A high school basketball coach has been fired after he was caught pulling a player’s hair on camera.
Jim Zullo, the girls’ varsity basketball coach at Northville High School in Fulton County, N.Y., was spotted yanking the ponytail of Northville High star player Hailey Monroe after a championship game held at Hudson Valley Community College on Friday, March 21, per WRGB Albany.
A video of the incident shared on social mediashows Zullo, 81, approaching Monroe — who can be seen crying at the end of the game — from behind and pulling on her ponytail. Monroe then moves away from Zullo, while a fellow teammate appears to try to get between them.
Monroe is a senior at Northville High and the team’s lead scorer, per WRGB. The incident occurred after Northville lost the game against LaFargeville and Monroe had fouled out of the game, per the outlet.
Girls playing basketball (stock image).
Getty
The Northville Central School District released an official statement on its website following the incident.
The district said it is “deeply disturbed by the conduct of the coach of the Girls’ Varsity basketball team during the Class D New York State championship game,” and called the coach’s behavior “completely unacceptable.”
“This individual will no longer be coaching for the Northville Central School District,” the statement concluded.
PEOPLE reached out to the Northville Central School District for comment on Saturday, March 22, but did not receive an immediate response.
In a statement to ABC affiliate News 10, Zullo claimed that Monroe had directed an expletive at him after he instructed her to shake hands with the opposing team, which he said led to the incident. News 10 reported that it has reached out to the Monroe family, but they have “not issued a comment at this time.”
According to footage from a Northville High School Network live stream of the game shared by the outlet, Zullo had come out of retirement specifically to coach the team.
