Courtney Balcombe

News Editor

clb6264@psu.edu

The Washington State University had to fire their football coach, Nick Rolovich for refusing to get his COVID-19 vaccination, along with four assistant coaches.

Washington’s state mandate against COVID is that workers at state colleges and universities are required to get the vaccine. The mandate also covers public, charter, and private school teachers and staff, health care workers, and state troopers.

Rolovich sought and appeared to have been denied a religious exemption from those mandates, which required employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 18th if they wished to continue working.

According to CBS NCAA Football, four Washington State assistant coaches have also been terminated: Ricky Logo, defensive tackles, John Richardson, assistant head coach and cornerbacks, Craig Stutzmann, co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks and Mark Weber, offensive line. 

“This is a disheartening day for our football program. Our priority has been and will continue to be the health and well-being of the young men on our team,” Washington State University Director of Athletics Pat Chun said in an announcement. “The leadership on our football team is filled with young men of character, selflessness, and resiliency and we are confident these same attributes will help guide this program as we move forward.”

According to NPR, defensive coordinator Jake Dickert will serve as the team’s interim coach. 

Rolovich is intent on fighting the decision in court. His lawyer released a statement on October 20th threatening legal action against Washington State. The statement described Rolovich’s termination as “unjust and unlawful.”

“It is a tragic and damning commentary on our culture, and more specifically, on Chun, that Coach Rolovich has been derided, demonized, and ultimately fired from his job, merely for being devout in his Catholic faith,” the statement said.

According to CBS, Rolovich appeared to have the backing of his team. Starting quarterback Jayden de Laura voiced support for the embattled coach on behalf of Washington State players following the Cougars’ victory over Oregon State on October 9th. 

“Players, we have no issue with Coach Rolo,” de Laura said. “We have no issue with any of our coaches. We respect their decisions. I feel like it’s just the guys covering us, they’re trying to dig a hole on our Cougar football team.”

WSU officials said only a small number of their employees did not get the vaccine.

“While much has been made of the relatively small number of university employees who are not complying with the Governor’s mandate,” WSU President Kirk Schulz said in a statement. “We are immensely gratified that nearly 90 percent of WSU employees and 97 percent of our students are now vaccinated.”

Schulz went on to say, “WSU students, faculty, and staff understand the importance of getting vaccinated and wearing masks so that we can safely return to in-person learning and activities.”

While there is no update on Rolovich’s lawsuit, it is unclear whether he or the assistant coaches will be allowed to return without full vaccination status.