This is the craziest story I’ve seen in a while…
Jacksonville Northside head coach Kendrick Pollock is under investigation after he left a player two hours from home after a loss. Here’s how Busted Newspaper says the incident unfolded:
According to a parent of one of the Northside football players, coach Pollock became furious after last Friday night loss to New Hanover. She says her son played the whole game up until the last two minutes when he then ask coaching staff to take him out of the game. He felt he had injured his arm and could not continue. When the player told the coach he needed to come out, the coach responded by saying, “We’re losing our ass, now we have fake injuries”. The heat picked up a notch or two when the team got in the locker room. The student/player states that inside the locker room coach Pollock told him he was off the team and demanded that he take everything off that belonged to Northside HS. While the kid is standing in is underwear the coach then told him to “ Get the Fuck out of my locker room!” Two students called their parents and tried to get the kid a ride home but all parents said they were to far away already. The student then approached assistant coach John Knowles and was cut off in mid sentence with the coach saying, “ get out of my face!” then instructed the rest of the team to board the bus.
The team boarded the bus and rode right pass their disgraced teammate. As most of you know, New Hanover County was ranked # 2 in the U.S. for drug abuse. This kid was left with no money, no food or water, no ID and a cell phone at 30% in an out of the way area around Legion Field. The only businesses open near by were a gas station and a local bar. The student states that 3 men tried to take his phone away, but he ran and got away from them. He placed a call to his girlfriend in Jacksonville and hid behind a bush until she arrived almost two hours later.
After news of the incident went public the Onslow County School System launched an investigation which confirmed that inappropriate action was taken.
“The safety and security of students is of the utmost importance to the Onslow County School System. On Friday, August 25, 2017, at the end of the Northside-New Hanover varsity football game, a senior student-athlete was not transported back to Jacksonville with the team,” said OCS public information officer Suzie Ulbrich in a news release to The Daily News.
“The situation has been investigated and it was discovered that appropriate protocols were not followed. Our sincere apologies go out to the student and family for this regrettable event.”
No word yet on if Pollock will keep his job, but I’d think the parents and students deserve more than some dry apology from the school board. This man doesn’t deserve to coach.