You’ve got to admire a man who is willing to sacrifice for his principles. Take Randy Burbach, just for example.
Burbach, a volunteer head football coach at Corbett Middle School on the eastern outskirts of Portland, has been sacked for refusing to bow to administrative pressure to change the venue of an end-of-the-year awards dinner for his players, reports The Oregonian.
The venue is Hooters.
Naturally, the middle-school boys on the football team suggested the cleavage-ogling breastaurant chain.
The party, which will still go on, is going to be pretty awesome. Burbach said he has spent about $1,000 bringing it together. There will be limo rides.
The coach said he told his players to tell their parents about it several weeks ago and heard no complaints.
Some parents apparently did complain to school officials, but not to Burbach.
School officials decided they didn’t want Hooters to host the party. However, athletic director J.P. Soulagnet was unable to convince Burbach to relocate the event at this late date.
“He was unyielding and emphatically said no for a number of reasons,” Soulagnet wrote in a letter to parents, according to Portland NBC affiliate KGW.
“Some might say that this restaurant objectifies women. I would tend to agree,” Soulagnet also said. “It is not a restaurant that I would feel good about my wife or daughter working at. I think it sends the wrong message to our young men and that saddens and worries me the most.”
Burbach is defiantly standing his ground.
“I’m not allowing myself to be bullied by a vocal minority,” he told KGW.
“You stand up for what you believe in,” he added. “I believe this is a proper venue.”
“I would have been willing to make changes had the people who are upset contacted me,” he also said, according to The Oregonian.
Burbach noted that his own children had good experiences at Hooters at the age of 12.
The local Hooters management has agreed to contribute substantially to the Corbett Boosters Club as a result of the kerfuffle. The restaurant will donate $1,000 and 20 percent of its Saturday sales to the organization.
Meanwhile, Burbach will probably be fine despite the sacking. He is a local business owner, not a school district employee. His job and the jobs of his assistants are considered volunteer positions. Burbach said he gave an $800 stipend to his assistants—his brother and his son.
He said he hopes his brother and son will be retained for coaching positions next year, but he’s not optimistic.
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