Though no criminal charges were filed against Holy Family head coach John O'Connor, he has announced he will resign from his post after a videotaped altercation with a player went viral on the internet, and the player filed a criminal complaint and a police report.
According to 6abc.com, the men's basketball coach told his team on Friday that he will be stepping down from his post, concluding what was a whirlwind of events after the video of the altercation with Matt Kravchuk surfaced on the Internet. The video shows O'Connor slamming into Kravchuk, knocking him down and kicking him while he was on the floor.
O'Connor claims he was showing a "combat rebounding drill" when he pushed Kravchuk. The player ended up with a bloody nose and sprained wrist from the altercation. After getting off the floor, Kravchuk appeared to receive a verbal thrashing while running to the locker room.
Before O'Connor announced his resignation, the two sat face-to-face (with Kravchuk's lawyer present) on Good Morning America to discuss the situation where O'Connor appeared apologetic.
"Matt, this was an accident," O'Connor said. "I was just trying to make us a better team that's more competitive and in doing so an accident happened. It was unintentional by me, and I'm really sorry that it happened. If I could take it back I certainly would."
Kravchuk wasn't entirely convinced by his coach's apology.
"To be honest, it's kind of hard to accept your apology because you claim it's justified and you claim you weren't crossing the line," he said. "And also, I came to Holy Family to play basketball and now I'm injured, I can't play, and I can't play for you anymore just because, as your player, I'm supposed to be able to respect you and I don't feel that I can do that anymore."
Upon hearing about O'Connor's resignation, Kravchuk's lawyer released the following statement: "It's a sad conclusion for everybody, but as far as we're concerned, it has now come to an end."
Check out the video below to see the Good Morning America encounter between O'Connor and Kravchuk.
