Winning cures everything — except attending the wrong church, apparently.
Scott Phillips, who led private East Memorial Christian Academy’s football team to its first playoff berth in years, was reportedly fired for asking to go back to his old church after his school made changing churches a stipulation for promoting him to athletic director. If anyone needed evidence that prep sports has become laughably petty, this is it.
Phillips and his family actually attended East Memorial’s preferred church, East Memorial Baptist Church, each Sunday at 9 a.m. for a while, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. The Phillips family would then attend the 11 a.m. service at their old Church of the Highlands. But Phillips felt that was dishonest and asked his school to revisit the church issue.
“In a nutshell, I told them I miss my old church,” Phillips told the Advertiser, as reported by Yahoo! Sports. “I went in to share my heart to a pastor. Knowing what might happen, but kind of saying, ‘Maybe we can work something out?’ I knew that wasn’t going to be the end of it, because it was going to be a process. It wasn’t received well.”
Phillips was instead let go as A.D. and football coach. He was also relieved as head coach of the basketball team, which he led to the school’s first state championship in any sport. The school confirmed to the Advertiser that attending East Memorial Baptist Church was a requirement for the A.D., although Phillips says the rule is not stated anywhere in his contract.
Photo via Flickr/12gagirl
