Post by Administrator on Aug 13, 2004 8:10:04 GMT -5
?Cheer naked? T-shirt gets UF coach fired
The University of Florida's cheerleading coach was fired Thursday for allowing some squad members to wear T-shirts counting down the "10 Reasons to Cheer Naked" at cheerleading camp this week.
That leaves the squad without a coach with only three weeks to go until the first football game. Practices have been temporarily suspended.
Gene Moore, who has headed the program for five years, was relieved of his duties after the University Athletic Association received complaints about the sexual nature of the list on the back of the T-shirts.
For example, No. 9, perhaps one of the least explicit of the 10, reads: "Players are not the only ones to score."
But Moore, 39, said he was unfairly terminated for a shirt he neither required nor provided.
According to him, a couple of cheerleaders had the shirts printed and then distributed them to the squad to wear on Spirit Day, a day reserved for trading shirts with members of other teams. The "Cheer Naked" shirts replaced others Moore had lined up for that day. He acknowledges he gave them permission to wear them.
Yet, he does question whether the offense rises to the level of termination.
"Yes, I was aware of it and, yes, it was a mistake," Moore said. "I don't feel like firing me over it after I've put in five years was justified."
Mike Hill, UAA's assistant athletic director for external affairs, confirmed Moore's termination but said he could not elaborate.
"It's a confidential personnel matter," Hill said.
www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040813/LOCAL/40813011/1078
The University of Florida's cheerleading coach was fired Thursday for allowing some squad members to wear T-shirts counting down the "10 Reasons to Cheer Naked" at cheerleading camp this week.
That leaves the squad without a coach with only three weeks to go until the first football game. Practices have been temporarily suspended.
Gene Moore, who has headed the program for five years, was relieved of his duties after the University Athletic Association received complaints about the sexual nature of the list on the back of the T-shirts.
For example, No. 9, perhaps one of the least explicit of the 10, reads: "Players are not the only ones to score."
But Moore, 39, said he was unfairly terminated for a shirt he neither required nor provided.
According to him, a couple of cheerleaders had the shirts printed and then distributed them to the squad to wear on Spirit Day, a day reserved for trading shirts with members of other teams. The "Cheer Naked" shirts replaced others Moore had lined up for that day. He acknowledges he gave them permission to wear them.
Yet, he does question whether the offense rises to the level of termination.
"Yes, I was aware of it and, yes, it was a mistake," Moore said. "I don't feel like firing me over it after I've put in five years was justified."
Mike Hill, UAA's assistant athletic director for external affairs, confirmed Moore's termination but said he could not elaborate.
"It's a confidential personnel matter," Hill said.
www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040813/LOCAL/40813011/1078
