High School Basketball Coach Fired After Pulling Girl's Hair During Game
03/22/2025 09:11 PM
A viral video of a high school girls' basketball coach pulling the hair of one of his players has now resulted in his termination.
According to NHFS via WRGB, Northville basketball coach Jim Zullo has been fired following the release of a viral video that showed him shouting at senior Hailey Monroe while the girls were on the sideline during the Class D finals yesterday.
At one point in the video, Zullo grabs the hair of a player who has her back turned to him. One of the other players tries to get between them when Zullo started berating her.
The video is below:
ICYMI: Northville basketball coach Jim Zullo is fired after pulling the hair of one of the players, after the team lost the Class D finals Friday night. Courtesy: NHFShttps://t.co/u61zRKc2f0pic.twitter.com/DUHRpV4WZu
— CBS 6 Albany - WRGB (@CBS6Albany) March 22, 2025
Zullo alleges that Monroe called him an expletive, but the Northville Central School District made it clear that the conduct was "disturbing" and has no place in the sport.
"The Northville Central School District is aware of, and deeply disturbed by, the conduct of the Coach of the Girls' Varsity basketball team during the Class D New York State championship game. We hold our coaches to the highest standards of professionalism, sportsmanship, and respect for our student-athletes, and this behavior is completely unacceptable," the organization said in a statement.
"The District is committed to ensuring that this type of behavior has no place within our programs, and we will continue to uphold the values of respect and integrity that our athletes, families and community expect and deserve. This individual will no longer be coaching for the Northville Central School District.
"We assure the public that this matter is being taken extremely seriously, and the District is actively addressing it. The District will be following up with the affected players and their families to provide support and outline the actions we are taking in response to this incident."
Users on social media were widely happy to see that Zullo was losing his job over it. Some have said that they would have done far worse if he had pulled the hair of someone in their family:
"If that was my daughter I would have jumped the stands and laid his ass out in less than 30 seconds," one user declared.
"He's all big and bad with a defenseless girl. That wouldn't had been a good day for him if I were present," another said.
"If that was my daughter he'd have a new face," wrote a third.
Hopefully this incident serves as an example to other coaches not to behave that way.
Related: High School Coach Claims He Was Fired Over Transgender Athlete Concerns
