A first-year football coach at a north Alabama high school has come under fire for the disciplinary method he used that parents and players said caused injuries.
WHNT TV in Huntsville reports first-year Douglas coach Jamison Wadley required players to perform a bear crawl – requiring players to be crawl on all fours – on the school’s parking lot earlier this week. Some players suffered burned hands, and photos shared on social media showed large blisters.
Marshall County Schools Superintendent Cindy Wigley released a statement to WHNT that supports Wadley. “While there were unintended consequences from the coach’s actions, students must also be held accountable for their actions,” she said in her statement.
Wadley took over a struggling Douglas football program that’s won just two games in the last three seasons and hasn’t advanced to the playoffs since 1998 and has never won a playoff game. Wadley, a former assistant at Etowah who was hired during the summer, is also the school’s fourth head football coach in the last five seasons.
Douglas kicks off the 2019 season on Aug. 30 against at DAR in Grant.
Watch WHNT’s complete report: