High School Football Coach Suspends Entire Team Over Bullying

Here is a great moment to clap your hands and salute the high school football coach who suspended his entire team over bullying.  It is rare to hear about coaches who put the game aside for character building.

Teachers and Counselors informed the head coach that players on his team were involved in cyber bullying and it became too big of a deal to push aside.  Matt Labrum, the head coach, sat team down and openly told them the information that was given to him after losing their game on Friday.  The coaching staff told the 80 member team to turn in their equipment including jerseys.

The students became emotional and were in agreement with the coaches decision.  Labrum would not allow the players back on the field until they proved to become better human beings.  According to The Bleacher Report,coach Labrum said,

“We felt like everything was going in a direction that we didn’t want our young men going,” said Labrum, an alumnus of the program he’s coached for the past two years. “We felt like we needed to make a stand.” [...]

“We looked at it as a chance to say, ‘Hey, we need to focus on some other things that are more important than winning a football game,” Labrum said. “We got an emotional response from the boys. I think it really meant something to them, which was nice to see that it does mean something. There was none of them that fought us on it.”

The suspension only lasted one day and the players have been back on the team without any interruptions.  Players have even noticed that their actions where out of hand.  The team voted for five new team captains which was a sign of a new direction.

After seeing the coach make a drastic move like this, I was moved to see people still believed in character building.  Bullying is serious and Coach Labrum took a stance and it paid off.  Do you think coaches in the Flint area would take this same stance?  Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.