A homosexual football player in North Dakota claims he was dismissed from the North Dakota State College of Sciences (NDSCS) football team because it became known that he was a homosexual, but school officials claim that he was removed from the team for conduct detrimental to the team.
Jamie Kuntz, 18, who attended NDSCS was sitting out during a recent Wildcats game due to an injury. Jamie had been videotaping the game from the press box when he was seen by one of his teammates kissing his 65-year-old boyfriend.
Word of the May-December romance quickly got back to the team's head coach, Chuck Parsons, who confronted Jamie about the person he was seen with in the press box at the stadium. Initially Jamie lied and said it was his grandfather. Jamie later told Coach Parsons that the man he’d been seen kissing, was in fact, his boyfriend.
Apparently Coach Parsons had already decided that Jamie was no longer going to be a member of the Wildcats as he’d already issued his decision that the conduct Jamie displayed, lying to his coaches, was grounds for dismissal from the team.
In the dismissal letter, which was published by the Associated Press, Coach Parsons states that the reason behind his decision to dismiss Jamie was due to “conduct deemed detrimental to the team.” But allegedly not for being gay. Coach Parsons cites the player’s manual that states, "lying to coaches, teachers or other school staff."
The school's president, John Richman, stated that he is backing the head coach's decision and believes Parson conducted himself in the same manner he would have for any other type of violation. "This young man was not removed from the football team because of his sexual orientation. That is not the case. He was dismissed for not fulfilling, not doing the duties he was assigned to do. He lied about it, and he was insubordinate to the coach," Richman said in a statement.
While homophobia runs rampant throughout all types and level of sports, the Sports World Examiner believes that the situation at North Dakota State College of Sciences is poor judgment all around. An 18-year-old kid put on the spot with the knowledge of homophobia and its consequences, perhaps a coach that wanted to not give special treatment to a player for his sexual orientation and quite frankly, the poorest judgment of all, a 65-year-old man cavorting with an 18-year-old kid! Go ahead and tell the Sports World Examiner that if this had been a 65-year-old man dating an 18-year-old female athlete, that, that wouldn’t have been the headline.
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