Highschool Track Coach Fired For Boys Not Wearing Shirts: Ridiculous?

Westwood Higschool’s track coach, Tom Davis, was fired recently over an issue with the boys on his team running without shirts. The boys not wearing shirts supposedly made some of the girls “uncomfortable.” Davis claims that he was never given a reason for being fired. I’m not really sure what rule was broken either. Davis and the school’s Athletic Director, Karl Fogel went “chest to chest” over the issue. Obviously, setting a great example for the students. Kudos for handling the situation maturely, guys. I’m sure Fogel and Davis almost getting into a physical fight over the issue didn’t make the kids uncomfortable or anything. Since, that is what the issue is about…the students. It’s terribly ironic that this whole thing being blown up like this is actually probably affecting the students much more than a couple shirtless guys.

I ran track in highschool and i had some coaches who wouldn’t allow the guys to take off their shirts and others who did. Ultimately, it didn’t matter to me, nor did it make me uncomfortable 1) i was used to it and 2) i was focusing on my own thing. But everyone sees things differently, so i can sympathize with the girls. The AD and the coach handled this situation terribly. The coach could have simply made a strict rule that everyone has to keep their shirts on. I’ve had coaches do that in the past, and it works well. But it’s difficult to see what the real issue is here. There are two sides to every story.

Either way, the immaturity of this scenario is frustrating.

The coach is seeking legal counsel so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with this issue. It’ll certainly be interesting if this issue is brought to court but if the coach broke a rule that the school had then he may not have much of a case against them. It’s a bummer that the team lost their coach though. That has to be majorly distracting.