A high school football coach in Coronado in San Diego County has gone viral after his positive and supportive reaction to one of his players quitting the team.
For Coronado High School Coach Kurt Hines, there’s nothing like Friday Night Lights.
“This is my 24th year coaching high school football,” said Hines.
Locally, he’s on his fifth season coaching for Coronado High School. On Wednesday just before practice, Hines took to Twitter to announce something going on with the team.
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“I just had a young man come in and quit, and I couldn’t be happier,” said Hines on a Twitter video.
I just had a young man come in and quit, and I couldn't be happier.
Kurt Hines, Coronado High School football coach in viral video
Words you might not expect from a football coach.
"I said, 'You’re doing the right thing, football isn’t for everyone,'" said Hines on a video posted on Twitter that in five days has garnered more than 70,000 likes.
Coach Hines said he hadn’t seen the player happy or comfortable for about a year.
“When he came in to talk to me I asked, ‘Where's your head at?” said Hines. “He looked at me and said, 'Coach, we're a football family. My dad loves football, my mom was football, my brother...' and I stopped him. I said, 'Do you love football?' And he said, with a huge sigh of relief, 'No.'"
“I couldn't be happier,” said Hines on a Twitter video. “Coaches, support your players if they want to be great and if they want to be great in something other than football, support them too."
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Hines' Twitter video has since been retweeted over 6,000 times. Hundreds of comments have also been left on the clip, with Twitter users both supportive and critical of Hines' approach.
“There's been tremendous support all throughout social media,” said Hines. “But there are other people out there that are saying, ‘Well if I allowed him to quit, he's gonna quit the rest of his life.’ And I think it's so mature to come in, have a conversation face to face, and to follow your heart.”
A message of courage he hopes reaches players and coaches alike.
