A Kansas college fired its football coach with no explanation. Was it retaliation?
The Bethany College football team is searching for answers after its head coach was fired less than two weeks before the scheduled start of the season and replaced on the same day by a coach on a rival team.
In the days since, a handful of players have left the program, more have said they’re leaving after the season, and the rest of the coaching staff has either been fired for insubordination or resigned.
All because of the abrupt Sept. 1 termination of head coach Curran White, who was about to begin his second year with the program. Bethany has refused to explain the decision publicly and didn’t even acknowledge White’s firing in its own press release announcing the change.
“I told them, ‘You will go down in college football history for this one,’” said Barry Rave, the former Bethany defensive coordinator who was fired three days after his head coach.
Two weeks later and White is still miffed by the way it was handled by the college.
“You would think reading the headlines that I was involved in some kind of scandal, like I had been stealing money or I don’t know what,” White said. “I’m worried because it looks like I must have done something really wrong.
“But that’s just not the case.”
While Bethany’s administration remains mute on the topic, declining to be interviewed for this story, those formerly in the program are speaking out.
In a series of interviews with The Wichita Eagle, coaches and players allege that White’s firing was in retaliation for supporting his players when they protested against the college last month and helped overturn the college’s decision to expel a Bethany football player who they felt was being discriminated against.
At the time, the team never felt closer. Three weeks later, however, their coach had been fired with no explanation given to them.
“We just want an answer for why Coach White is gone,” said a current Bethany football player who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from the school. “If you didn’t like that he stuck up to you and that’s why, just be honest with us. Because right now we have a whole locker room of guys that feel like we choose one guy over the head coach. And that’s messed up.”
‘They made their voices heard’
The inciting incident began on Aug. 11, when sophomore wide receiver Aderias Ealy was notified in an email from Bethany College that he had been expelled and must vacate the campus in 48 hours for violating the college’s three-strike rule in quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Ealy, who is from Jasper, Florida, was stunned and didn’t know what to do next, according to those in the program. He admitted to the team he had broken the rule one time when he had a friend bring him pizza inside the quarantine zone on campus, which forced him to complete 100 hours of community service, pay a $250 fine and write a 2,000-word essay. But Ealy disputed the second and third offenses, which Bethany informed him were violations for not wearing a mask walking around campus based on eyewitness accounts.
Ealy’s appeal was denied, which inflamed his teammates who believed Ealy, who is Black, was unfairly being made an example of.
To the players, Ealy’s experience was a microcosm of the Black athlete experience at Bethany and in Lindsborg, a town an hour’s drive north of Wichita of 3,313 people with just a 3% Black population (and 91% white). An incident in 2016 made national headlines when ‘Make Lindsborg white again’ was written in chalk on campus sidewalks.
“When we walk around campus as football players, it’s like, ‘Here we go again with another group of thugs,’” said Rodney Molette, who is Black and an all-conference receiver for Bethany who graduated in 2019.
“The fact of the matter is you’ve got these Black kids coming in from Texas and California and Florida and most of them don’t don’t where the hell Lindsborg, Kansas is. They wear their muscle shirts and some of them got their grills in. We’re just trying to bring our culture (to Lindsborg) and they’re just thinking we’re thugs.”
When White became aware of Ealy’s situation, he sensed his team’s unrest. The players told their coach they wanted a final word with the administration, so White helped the team leaders organize a plan to march to Presser Hall, where the administrative offices are, and demand a conversation with president Dr. Elizabeth Mauch.
The next day, most of the Bethany football team — all wearing masks — showed up at Presser Hall and didn’t leave until Mauch came out of her office. It was a one-sided conversation with the players doing most of the talking, according to one of the players and the coaches who were there.
The following day, Mauch rescinded the decision to expel Ealy and he was reinstated on the team.
“I was so proud of our guys because I thought they represented themselves very well and made their voices heard,” White said. “Everybody for the most part stayed composed. They brought up some bigger issues, as far as racism on campus and their experience in Lindsborg.
“That very easily could have gotten out of control, but I was proud of my guys for keeping it on topic. They came together as one and made their voices heard because otherwise, I don’t think they would have been listened to.”
‘It had to be some kind of personal vendetta’
White remembers feeling encouraged after Ealy’s dramatic return to the team. He couldn’t help but feel like going through that together would make the team stronger.
Bethany, which has had one winning season since 2011, finished 4-6 in White’s first season with three wins coming in the final month of the season. White felt like the momentum had carried over and he was excited for the season opener on Sept. 12 against Saint Mary in what he hoped would be the start of a winning season.
But those hopes were extinguished at a 9 a.m. Tuesday meeting on Sept. 1. Bethany athletic director Laura Moreno texted White to meet her in her office. When he arrived, he was met by the college’s human resources officer and informed he was being relieved of his duties.
“I wasn’t given any specifics other than they wanted to go in a different direction,” White said.
Bethany’s only statement to The Eagle was that “because this is a personnel matter, Bethany College is committed to integrity and professionalism for all and is unable to comment further.”
The college had given its previous coach, Paul Hubbard, four years despite producing no winning seasons and an 11-32 overall record.
So if White was not involved in a scandal, why would he have such a short reign?
“In my own, personal, biased opinion, there was a group of minority football players that felt like their teammate was being discriminated against and the coach decided to help guide them in a positive way to make their voices heard and (White) was punished for it,” said Cody Peabody, the Bethany secondary coach who quit the same day White was fired. “To fire a head coach 10 days before the season opener is completely unheard of. It makes absolutely zero logical sense, other than it had to be some kind of personal vendetta.”
“Coach White stood on the front lines with us and stood up to the school,” said the current Bethany football player requesting anonymity. “And that’s what got him fired, sad to say.”
While White wouldn’t outright say the Ealy situation was the reason he was fired, the coach said “the circumstantial evidence does seem to link those two events together.”
If he knew then that it would cost him his job, would he still have done the same thing? The question didn’t linger for long before the coach answered.
“I stand by everything that I did,” White said. “I feel good about my role in it. I don’t stick up for every single kid for every single thing that they do. But if it’s a kid that I know has good character and I feel like isn’t getting a fair shake and needs an adult on his side, I’m going to speak up every single time.”
‘They took our season away from us’
After firing White at 9 a.m., Bethany already had its new interim football coach — an outside hire, no less — ready to introduce to the team by noon the same day.
Tyrone Carter was no stranger to Bethany; he had been the team’s offensive line coach under Hubbard from 2017-18. But what was peculiar about the situation was that Carter had been working the entire summer as an assistant coach at Saint Mary, the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference rival Bethany was preparing to play in Week 1.
“It’s like hiring the Indiana O-line coach for the Purdue head job 10 days before they play each other,” said Barry Rave, who was Bethany’s defensive coordinator.
The decision did not sit right with Bethany’s players, who were already upset over White’s firing and did not understand why a coach who was already with the team was not promoted in his place.
The introduction to Carter was awkward by all accounts.
“It wasn’t even so much anything about (Carter), but it was that they fired our coach and then they had an outside replacement for him the same day,” said the current Bethany football player requesting anonymity. “We felt like this could have been the best year we’ve had at Bethany. This team was so close. We had so much camaraderie. And now it feels like it’s been taken away from us. That day was bad. I’ve never seen so many dudes in tears.”
Carter has not publicly commented on how he became coach, but did release a statement about the upcoming season in the news release on his hiring.
“I’m happy to be here with these great young men,” Carter said. “Some of whom I helped to recruit and some of whom are new to me. I’m looking forward to helping them earn their college degrees, be great citizens, and chase championships.”
Rave stuck around initially because he believed his presence on the team could be a calming influence during a turbulent time. But Rave was fired the same week after he said he got into an argument when Carter wanted to practice on a grass field Rave thought was unsafe.
A handful of players left too and Ealy, even after his teammates had fought for his reinstatement, tweeted that he’s looking to transfer.
“What frustrates me the most is that they took our season away from us,” Rave said of Bethany’s administration. “Right before we’re about to play, we get the rug pulled out from underneath our feet. Our kids are good kids, good people. I feel horrible for them that we brought them to this campus to be treated this way. They deserve better than this.”
After feeling like the program was headed in the right direction under White, two of Bethany’s best players from last season — receiver Rodney Molette and linebacker Oscar Scott, both all-conference players who graduated in 2019 — now feel like their work last season has been undone.
“This was supposed to be the seniors’ last hurrah,” Molette said. “Now they let go of their coach and for what reason? That was the coach they prepared with, went through pain and suffering with. I know they’re hurting like hell right now.”
“It’s super sad because I was there for four years and we went through some good times, but a lot of bad times too,” Scott said. “I finally felt like we had laid that foundation last season. We felt like the program was about to take off and now the school has decided to throw all of that way. It’s unfair to Coach White and it’s unfair to my brothers on the team. They don’t get to play for their head coach. I know they named a new coach, but that’s not their head coach.”
Bethany and Saint Mary postponed their game on Sept. 12 due to COVID-19 concerns, so the Swedes will open their season this Saturday at home against KCAC favorite Kansas Wesleyan.
It’s not the start to the season the Bethany football players imagined, now missing coaches and teammates they had this summer. The players briefly discussed boycotting the season, but they ultimately decided to play for each other.
“Never once since I stepped on this campus was I proud to wear the logo and call myself a Swede because of Bethany College,” said the current football player requesting anonymity. “I’m proud because of the guys that I play with, the guys that bust their butts every day and fight and grind. Those are my brothers and they’re the reason why I’m proud to wear Bethany on my chest, not because of what the school does for me because, honestly, right now I feel like they don’t care about us.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
.jpg)