On Tuesday, Prep Rally reported a disturbing incident in Michigan, where a player from one team assaulted a 67-year-old assistant coach for an opponent. Now the sordid incident appears to have devolved into an even more contentious affair, with a defensive coordinator for the team whose player was responsible for the assault fired over the weekend after he reviewed video of the incident and sent an email to school administrators advocating for staff firings related to the incident.
As reported by Michigan Live, former West Bloomfield (Mich.) High defensive coordinator Phil Sacha claims he was fired shortly after he reviewed footage of the assault and wrote an email to West Bloomfield administrators. The assistant coach contended that the accounts of the incident that were being disseminated in the press --which claimed that a number of players were involved in a kerfuffle that precipitated the assault on a Stoney Creek (Mich.) High coach -- were inaccurate and that the only player involved in the attack was the player who threw the punch himself.
"[The victim] had zero chance to defend himself," Sacha told MLive. "From the film, [it looked at first] that coaches were entangled; it almost looked like a shouting match."
Regardless of the conditions that led to the fight itself, the details that have emerged about Sacha's dismissal are disconcerting in themselves. Sacha claims that he composed a scathing email about the incident to school officials shortly after reviewing the incident during his weekly film recap of the Friday night game because, after reaching the nasty postgame altercation, he became so disappointed in the program that he abandoned further review of the tactics in the game and opted instead to write to school officials expressing his distress about the lack of accountability and the general direction of the program.
"Dear God, it just re-lived the embarrassment for me," Sacha told Mlive Detroit. "After that, instead of breaking down film [further], I spent a long time trying to put together an e-mail [to West Bloomfield coaches and administrators]."
Sacha claims that it was that email that instead led to his own dismissal, perhaps out of a preemptive attempt by embattled West Bloomfield coach Ron Bellamy to safeguard his own future.
While Sacha gave no indication that he had put forth his own name for consideration for the West Bloomfield head coach position should Bellamy be dismissed, it's understand why Bellamy would be concerned about a prospective Sacha-led coup de etat; Sacha previously served as a coach at Farmington Hills (Mich.) Harrison High before moving to West Bloomfield to work under Bellamy.
Now, he won't be coaching in any capacity under anyone, though there are sure to be plenty of questions about precisely why his tenure as defensive coordinator has now come to such a sudden end.
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