1 week Ago By Evann Gastaldo
An 81-year-old high school girls' basketball coach has been fired and charged with harassment after he was caught on video allegedly yanking the hair of one of the players after the team lost a championship game in New York. After Northville High School lost in the Class D state championship game Friday night, Jim Zullo can be seen on video allegedly walking up behind star player Hailey Monroe, a senior, as she stands with her teammates visibly upset and apparently crying as the opposing team celebrated their win, reports. He is then seen allegedly berating Monroe, yelling and pointing at her, as well as at a teammate who came to Monroe's defense and intervened with Zullo.
(That teammate is Zullo's great-niece, the reports.) After the game, Zullo said the incident took place after he told Monroe to shake hands with the opposing team and she "directed an expletive" at him in response, reports. After the school district announced his firing, which it did within hours of the game, he issued an apology statement to .
"As a coach, under no circumstance is it acceptable to put my hands on a player, and I am truly sorry. I wish I could have those moments back," he said in the statement. News of the second-degree harassment charge came later.
"It's been interesting for a 81-year-old person to coach 15- and 16- and 17-year-olds," Zullo said just last month in a article about his lifetime of coaching. (More stories.).
