school football team did the unthinkable and won a football game without their coaching staff.
The Sierra Linda High School football team traveled over three hours from Phoenix to Yuma, pulling out a narrow win 23-21, improving their record to 6-2 on the season. Now the question you may be asking is– what happened to the teams’ coaches?
It started when Sierra Linda’s head coach was suspended over an equipment issue involving the freshman team not wearing hip pads during a game that the head varsity coaches also coach. According to the Arizona Republic, a referee during last Wednesday’s freshman game involving Sierra Linda noticed that none of the players on the team were wearing hip girdles and decided to suspend the game and the coach for unsafe conditions.
Angered by the league’s decision, the head coach and the rest of his staff decided to sit out the varsity game two days later in protest. Despite the coach’s decision, the players still planned to play the game, and the school sent a message to parents that their kids would be coachless a few hours after the team left for Yuma. Here is the email the school sent to parents.
I would like to inform you that the SLHS Varsity Football game in Yuma is still on schedule and the team departed at approximately 1:30 p.m.,” the email said. “Unfortunately, our SLHS coaches decided they were not going to accompany the team on this trip. Consequently, we had to scramble to find certified, highly qualified and authorized coaches to substitute in their place. I apologize for the late notice as we were still unsure we could make this happen. We did not want our players to miss out on the opportunity to play in the game and we sent 99% of the team.
With replacement coaches and players calling plays, they were able to pull out the win with many parents proud of the boys, including one parent who sent a text message to the Arizona Republic.
“So our boys won 23-21 coaching themselves calling their own offensive and defensive plays,” a parent texted. “Parents, coaches and the community are so extremely proud of what these young men accomplished Friday night and also so far this season. It only speaks to the culture coach Gill and his staff have patiently groomed into the program and these boys the last few years.”
Despite some parents being impressed, others weren’t and wondered why they weren’t informed about this until the team had left, and one parent got so angry that they hired an attorney.
In hindsight, this game could’ve easily been postponed, but you can also point to the refs who suspended the head coach over missing hip pads. Nora Gutierrez, superintendent of the Tolleson Unified School District, told one parent that an investigation is underway, so hopefully, more light can be shed on this.
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