Northville girls basketball coach Jim Zullo fired for postgame incident with player
NORTHVILLE, NY (NEWS10) -- The Northville Central School District announced the firing of high school girls basketball head coach Jim Zullo on Friday night, following a postgame incident with one of the Northville players. The incident occurred following Northville's loss in the Class D state championship game.
On the NFHS Network's online stream of Northville's game with La Fargeville, Zullo was seen pulling the hair of senior Hailey Monroe as the team waited for the medal presentation. The school district posted a statement on their website, which can be found below.
The Northville Central School District is aware of, and deeply disturbed by, the conduct of the Coach of the Girls’ Varsity basketball team during the Class D New York State championship game. We hold our coaches to the highest standards of professionalism, sportsmanship, and respect for our student-athletes, and this behavior is completely unacceptable.
The District is committed to ensuring that this type of behavior has no place within our programs, and we will continue to uphold the values of respect and integrity that our athletes, families and community expect and deserve. This individual will no longer be coaching for the Northville Central School District.
We assure the public that this matter is being taken extremely seriously, and the District is actively addressing it. The District will be following up with the affected players and their families to provide support and outline the actions we are taking in response to this incident.
Northville Central School District
Zullo told NEWS10 ABC that Monroe directed an expletive toward Zullo after he instructed her to shake hands with the opposing team, leading to the incident. We have reached out to the Monroe family, but they have not issued a comment at this time.
Northville lost the title game to La Fargeville 43-37.