High school football coach suspends 30 players for game to send message to team
Gilbert Perry, a high school team in Arizona, lost last week to Cesar Chavez 35-27. However, the Pumas were playing without a full squad.
Not even close to a full squad, in fact. Coach Preston Jones suspended 30 players for the game (including star quarterback Chubba Purdy, a Louisville commit) for violating team rules.
In a statement provided to AZCentral.com, Jones explained his decision.
“Good kids make mistakes, it is part of growing up,” Jones said in a email statement to The Republic. “The Team did a great job showing resiliency against a good Cesar Chavez football team. I’m very proud of how the entire TEAM and program responded to adversity last week. Looking forward to a distraction-free week.”
The Pumas fell to 3-2 with the loss, but the message Jones sent may last a lot longer than any win or loss.
Jones’ move could ultimate cost Gilbert Perry a shot at the first eight-team Open Division football playoffs this year, but the coach felt that he didn’t have any other choice. That takes a lot of guts, and even greater, it hopefully teaches his players a lesson that no one player — in this case 30 — is bigger than the team.
… and where’s the rest of the article?
Click the link provided in this story and it will take you to azcentral where there’s more details.
Seems to me the link takes you to the exact story with exactly no knew information.
Well, that’s just lazy journalism…
I remember a thunderstorm coming up in practice and we went inside. Coach said don’t leave it would pass in a bit. When the sun came out most of the starters were gone and coach was poed. He said at first they were all gone, but settled on suspending them or the opener. We ended up losing, barely, as a 2a school playing a 4a playoff team, and we did it with less than 2 dozen players. We still made it to North half and nobody ever failed to listen to coach again. I think a few of them actually learned something about accountability.