High school football coach resigns after leading tackling drills without pads
Mar 27, 2024, 7:19 AM
Mark Smith winning the Class 6A state title in 2019 with Liberty of Peoria before coaching Shelton High School. (Photo courtesy of Liberty of Peoria)
(Photo courtesy of Liberty of Peoria)
A head football coach in the Shelton School District has resigned following a coaching decision to let the students practice tackling drills during a PE class without pads.
Shelton High School head football coach Mark Smith supervised tackling drills on wrestling mats back in January with none of the students wearing pads or additional protection. According to KING 5, several students sustained injuries, including concussions and dislocated fingers.
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“I saw someone get their head slammed into a wall and then after that, my finger got dislocated,” Marshall Gard, a football player at Shelton High School, told KING 5. “The doctor told me the bones were shaved together and it could not work the same for the rest of my life.”
Despite Smith’s resignation, a number of parents want more consequences dealt to make sure Smith and any assistant coach from his staff do not repeat the same transgressions in another district.
“I want to make sure he is not able to come back to this district or any other district to work with other kids,” parent Desiree Leth told KIRO 7.
The parent group plans to file a lawsuit to prevent this from happening again at this school and others. Last month, an attorney representing some Shelton High School parents stated, in a span of 30 minutes, at least five students were injured.
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“Now that we have voted and accepted the resignation of Coach Smith, can we move forward with finding another coach?” School Board Chairman Matthew Welander said at the end of a scheduled school board meeting Tuesday night.
Smith Mark Smith won a Class 6A state title in 2019 with Liberty of Peoria in Arizona before returning as the new coach at his alma mater — Shelton High School — in 2020.
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.
