Utah high school coach suspends entire football team

(by Amy Donaldson, Deseret News) ROOSEVELT, UTAH – Matt Labrum believes football helps create great men.  And it is that belief and his passion for the game that led the Union High School head football coach and his staff to suspend all 80 players from the team because of off-field problems ranging from cyberbullying to skipping classes.

“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.”

So the coach and his staff gathered the team together after Friday (Sept. 20) night’s loss to Judge Memorial Catholic High School and told them he was concerned about some of the players’ actions and behavior off the field. He then instructed them all to turn in their jerseys and their equipment. There would be no football until they earned the privilege to play. …

The coaches told them there would be a 7 a.m. meeting the next day where they would have an opportunity to re-earn a spot on the team.

Coach Matt Labrum made a controversial decision to suspend his entire football team for questionable off-field behavior.

“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.

One incident in particular moved the coaches to action. A few days before, guidance counselors informed the coaches about a student who [said] he was being harassed and bullied by football players on an anonymous online chat program… Because the social media website allows users to hurl insults from behind a screen name, there was no way for coaches or counselors to know who was harassing the young man, who is not a member of the football team.

“We said, ‘We’ve got to make a change,’” said Labrum, who met with the student who was bullied on Monday to offer an apology. “We were pretty open with (the players) about what we’d heard. We don’t want that represented in our program. … Whoever it is (doing the bullying), we want to help get them back on the right path.”

There were [also] other issues that concerned the coaches, including failing and skipping classes and showing disrespect to teachers. “It had gotten to a new level,” said Labrum. “We felt like we weren’t respecting the teachers, what they were trying to do inside the school, other people’s time. Overall, our program wasn’t going where we wanted it to go. We weren’t reaching the young men like we wanted to reach them.”

Players with Union High School’s football team hit the books first to show that they’re ready to get back on the field.

So they stopped playing football and started discussing character.

“I think football molds character,” Labrum said. “We want to help our parents raise their sons. We want to be a positive influence. We want to be an asset.”

During Saturday’s team meeting, Labrum gave the suspended players a letter titled “Union Football Character,” explaining exactly what the boys would need to do if they wanted to earn their jerseys back.

“The lack of character we are showing off the field is outshining what we are achieving on the field,” the letter said. “It is a privilege to play this wonderful game! We must earn the opportunity to have the honor to put on our high school jerseys each Thursday and Friday night!”

Instead of practicing during the days leading up to a homecoming game against Emery High this Friday, they were told to perform community service, and attend study hall and a class on character development. They were also required to perform service for their own families and write a report about their actions.

The players were told they also need to show up on time and attend all of their classes. And those with bad grades were told they must show improvement if they wanted to play.

School administrators who learned of the decision to suspend the team the day before it happened, said they supported the move and saw it as more of an opportunity than punishment.  “As I thought about it, I’ve got 100 percent confidence in our (coaching) staff,” said Principal Rick Nielsen. “They are just excellent men. Sometimes we do think we’re bigger than the game.”

No parent complained about the decision to the administration. Most expressed support and gratitude. …

Of the seven team captains elected at the beginning of the season, only two were re-elected after Saturday’s team meeting. Junior Jordan Gurr was one of them. He said he is a naturally quiet person, but now understands the need to speak up when he sees questionable behavior.

“I’m a pretty silent person, so I didn’t really say much,” he said, acknowledging that it’s difficult to confront your friends when they’re out of line. “We’d talk to them after practice sometimes; we’d run. It didn’t work out very well.”

He sees his role as team captain much differently this week than he did during the first two months of the season.  “It gives me a second chance,” Gurr said.

Junior quarterback Tye Winterton said he believes the break from football will make them better players – and better people. “I definitely didn’t want to turn in my jersey,” said Winterton, who is an honors student. “I love playing. But I trust the coaches and believe in what they’re doing.” …

Senior running back Gavin Nielsen said his passion for football hasn’t diminished, but Nielsen said he does have a new perspective on what it means to wear the Union High uniform.

“I still have the love for it and everything,” he said Monday while leaning on a shovel he was using to remove weeds as part of his community service. “But it helped me realize, it’s not all about football.”

After Wednesday’s study hall, the boys found out whether they had earned the right to play football again. Of the 41, all but nine had gained back their black and gold jerseys. “We have enough that we’ll be playing all the games this week,” said Labrum, referring to the junior varsity game Thursday and varsity contest on Friday night. “It was mixed. It’s hard. You have mixed emotions because some guys are so elated they have their jerseys back, but maybe the guy next to him wasn’t getting his. It was very mixed. But I think the guys handled it well.”

Just because the nine players didn’t get their jerseys back Wednesday doesn’t signify the end of their season. “It doesn’t mean they’re off the team,” the coach said. “It means they won’t be playing this week. Most of them had done 85 or 90 percent of what they needed to.”

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