AMERICUS — The Sumter County Board of Education held a special meeting on Wednesday to have an employee hearing on the status of Americus-Sumter County High School head football coach Michael Pollock. Pollock had been on paid leave since Sept. 14 after kicking a player in the rear following a play at practice on Sept. 11. After a nearly two-hour hearing, Board members went into closed session to discuss the personnel issue. When the Board reentered the meeting room, they voted to terminate Pollock's contract rather than put him on unpaid suspension.

Sumter County Schools Superintendent Donnie Smith recommended that the Board of Education terminate the contract of Pollock. Board attorney Maurice King represented the Board. Samuel G. Alderman III of Macon represented Pollock in the hearing, and Edmund Landau III was the official hearing officer.

King began in his opening statement, “We believe that the facts in this case are pretty straight forward, and at the end of this hearing we will ask the members of the board to vote in favor of Mr. Smith’s recommendation to terminate Mr. Pollock’s contract.”

Alderman, in his opening statement, stated that his intention was not argue that the incident occurred, but rather to point out the severity of the action and the major effect that terminating Pollock’s contract would have on not only himself, but also this community. He finished his statement saying, “We believe that at the end of this hearing a termination will not be warranted, and we will ask you to vote against termination at the very least.”

King called on current Americus-Sumter offensive line coach Brandon Priest to testify. Priest testified that he did see the incident take place, and that Pollock cursed senior offensive lineman Oscar Martinez out before kicking him in the rear for blocking on the wrong assignment. On the cross examination, Alderman highlighted the fact that Priest could not remember exactly which curse words were used, and the fact that Pollock could not have been standing more than a foot or two away from Martinez at the time of the incident.

King called junior Americus-Sumter football player Jonathon Thomas. Thomas described the incident, and Alderman waived the right to cross examine the student. Another junior football player, Mike Russell, described the incident, adding that he heard Pollock call Martinez ADHD. Alderman again waived the right to cross-examine the student, and King called Martinez to the stand.

King then questioned Martinez about what happened on Sept. 11 at practice.

“Apparently I blocked the wrong read and so coach Pollock started screaming and yelling and then came up to me and kicked me and told me I can’t ever do anything right and told me I was too sorry to play,” said Martinez.

Martinez said that after practice Pollock called him into his office and bribed him with a Gatorade and a Snickers bar.

Alderman, in his cross-examination of Martinez, focused on the point that players were wearing full pads that day, and the fact that Pollock was only a foot or two behind Martinez again. Alderman also focused on the fact that Martinez was not wearing any butt pads, even though the team was supposed to be in full pads.

The next person to testify was Americus-Sumter High School Principal Walter Knighton. He testified that he learned of the incident on Friday morning. He also stated that a group of players had come to him later that day to discuss the incident that occurred on Sept. 11. Knighton said that after discussing the issue with Valerie Roberts, an assistant superintendent, they decided that Pollock should be suspended until an investigation was completed.

The final person to take the stand was Pollock, who Alderman called. Pollock testified that he had indeed kicked Martinez at practice after the missed assignment and lack of effort that took place. Pollock said that Tuesdays are mandatory full pads day where all players are required to wear all pads.

I witnessed Oscar not going full speed,” said Pollock. “I saw where there was not the effort given that maintained a safe environment for Oscar and his teammates. On the play in question he just kind of stood there, and I did not feel like he was giving the effort to maintain a safe environment.”

Alderman asked Pollock what he meant by a safe environment, to which Pollock responded, “It’s been my experience that when you don’t have all 11 players going full speed, typically the player who is not going full speed is the one who ends up getting his knee clipped or gets someone else hurt like the player who is carrying the football. Earlier this year two of our guys on the line were not going full speed and two of our running backs got hurt on successive plays.”

Alderman asked Pollock what type of future he saw for Martinez. Pollock said he saw a college future for Martinez, and he had given him brochures for colleges he might be a good fit at as well as taking him to camps at Florida State and other colleges this summer, while promoting him through phone calls as well.

“I thought a player with his future could give a better effort than he was giving at that time, and an ACL injury or something serious like that can damage the ability to be recruited,” Pollock said.

Pollock then said that he sat down after practice with Martinez and another player who did not have great practices.

“I then talked to both of them and told them that everything that happens on that football field is not personal, and you don’t need to go home and think I am mad at you because it’s not that. I feel like you two both have college potential and the effort you were giving today was not going to meet your needs. I told them both that I loved them and told them to reach in there and get them a Gatorade and a Snickers because it had been a hard day. Both of the players then said they loved me, too, and I told them that tomorrow we will come back and have a good day,” Pollock said.

King then questioned Pollock on a few points, and Pollock left the stand.

Alderman, in his first closing statement, again acknowledged that Pollock never denied kicking the player. He emphasized the point that yelling happens all the time on the field, and that Pollock said that his intentions were not to hurt or embarrass, but to get the player’s attention. Alderman said that Pollock has high hopes for Martinez and wants him to do well and go to college, and that he does not want him or other teammates to get hurt. Alderman also pointed out that only one person who testified remembered Pollock actually saying a curse word, and that yelling happens on football fields all the time.

Alderman wrapped up by saying, “Terminating his contract is a mighty,  mighty, mighty big step. Aside from the effect it has on this man and his family, what kind of message does it send to our community and our children? If we don’t like something, we’ll take the guy’s job if we just go complain about it. Nobody did the right thing and talked to him about it; we are going for the jugular. I hope this Board will send the right message to this community, that we are not going to be bullied or pressured, we are going to do the right thing. We are going to approach the situation with the right response. Coach has been suspended for a three weeks, and he has not been able to do that which he is employed to do or which he loves doing, and I would argue that that is punishment enough. Terminating his contract over something with such questionable evidence, is a very dangerous thing, and I ask all of you to consider this and keep the man his job.”

King then gave the Board their options before beginning his closing. He informed the Board that they could terminate the staff member’s contract, suspend the staff member for a period of no greater than 60 days without pay, or reinstate the staff member that had been temporarily suspended.

King closed by thanking the Board for hearing the case.

He then said, “At the beginning I told you all that this was a simple case. The question was whether the student was kicked by Mr. Pollock, and whether the student was verbally abused by Mr. Pollock. When it comes to cursing, he said that he did not recall. When we are preparing our witnesses sometimes we tell them to use that phrase when they don’t want to lie under oath. They said that coach Priest and Oscar were lying, but I ask you, why would the students get together and say ‘we are going to report this’ if Oscar was lying? These are students that are on the football team, and I don’t think Mr. Alderman crossed those two students.”

King also pointed out that none of the students looked at Pollock when they came in the room.

He wrapped up by saying, “We can fool a lot of people, but it has been my experience that we cannot fool the children. Mr. Smith has made a recommendation, and that recommendation is termination. We believe that kicking a child is sufficient cause to terminate, and coach Pollock is a certified educator and the law does not allow a certified administrator to kick a child. We are going to ask you to uphold the recommendation of Mr. Smith.”

The Board members went into the conference room for closed session to discuss the hearing. When they exited approximately seven minutes later, they voted 4-1-2 to terminate the contract of Pollock, ending his time at Americus-Sumter.

Board member Willa Fitzpatrick made a motion to uphold Smith’s recommendation for termination which was seconded by Carolyn Whitehead. Voting for termination were Fitzpatrick, Alice Green, Whitehead and chair Edith A. Green. Board members Michael Busman and Meda Krenson abstained and Michael Mock voted against termination.