By now, you must have seen the story from the Adirondack region in upstate New York where the male coach of a high school girls’ basketball team pulled a player’s ponytail as his team was losing a state championship game on Friday.
The coach's name is Jim Zullo, until recently the whistle-blower for Northville Central. I say it that way, because Sarah Chauncey, the district supervisor, canned him over the weekend.
As the story goes, Zullo had been upbraiding (pun intentional) a star player from his team because, as he alleges, the athlete cursed at him when he told her to go shake hands with the winners. This caused the televised scene in which he hollers at the young woman, pulls her hair, and has to be separated from from her by one of the players.
And now, the moment you've waited for:
Two days after the whole sickening incident, Zullo came out with a half-fast apology:
“I deeply regret my behavior following the loss to LaFargeville Friday night in the Class D state championship game. As a coach, under no circumstance is it acceptable to put my hands on a player, and I am truly sorry. I wish I could have those moments back."
My take? It goes without saying that a coach should keep his mitts off of the players, no matter how irksome the provocation. He deserved to have the can tied to him, and getting fired is only one of his problems now. He's headed to court to answer charges of second-degree harassment.
My second take? Is this the same country that, prior to last November 5, was apoplectic over the very notion that females had to live in fear every moment that transsexuals lurked at every turn, ready to commit mayhem, when in fact, it's the all-American good guy, affable heroic coach that they should shun?
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