Newton fires head football coach after incident with booster club president and football player
Newton High School fired its head football coach after an incident with the booster club president and a football player, according to the Newton Citizen.
Nick Collins has been relieved of his coaching duties but will remain as an employee of the school system.
“Yes, Mr. Collins is no longer the coach of the Newton Rams,” Newton County Schools spokesman Sherri Davis-Viniard told the AJC. “The school system is not releasing further information as it is a confidential personnel matter.”
The incident began after a disagreement between Collins and football booster club president Felicia Jackson over payment of an assistant coach’s stipend, according to the Citizen. The Newton County Sheriff’s Department was called to the school.
Here’s some of the rest of story by the Citizen’s Manny Fils. [Click here to read it in its entirety]
“Once the deputy got down there, he escorted [Jackson's son] to the locker room because he was supposedly quitting the team,” NCSO spokesman Courtney Morrison said.
The deputy reportedly then escorted Jackson’s son and another student to Collins’ office in order to report that another player had lost a shoe and needed help finding it. Collins said on Wednesday that he told the student that he had already dealt with the issue of the shoe and there was nothing he could do until the next day.
“(The officer) proceeded to tell me I needed to chill out,” Collins said on Wednesday. “About that time, the other kid stepped from behind him, who was Felicia’s son, and threw his helmet and shoulder pads and hit me right in the head with it.”
According to the deputy’s report, Collins and the son argued, and the son said, “Don’t talk to my mom like that.”
“The coach became even more irate and tried to jump over the table toward the son, and three other coaches had to hold coach Collins back,” Morrison said.
The deputy and the son then went to the parking lot. Collins followed a short time later after he continued the coaches meeting, and when he saw Jackson and her son, he approached them, and a verbal altercation ensued, according to the NCSO.
Collins said Jackson became irate, and the son started jumping up and down, screaming and cursing and trying to get at him.
“At one point I told him he needed to stay in a boy’s place,” Collins said. “He got loose and got behind me. When I turned to look at him behind me, the mom grabbed me, spun me around. I told her, ‘Don’t put your hands on me.’”
According to the deputy’s report, Collins pointed his finger in the mother’s face as they argued, and she slapped his hand away from her face.
“Then another student held the son back,” Morrison said. “The deputy redirected the coach back to his vehicle, and then the coach turned his attention toward the son and tried to get to him in an aggressive manner.”
The deputy was then able to get all parties involved to leave the scene. According to the NCSO, no charges have been filed in the incident.
Collins was Newton’s head coach since 2007, turning around the program’s fortunes. The Rams went from 1-9 three years ago to 6-5 last season, qualifying for the Class AAAAA playoffs.
Defensive coordinator Cortez Allen has been promoted to head coach, confirmed Davis-Viniard.
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214 comments Add your comment
topper
August 19th, 2010
5:01 pm
Wow what a mess!
CL
August 19th, 2010
5:04 pm
Wow. what a mess.
Matt
August 19th, 2010
5:15 pm
Both parties should be ashamed, but the Coach has GOT to know that he needs to be cool under fire. Sounds like the kid and Mom were looking to provoke and got the response they were looking for.
x-coach
August 19th, 2010
5:21 pm
Now you wonder why kids act the way they do…just look at the parents.
Darryl Moore
August 19th, 2010
5:22 pm
Before it all ends, the school district will turn on Coach Collins and fire him to avoid the lawsuit that she will try to file (GET RICH QUICK SCHEME). He needs to start sending out his resume. Kids these days are NOT raised to respect anyone…and they expect teachers to put up with these idiots for 8 hours each day!!!
sam
August 19th, 2010
5:25 pm
if hae was 21-10 over 3 yrs he’d still have a job coaching…i’m sure the kid is a punk and mom is crazy lady
Matty Ice
August 19th, 2010
5:25 pm
what an idiot coach…..yeah, that would certainly not be somebody I would want coaching my two sons……hardly a role model!!!
MICHAEL
August 19th, 2010
5:25 pm
another example of females being stupid and where does this land the son? mewow!
ahhkee
August 19th, 2010
5:26 pm
Oh no. another jawja recruit for the Athens-clarke county jail all american team
db
August 19th, 2010
5:26 pm
git er dun
MICHAEL
August 19th, 2010
5:31 pm
where’s the kid’s father in all of this?
MM1045
August 19th, 2010
5:35 pm
What did you expect was going to happen…. It’s bad enough when the daddy’s try to run the football team much less when the mommas want to tell the coach how to the program should run.
MICHAEL
August 19th, 2010
5:36 pm
never make excuses for being weak. all this mom did was make her son WEAK in the long run. heck, i was raised by a ga. state patoleman that talk to me as he cleaned his gun and he was proud to say he only used it one time. meeow!
An obama voter?
August 19th, 2010
5:36 pm
People like this make up about 45% of the US population. They are taught no manners, taught to insist on their personal rights “right now” at the expense of the rest of us and I say fire all of them. They expect US to pay the taxes and to get them out of some stupid mortgage contract that THEY signed and basically they insist on allowing them to continue making bad decisons at the overall expense of the public, or in this case the school and the team.
Kick that PUNK kid off of the team, get rid of his mom as booster pres and demote the coach (If need be) and promote the law enforecement officer.
Road Scholar
August 19th, 2010
5:38 pm
You never said why they were angry at each other. What percipitated this bruhaha?
Dawg4Life
August 19th, 2010
5:38 pm
This is the football booster club president acting this way? Nice. X-Coach is right the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree. This will all be blamed on the coach and the parent and child will take no responsibility for the way they acted. Knowing Newton county as I do this is really not a surprise.
herewego
August 19th, 2010
5:40 pm
The Coach cannot let his temper fly like that even if he is provoked. He should have removed himself immediately, went to the school board to deal with the Mom if need be. If the kid was quitting he should have just let him go. It is sad that kids are sooooo disrespectful today and the Coaches and Teachers have to put up with it because we have panty waste sissies running our societies. I say bring back corporal punishment, the prayer and GOD!!!
nosurpriseshere
August 19th, 2010
5:46 pm
Sounds like there is plenty of blame to go around, but that booster club president should be asked to resign as well.
michael
August 19th, 2010
5:46 pm
AMEN.
michael
August 19th, 2010
5:47 pm
we all came from hard backgrunds, hold hands and shut the &*%$ UP!
WeakSon
August 19th, 2010
5:50 pm
So why was the son quitting the team after all……..I mean QUIT…….how you gone come to a team and QUIT……..and then you quit by throwing your helmet at the coach and hitting him in the head……I think 90% of us if we were not coaching at all wouldn’t have tolerated this nonsense, you want to act tuff, don’t run behind mom after hitting a grown man with something like A HELMET come on you got your mommy fighting battles for you……DOESN’T SOUND LIKE A THE YOUNG MAN HAS A FUTURE……….1. You started something thats suppose to be a loyal thing and you QUIT…. 2. You do it in a very girly matter by throwing things where they do that at……OH NEWTON………….3. You got your mother involved………only a coward would even allow his mother to get involved……
Paul
August 19th, 2010
5:53 pm
Back in the day, of respect and honor, the mother would have been correcting her son, demanding that he respect his coach / elder / teacher etc… but not these days. We have become a victimized society where younger kids are now being taught that they have the right to act out against authority, instead of respecting it. The mother in this case, according to the article, acted shameful and taught her kid a lesson on how to continue the disrespect of authority. I applaud the coach, and am amazed at his restraint. He needs to be promoted to Asst Principal at least. I would hire him for my local High School.
kc
August 19th, 2010
5:55 pm
everyone’s on edge these days….don’t fire coach…..probably don’t have all the facts, but the kid needed a good kick in the britches……darn little respect for elders these days…
old school football player
August 19th, 2010
5:56 pm
Enter your comments here
Big Dog 98
August 19th, 2010
5:57 pm
The mom is a jerk and the kid is a bigger jerk.
What
August 19th, 2010
5:58 pm
Our Squad wouldn’t have had that at all………you quit on us then disrespect our coach…..we would have got to you later bruh bruh…..
Dick
August 19th, 2010
6:15 pm
would pull my support and membership from this boosters club.
Pago Pago Dawg
August 19th, 2010
6:16 pm
Time to call the most rev. al., rev. jesse and the great rev. wright.
SOOHSO
August 19th, 2010
6:20 pm
Were red panties involved??
Of course
August 19th, 2010
6:22 pm
Act like humans please
Nacho Daddy
August 19th, 2010
6:27 pm
“What we haaave he-a is a fay-lure to com-mu-ni-kate”
Mitch N.
August 19th, 2010
6:30 pm
Newton County wasn’t like that when I graduated in 98, I guess when the DeKalb crews started moving in, things changed for the worse, school wise and county wise.
SHOE CARNIVAL
August 19th, 2010
6:30 pm
Are these idiots going to fire the Booster Club President also ?
.
Newton County has become a dump,
just like DeKalb and Clayton.
Lar
August 19th, 2010
6:31 pm
Kids do not respect their parents much this their teachers or coaches. Had this happened when I was a kid my mother or father would have knocked the crap out of me then found out what really happened.
Jim
August 19th, 2010
6:33 pm
Hey, I’m just happy the Rams are getting a little football attention…back in the day, it was all about the hoops…playing those Decatur Bulldogs in the Omni every year…but I digress….
Tim
August 19th, 2010
6:35 pm
Mommy had to fight her son’s battle. The kid probably was mad because he was having to do extra work for goofing off in practice and wasnt getting to play where he wanted to. Obviously mommy spoils him. The coach did lose his cool but the kid threw equipment at him. That is a crimnal offense by striking him with intent to do bodily harm. That kid could be the poster child for the future of the Ga Dept of Corrections.
Dawg Link
August 19th, 2010
6:36 pm
Why was the kid not arrested for assault? The cop witnessed it for crying out loud.
Of course
August 19th, 2010
6:36 pm
The kid’s mother probably told him to initiate this in the hopes that the coach would hit him so they in turn could sue the city.
Nacho Daddy
August 19th, 2010
6:36 pm
…coach should have taped the kid’s butt cheeks together, that’s what would have happened back in the 70’s.
It's all about drama queen FELICIA
August 19th, 2010
6:40 pm
What FELICIA JACKSON wants,
.
FELICIA JACKSON gets.
Rock
August 19th, 2010
6:41 pm
I did some fundraising for Coach Collins and the impression I got was he is from the old school. He was very cordial and respectful. When the kids came in his office you could tell he cared about those kids but didnt take lip off them. They seemed to like him. My opinion is the kid is a punk. Probably quit because he wasnt good enough and the mother wasn’t going to let the Coach talk to him like he should of been talked to. Pathetic. Guess what? That’s how a high percentage of today’s youth acts thanks to the parents or lack there of. Coach Collins you’re a good man.
Asheville Dawg
August 19th, 2010
6:42 pm
Some things never change in Newton County. No respect for a coach/teacher is not new there. Parental organizations that are supposedly to support the schools are turned into what I’ll call the “crazed parental groups”. Regrettably, it’s been going on for fifteen years.
intheknow
August 19th, 2010
6:43 pm
This is just more indication how the kids are taught to act by the school. The administration at NHS does not support the faculty, and the kids and parents know that. The principal really needs to develop a backbone.
Tim
August 19th, 2010
6:44 pm
The Newton County Deputy should have never escorted the mom and her son to the coach’s office to discuss a lost shoe? I do not blame the coach. I am having a coaches meeting and they are going to interrupt my meeting? The parent is the head of the Booster Club and she did not respect the coach’s authority. Now here sorry, lazy, and ignorant son wanted to challenge coach and should have gotten his butt kicked. I would have never disrespected my coach and challenged his authority.
Nacho Daddy
August 19th, 2010
6:46 pm
This just in, Felicia is the new offensive coordinator,& son is now starting QB. GO RAMS !
HARD ROCK
August 19th, 2010
6:48 pm
Matty Ice:
Hope your sons wouldn’t throw their helmet and shoulder pads at their head coach….You see all types of idiots these days, sons, daughters, women and men who don’t have respect for anybody. Kid needs a good butt whipping, which obviously drama queen Felicia will not administer….What an idiot you have to be now to be a teacher/coach and put up with this kind of crap…They furlough you, and then don’t back you when you need the backing….Mattie Ice, maybe you can coach your own kids, that way you can be sure they are treated sweetly by all parties……
intheknow
August 19th, 2010
6:48 pm
Too bad the old Assistant Principal thats at the County Office wasnt still there…he would have handled things differently. He supported the teachers, and he didnt run off the faculty, like he did most of the science department…good luck with AYP with the current guy in the fron office…
intheknow
August 19th, 2010
6:49 pm
Oooppss..meant how the current principal ran off most of the Science Department…
ole ball coach
August 19th, 2010
6:50 pm
herewego and Darryl Moore, kudos to both, need not say more, the kid is a turd, always will be and will be nothing else. Coach/Teachers don’t deserve these folks in their lives!! Get the hell out of Newton Co, a lot better situations other places (ask KR @ C/H)
It's all about drama queen FELICIA
August 19th, 2010
6:51 pm
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