High school coach fired after video goes viral of him kicking ball into player's groin

Royal HS (CA), located in Simi Valley, went into its season opener Friday night without the head coach who was supposed to be running it.

Adam Brubaker was let go from his job leading the program just hours before the Highlanders kicked off, this after cameras caught him booting a football into a player's groin during a Wednesday practice, according to ABC7 in Los Angeles and Yahoo Sports.

On the video, which quickly went viral, Brubaker walks toward the player using some colorful language, suddenly kicks the ball in frustration, and the player drops. Other adults on the field move in and confront him right after it happens as Brubaker is captured walking away from the hurt student athlete.

Brubaker says it was not what it looks like. He told reporters he got hot after watching a defensive player tackle a running back during a team period, the kind of thing he says he had addressed with his kids more than once because of the injury risk. He kicked the ball in frustration, and it caught the player where nobody wants to get caught.

"I kicked the ball and it hit him in the groin area and instantly I felt like I was going to pass out," Brubaker said, calling it a "one in a million shot." He says he was not aiming at anyone, that he apologized to the player after practice, and that the kid is a great kid who happens to be intense.

We have all been on a field where tempers ran short during a live period, and every coach knows that policing full-speed tackling in a non-tackle drill is a real safety issue worth getting after. There should be a way to make that point that does not end with a player on the ground and a video making the rounds.

Brubaker was in his second season at Royal after going 3-7 in his first year. Before that he coached at Panorama HS (CA) during the 2012-13 season, where his team finished 1-9.

The school moved quickly. The principal announced that Cody MacArthur would coach the season opener, with an interim head coach to be named shortly and the focus put on keeping the program steady for the players.

Cameras are on every practice field now, at the high school level as much as anywhere. A moment of frustration that might have passed unnoticed a decade ago now lives on a phone by dinnertime, can go viral shortly after, and administrators are left to answer for it before the next kickoff.

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