Holy Family University basketball coach John O’Connor was suspended after footage from a practice showed that he collided with a player during a rebounding drill. It looks from the footage like the coach intentionally threw his shoulder into the player, knocking him to the ground.
The footage from practice starts at around the 1:05 mark…
MyFoxPhilly.com scored an interview with the suspended coach.
O’Connor says in the midst of a practice drill called “combat rebound.”
“Now obviously, they’re coming to get the ball at the same time I am, so, I instinctively grab it with both hands and kind of in what they call basketball terms, and I just kind of cleared my space.”
The blow apparently drew blood and sent the player to the floor, injuring his wrist. The coach kicked him out of practice.
O’Connor says that the players are coming to get the ball the same time he is, although if you watch the drill, the coach is generally not involved in getting the rebound. It looks to me like he was unhappy with the way the player went after the ball and decided to level a blow even though the kid wasn’t expecting it. Coaches are not involved in drills for this very reason.
Did he go too far? Absolutely. If a coach wants to demonstrate how to box out or how to contest a shot, fine, but laying a kid out with a shoulder is not the way to coach.
