An Iowa appeals court has voted 2-1 to reinstate a high school football coach who was fired after his team posted consecutive winless seasons.

 

The Jesup Community School District terminated Bruce Wall’s contract after the 2008 season. He began coaching the football team in 2000, and the team gradually improved until peaking in 2003, when it made the playoffs for the first time.

 

The team’s performance declined over the next five years, culminating in back-to-back seasons in which the J-Hawks failed to win a single game.

 

After he was let go, Wall went to an adjudicator, who reinstated him with back pay. The school district then challenged the decision in court. It won its case in district court, only to then lose again when Wall appealed to an appellate court.

 

Judge Mary Tabor dissented from the decision, noting that after the school principal expressed concern to Wall about the team’s disappointing performance, “the varsity squad did not win any of its next eighteen games, giving up a total of 736 points while scoring only 74 points. Wall presided over a steadily deteriorating football program and should not have been surprised that his job was on the line.”

 

The other judges, on the other hand, pointed out that Wall was popular with his players, and that almost half of the small school’s 100 male students tried out for the team.

 

In 2010, under a different coach, Jesup won two of its nine games and the team was only outscored 286-105.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

School Shouldn't Have Sidelined Football Coach (by Jeff Gorman, Courthouse News Service)

Board of Directors of the Jesup Community School District (Iowa Court of Appeals) (pdf)

Iowa Court: Losing is No reason to Fire Football Coach (by Trish Mehaffey, KCRG-TV)