Coach Disciplined For Forcing Player To Do ’The Worm’

From The Omaha World-Herald (Neb.)

An Omaha Benson High School football coach was disciplined by the Nebraska Department of Education following a complaint by a player.

Head coach Adam Heuertz, who also teaches English at Benson, received a “nonpublic sanction” after an incident at practice in late August 2009.

Attorney Jerry Fennell, who represents Heuertz, said he had no comment on the sanction and said he has advised his client not to comment.

Nonpublic sanctions are not publicly released, but former State Sen. Ernie Chambers gave The World-Herald a copy of a letter acknowledging the action, as well as other documents related to the case.

In a letter to Chambers dated Sept. 20, State Education Commissioner Roger Breed said Chambers’ complaint had resulted in the sanction. Breed also offered assurances that if “unprofessional or unethical conduct occurs in the future, more serious sanctions, including certificate suspension or revocation, may result.”

Chambers filed a complaint with the state in February.

The complaint focused on an incident involving Heuertz and a Benson player who has since left the high school for another school in the Omaha Public Schools.

The player and his family said Heuertz had ordered the player to do “the worm” — undulating his body on the ground like an inchworm, from end zone to end zone and back again. In an interview with the newspaper last fall, the player said Heuertz told him that he was being disciplined for his behavior at a school pep rally.

The player said he complied with the order for about five yards before he told the coach he couldn’t finish. After a verbal exchange that included profanity, he quit the team.

Then, the boy said, the coach ordered him to take off his equipment and leave. As a result, the player said he removed his uniform on the field and walked through the school hallways to the locker room in his boxer shorts.

Heuertz’s official response to the Department of Education complaint said in part: “The respondent has never requested a player to take off his pants and leave them. The respondent only instructed the student/player to remove his helmet and shoulder pads.”

The player’s relatives contacted Chambers after they talked with school officials and e-mailed school board members about the incident. They said the matter was not taken seriously.

Benson football players interviewed a few weeks after the incident recalled the boy leaving the field in workout shorts and a T-shirt, not boxers, as Chambers and the family alleged.

In the wake of the incident, Benson High and the district conducted internal investigations.

During the district’s investigation, Heuertz was put on paid administrative leave for three days in October 2009 and, as a result, missed a football game.

In his response to the state, Heuertz said OPS investigations determined that the allegations “lack merit.”

Janice Garnett, assistant superintendent for human resources, said last week that the district did take action. She declined to elaborate because it was a personnel matter.

Heuertz remains a teacher and the head football coach at Benson.