A Texas high school football coach was caught on camera harassing a Freshman drill team member during last weekend’s game. The coach can be seen on camera confronting the girl, getting in her face, and then encouraging members of the football team to also confront the girl.
According to Click2 Houston, Leah Head is the 14-year-old girl in the video. She said, “A Cleveland coach walked toward her and told her to move. When she shook her head no, she said the confrontation escalated.”
Head was standing in a “victory line” formation with the rest of the Splendora drill team, a process that she describes as tradition at nearly every football game. There has never been an issue like this before.
“He said that we’re ugly, we’re fat, we are s****, b*****. He told us to get the f*** out of his field,” Head said. “Then he told the football team to come over and say the same things to us.”
After the coach confronted Head, several football players can be seen in the video surrounding Head. The players jump up and down and encircle her so she is completely blocked from the view of the camera.
Following the altercation, Head’s mother, Jamie, said her daughter spoke to the security guard on duty and the Cleveland director of athletics who told her there was “no harassment” and did not allow her to leave any follow up information.
While Cleveland administrators declined to take action against the coach, Splendora ISD did reach out to the Head family.
“They told me if those coaches were their staff, they would have been fired. They reported it to UIL. They reached out to us personally, told Leah she was brave, that she stood her ground, and that they were proud of her,” Jamie Head said.
The Head family wants to see both the coach and Cleveland ISD take accountability for the on-field incident, but the coach remains employed and Jamie Head said Cleveland ISD has not followed up with her.
“I think he’s a coward,” Jamie said. “To intimidate and terrify a child like that, to incite a mob of football players around her — it’s despicable and should not be tolerated.”
