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Louisiana high school coach fired after comments about Alabama's 'unethical' recruiting

A Louisiana high school coach who did not allow Alabama to recruit at his school has been fired. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
A Louisiana high school coach who did not allow Alabama to recruit at his school has been fired. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

On Wednesday, David Feaster, the head coach at Parkway High School in Bossier City, Louisiana, said in a radio interview that he does not allow Alabama to recruit his players on the school’s campus because of the way the Tide coaching staff treated one of his players, ex-LSU quarterback Brandon Harris, during the recruiting process.

On Friday, Feaster was relieved of his duties by school principal Waylon Bates. Yes, really.

Feaster told the Shreveport Times that his comments about Alabama directly led to his dismissal:

“Most people are going to say ‘Feaster just ran his mouth,’ but (Parkway) made it clear to me why they fired me,” Feaster told The Times. “They can say what they want to about Alabama, but (Bates) cited me for insubordination. He said, ‘You should have checked with me before you banned Alabama.’

“I said, ‘That was four years ago, you weren’t even the principal here.’ But he said I brought so much negative publicity to the school I had to go.”

Feaster told ESPN 104.5 Baton Rouge Wednesday that the Tide coaching staff was “unethical“ in its recruitment of Harris, who was a top 100 recruit in the 2014 class. Feaster claimed in a lengthy story (which we’ve detailed here) that the staff’s scholarship offer to Harris was essentially just an invitation to attend a camp on Alabama’s campus.

“I made (Alabama) make the distinction between a committable offer and just an offer to come to camp. If you make a committable offer, at some point there needs to be a window where my guy says yes I’ll take that offer and we’re done,” Feaster said. “And that never happened with Brandon. All it was was a lure dangling to get him to come to camp and compete against other guys.

“It’s like OK maybe I’m playing too hard, I don’t know four years later, but I don’t want them on campus. I don’t want them making those kinds of offers to the rest of my guys. And my guys know, they can go to Alabama … I’m just not going to help Alabama recruit my guys.”

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Feaster had spoken out about his issues with Alabama in the past, but the attention that came from his most recent comments apparently did not sit well with the school’s administration. From the Times:

The current Parkway administration didn’t take kindly to the attention and felt Fester was “undermining” school officials and potentially hurting other Panthers athletes who could be recruited by Alabama.

Bates said he and Feaster, who will remain at the school as a math teacher, “do not share the same philosophy or vision for Parkway High School athletics.” The coach has reportedly been involved in a few other controversies during his time at Parkway as well.

The incident was the “third or fourth” for Feaster and ultimately his undoing.

In 2012, Feaster, disappointed in the attendance of rival fans during his first year at Parkway, forbid visiting radio broadcasts, saying he has simply had the “best interest,” of his players and his school at heart.

In 2014, Parkway failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 10 years when the Panthers were forced to forfeit five games football from the playoffs for playing then-ineligible freshman backup quarterback Justin Rogers.

Overall, Feaster had a 59-17 record as Parkway’s head coach.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!