Youth coaches get fired for all sorts of reasons. But this be might a new one: Randy Burbach, a middle school football coach in Oregon was fired for choosing to host his team's end-of-season party at Hooters.
According to FoxSports.com, Burbach asked his players where they would like to have the party and a majority of them chose Hooters, which features female waitresses in short shorts and tight tank tops. Burbach agreed to host the party there.
But the idea came under fire from Corbett School District's athletic director, J.P. Soulagnet.
"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 in a letter to "Families and Friends of Corbett 7th/8th Grade Football." "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."
Soulagnet's letter continues:
"Some might say that this restaurant objectifies women," he wrote. "I think it sends the wrong message to our young men and that saddens and worries me the most."
But Burbach was staunch in his defense of his choice. "I believe this is a fine venue," he told The Oregonian. "If you have a dirty mind, you'll find dirt."
Burbach says he was undermined by a vocal minority of parents. The 55-year-old coach said he had been planning the party for more than a month and was looking forward to playing a team highlight video on one of Hooters' big screen televisions.
A spokeswoman for the Hooters chain said it's "commonplace" for teams, including middle and high school squads, to visit Hooters locations around the country after games or for other celebrations.
On the field, Burbach had turned his team from a perennial loser to a team that lost only once this season.
"This guy is as good as it gets," one parent said about Burbach in The Oregonian. Unfortunately for him, his days on the sideline in Corbett are over.
