High school girls basketball coach fired after video shows him pulling player’s hair

Jim Zullo, who coached boys and girls basketball teams in New York for more than 40 seasons, was involved in the incident Friday

SBLive Sports / Arianna Grainey

A New York high school girls basketball coach has been fired after video showed him pulling a player's hair Friday.

The Times Union in Albany reported that Jim Zullo, head coach of the Northville girls basketball team, was relieved of his duties after he was seen pulling the hair of senior Hailey Monroe.

The incident happened after the Falcons’ 43-37 loss to LaFargeville on Friday in the New York State Class D championship game at Hudson Valley Community College.

The incident, which was captured by the NFHS Network’s broadcast cameras, occurred postgame in front of the Northville bench.

The video shows Monroe, who is crying, lining up with the team.

Zullo, who was right behind Monroe, reaches out and yanks her by the ponytail and tugs her back. After Monroe moved away, a teammate expressed her displeasure with Zullo’s behavior.

The Northville Central School District provided a statement on the incident:

“The Northville Central School District is aware of, and deeply disturbed by, the conduct of the Coach of the Girls’ Varsity basketball team during the Class D New York State championship game. We hold our coaches to the highest standards of professionalism, sportsmanship, and respect for our student-athletes, and this behavior is completely unacceptable.

“The District is committed to ensuring that this type of behavior has no place within our programs, and we will continue to uphold the values of respect and integrity that our athletes, families and community expect and deserve. This individual will no longer be coaching for the Northville Central School District.

“We assure the public that this matter is being taken extremely seriously, and the District is actively addressing it. The District will be following up with the affected players and their families to provide support and outline the actions we are taking in response to this incident.”

According to The Times Union, Zullo won more than 500 games over 40 seasons as a boys basketball coach at Little Falls, Shenendehowa, Broadalbin-Perth and Indian Lake.

Zullo, a 2006 inductee into the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame, was in his second season with Northville.

He guided the Falcons to back-to-back appearances at the Class D state championship game – losing both matchups.

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