Coach fired for 'check manhood' comment

A high school coach who told his players at halftime to reach into their pants to "check their manhood" before returning to the basketball court was fired.

Mike Remillard was confronted after Leavitt Area High School Principal Patrick Hartnett learned that the coach told his players that the Jan. 23 game against Mount Ararat "was about who had the biggest (male genitalia) in town," Hartnett said in a statement.

"He then required his players to all stand up and put their hands down their pants and check their manhood," Hartnett said. All but one player followed the coach's instructions.

Hartnett's statement was read by School Administrative District 52 Superintendent Thomas J. Hanson during Thursday night's regularly scheduled school board meeting. The statement came a day after the coach was dismissed.

In the statement, Harnett said Remillard confirmed that the boys were asked to check their privates. Asked if that was an appropriate motivational tactic, the coach responded by saying "we won," Harnett said. But the tactic also got him fired.

Remillard, who cites Texas Tech basketball coach Bob Knight as his role model, told the Sun Journal newspaper that having his players "check their manhood" is "normal locker room banter from Fort Kent, Maine, to San Diego, California."

Nonetheless, he said he shouldn't have done it.

"Was that tactic appropriate? No. And I'm paying the price for it," he said. "I can pay that price because I accept my responsibility, and I'm being accountable."

But he denied responding "we won" when asked about the tactic. "What I told him was, the tactic worked," Remillard said. "We played like the young men that we were or could be. That's what I said. I never said, 'Well, we won.'"

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Information from: Sun-Journal, http://www.sunjournal.com