This is an interesting story going on about the Richmond Heights boy’s basketball Coach Jason Popp and how most of the players on his team hate his guts and want him to quit right now.
From my understanding, this coach has been verbally abusive towards the players and there may have been racial comments made to the players along with the coach questioning the economic and financial lifestyles of the players and their families.
Coach Popp is White and most of the players on the boy’s basketball team are Black.
Richmond Heights, OH is a suburb just outside of Cleveland, OH and for a long time the community was largely all White. Over the last 15 years or so Blacks have been moving into the Richmond Heights community. I believe the school enrollment is about 1,300 students. I don’t know what the percentage of Black to White students are but more Blacks are living in Richmond Heights, OH.
I’ve seen similar situations where a White coach who may not be used to dealing with Blacks says stupid things about race or economics and make insensitive comments towards the Black players. Obviously, this coach is not use to dealing with Blacks in general.
Race is still an issue in this country and when it comes to sports in my opinion it’s a huge issue because Blacks happen to be extremely talented in the area of sports and music along with being outstanding students.
I don’t think White people really care a whole lot about Blacks moving into their once all-White community in Richmond Heights and many of communities. A lot of Blacks started out living in Cleveland, Ohio. I believe as Black families improved economically, they wanted to move out of Cleveland and live in better neighborhoods and better cities where there are better schools.
What parent would not want the best for their kids? It’s ridiculous to think that a parent would not want the absolute best schools for their children and the absolute best neighborhoods to live in.
The young men of the Richmond Heights boy’s basketball team are serious in their intentions of wanting Coach Jason Popp to resign. These young men are willing to sit out the rest of the season until this coach is out. I believe if the young men feel that strongly about their coach then there is no other solution but for coach Jason Popp to resign today.
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Excellent blog..I agree with the young men who want to sit out the rest of the season..2010 Richmond Heights, Ohio 57.04 % whites , 34.35 % African Americans..Yes, coach should leave..Coach may be like a lot of whites in Cleveland, and surrounding areas never come in contact with Africans Americans other than being waited on in Resturants etc.
The latest news reports have said that the coach will be out for the rest of the season. According to the news reports he did use the “N” word towards the players in practice. This coach is lucky he didn’t get fired. Most of the players on the basketball team are African American and they did the right thing by speaking up and telling their parents what was going on. The young man did not act in an inappropriate manner they were very responsible young man.
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You are obviously someone who has no prior knowledge of the situation here! Coach Popp has been a coach and teacher in the Richmond Heights School District for 16 years now. For you to say he does not "know how to deal with blacks" is a jackass comment. He has been and assistant basketball coach for 11 years as well as Head Baseball coach and coached track as well as other sports as Richmond Heights. He is a well respected teacher and coach, the problem here lies with kids that have no respect for authority and when they don't get the attention OR playing time that they think the deserve all of a sudden any comment made is taken out of context and blown out of porportion. Do you think that they would be letting Mr Popp back next year as coach if these "allegations" were really rock solid. And by the way get off the "Black/Racism" bullcrap it's getting old.
The coach use racial comments towards the players the players are sick of it and did want to play basketball for this man any longer. There has to be something serious going on for the basketball team to risk their undefeated season. Regardless of how long this coach has been an employee of the school system does not matter. What matters is how the players felt about their coach and they felt they could not take his racial comments any longer.
These young people are winners on and off the court. They took a stand for their dignity and improved their situation so now they can enjoy their winning season. They learned a valuable lesson. Never let anyone stomp on your dignity as a human being, ignorant authority figure or not. And don't disrespect each other. Stand for what's right and you can make a difference. Hat's off to the youth. You have the power just like the youth in Egypt. The racist comment by Ryan is insane. if you are tired of racism crap then you racist should stop doing the stupid stuff. You are tired of people pointing out racist acts, but you ain't tired of being a racist. Those days are long gone when people will just accepy your dumb BS. Ain't no fun when the rabbit got the gun, is it?
Sometimes when it comes to situations dealing with racism people are scared of it and want to hide and act like it never happened or minimize the comments and the racist thoughts. The young men of the Richmond Heights boy’s basketball team did a great thing by standing up and speaking out on racism they handled it the appropriate way. It’s OK to motivate players through sometimes strong language but is never OK to make racist comments towards them.