High school coach fired after he was caught on camera pulling player's ponytail

[Deberg_1990]

Wow.


https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/hi...ayers-ponytail

Northville High School fired girl's basketball coach Jim Zullo for yanking a player's ponytail after a loss.

How would you respond if this happened to your daughter?pic.twitter.com/CYs4IZKiL8

— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) March 22, 2025

[LongSufferingToady]

If my dad were still alive and he saw this coach pull that stunt, and it was his daughter, he would have led the coach out the exit, arm on the coach's shoulder as if all is good and well, and once outside leveled the guy. This is the way.

[Shields68]

Originally Posted by LongSufferingToady

If my dad were still alive and he saw this coach pull that stunt, and it was his daughter, he would have led the coach out the exit, arm on the coach's shoulder as if all is good and well, and once outside leveled the guy. This is the way.

Think a lot depends on the actual situation and not just the 10 second clip on video. Some reports the coach was mad his team was acting like poor losers, told his team to shke hands and was told to F off. If that is true, meh I would not get that upset if it were my daughter. A slight hair pull seems minor if you told a coach to f off. Now if he got upset for her poor play...that would be another story.

[Rain Man]

I wonder what Jerry Sandusky's opinion is on this issue.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I think that's a pretty common dividing line here - "She's a girl"

Fellas, I absolutely understand if you don't watch girls sports. But let me tell you something - those girls are SAVAGES.

I've developed a theory as I've watched my oldest move up in youth athletics and its mostly that there isn't nearly as much separation athletically. There are some that are just a little more explosive, but by and large, these girls are all pretty similarly athletic.

They just hit a ceiling a bit that very very few of them break through. So for the lucky few that have outstanding coordination, they can 'skill' their way to the next level. But for the majority of them, if they want to stand out, they have to play physical as hell.

Girls soccer and basketball are where I've seen it most. And ultimately its what'll knock my daughter out -- she just isn't willing to scrum and the best girls out there are. These are not wilting little flowers out there -- a bunch these girls are physical and can be mean as hell. And even someone like my daughter, who needs to be a bit more physical, has been pushed to the point by one of those aggressive girls to get an elbow into their back or put a leg out when it wasn't strictly necessary.

I just think we have an odd and fairly arbitrary line we've drawn in a couple ways here. The girl thing being the first but the second is the strict "no touching" rule. And I get it -- that's the rule.

But my HS football coach took ****ing glee in making kids vomit. He would run guys until their legs literally folded under them. And we CELEBRATE that shit. Hell, we do it with Reid when he makes the rookies yack.

That is exponentially more dangerous than a ponytail tug. By FAR. I saw that same coach re-line an Oklahoma drill to set up a big kid to demolish a guy who'd shown up late to practice. He used the damn kid as a weapon. And again, Missouri High School Sports HoFer. And nobody every said boo about ANY of that.

It's just such a nothing line to draw. There's no danger to that girl. Far less than we see from 100 different coaches in 100 different ways. There are coaches that verbally berate their players in ways that will impact them negatively FAR more than what that girl got from having her hair tugged.

{shrug}

I just don't see this as the strict no-fly zone others do apart from the fact that the coaching association rules almost certainly expressly disallow it. But man, we let coaches get away with WAY worse and never give it a second thought.

Lmao.

I'm pretty sure nobody has spoken from a point of oh that girl was hurt, injured, that's so dangerous.

You don't put your hands on someone elses kids bro. It's simple.

Simple.

Is there risk of injury when the wierdo caresses your kids arm? Rubs their shoulders? Sniffs their hair?

No. No injury risk there either, But it's God damn well off mother ****ing limits.

I don't give a **** what my kid says or does. Unless they are in immediate danger, or they are putting someone else in immediate danger, you don't touch my ****ing kid.

[Delano]

Originally Posted by wazu

The girl thing definitely invokes emotions in people, myself included. I don't have a daughter but have two sons who played lots of sports growing up. The closest I can imagine would be if I looked out on the field or court and saw a coach open hand slap them across the face. I would have been flying out of those stands. Would like to think I'd restrain from physically assaulting an 81 year old but he would at least be getting an earful and we'd be out.

It’s not just that the minor is a girl, it’s that the coach is a huge old man. All the false equivalence of a minor male getting yanked around by a male coach is just bullshit. Maybe if Zullo was an old lady this wouldn’t be a story, but facts are he’s an old man, three times this girl’s size, and he severely crosses the line in anger.