Corbett Middle School (Oreg.) football coach Randall Burbach was fired earlier this week, but his termination had nothing to do with the team’s performance. Instead, it was his unwillingness to change the venue of an end-of-the-year awards banquet that spelled the end for Burbach.
On Monday, The Oregonian reported that Burbach intended to take his players — ranging in age from 12 to 14 — to a local Hooters to wrap up their season. School athletic director JP Soulagnet asked Burbach to change venues, but the coach said he had not been contacted by anyone who was opposed to the idea and intended to hold his ground.
“I spoke with Randy Burbach this evening [Monday night] and asked him to move the event to a different venue,” Soulagnet said in a letter to the players’ parents. “He was unyielding and emphatically said no for a number of reasons.”
Soulagnet insisted that a number of parents and other people agreed that Hooters was an inappropriate venue to hold an awards banquet for middle schoolers.
“I spoke to many people over the weekend regarding the location of the event and time after time they looked at me in disbelief,” Soulagnet wrote. “I started the conversation off with posing a question. Outside of a bar, tavern, or strip club where would be the next worse place in the lines of restaurants to take a middle school football team to? Time after time the reply was Hooters.”
Burbach continued to defend his decision even after being fired.
“[I’m] not allowing myself to be bullied by a vocal minority, is the war I want to win,” he said, via KGW-TV in Portland. “You stand up for what you believe in. I believe this is a proper venue.”
The dinner is no longer associated with Corbett Middle School, but Burbach is moving forward with his plans. In fact, Hooters has even agreed to pick up the tab for dinner and donate 20 percent of its sales on Saturday plus an additional $1,000 the Corbett Boosters Club. It will be difficult for the school to turn down that kind of money, but how can they accept it given the circumstances?
On one hand, you have to admire Burbach for standing up in something he believes is right. On the other, it’s shocking that he was willing to lose his job over something like having a banquet at Hooters. That seems a bit dramatic. He must really love boobs and hot wings.
