High School Football Coach Forced to Quit After Being Accused of Running up Score

A high school football coach in Arizona has to resign because he was accused of running up the score during a game this past weekend. Devin Dourisseau, formerly of La Joya Community High School, said he was approached by the school's athletic director Joe Williams during the third quarter of their game against Copper Canyon according to the East Valley Tribune. Williams told Dourisseau to stop scoring as they were already up by 30 points. Dourisseau told Williams no, but he did start to put in his second and third-team players in the game. That didn't help the cause as La Joya scored five more touchdowns in the second half to end the game with a 60-0 win.

"I had second and third-string guys in. But if I tell them to stop trying, what does that say about me as a coach? That's not how I want to run my program," Dourisseau said.

Dourisseau and Williams met on Monday and the former head coach was reprimanded. That led to him resigning after the two could not come to an agreement.

"I was threatened to be removed from the sideline for our game against Valley Vista if we scored another point. The AD and principal had a meeting with me [Monday] morning and basically told me I was in the wrong," Dourisseau said to the Arizona Republic via Sporting News. "We had 1 special teams score and two defensive scores in the second half. My first team only scored once and we ran the ball with my 2nd and 3rd team running back and scored. Per the conversation, I stepped down because I was accused of wrongdoing and running up the score."

The interesting thing about this Cooper Canyon head coach Sean Freeman told the Arizona Republic he doesn't believe Dourisseau tried to run up the score.

"We shook hands and that was that," Freeman said. "When I got a phone call today (that Dourisseau was out as coach), I was surprised. To me, it was not that big a deal. We just got beat fair and square. It's football. And if you're not showing up with your A game that's what happens."

Dourisseau told the East Valley Tribune he could not work for school the questioned his integrity as for Williams, he did not comment on the situation.