Posted on 08/14/2004 2:09:06 PM PDT by Stoat
The University of Florida's cheerleading coach was fired Thursday for allowing some squad members to wear T-shirts counting down the "10 Reasons to Cheer Naked" at cheerleading camp this week.
That leaves the squad without a coach with only three weeks to go until the first football game. Practices have been temporarily suspended.
Gene Moore, who has headed the program for five years, was relieved of his duties after the University Athletic Association received complaints about the sexual nature of the list on the back of the T-shirts.
For example, No. 9, perhaps one of the least explicit of the 10, reads: "Players are not the only ones to score."
But Moore, 39, said he was unfairly terminated for a shirt he neither required nor provided.
According to him, a couple of cheerleaders had the shirts printed and then distributed them to the squad to wear on Spirit Day, a day reserved for trading shirts with members of other teams. The "Cheer Naked" shirts replaced others Moore had lined up for that day. He acknowledges he gave them permission to wear them.
Yet, he does question whether the offense rises to the level of termination.
"Yes, I was aware of it and, yes, it was a mistake," Moore said. "I don't feel like firing me over it after I've put in five years was justified."
Mike Hill, UAA's assistant athletic director for external affairs, confirmed Moore's termination but said he could not elaborate.
"It's a confidential personnel matter," Hill said.
Sixteen cheerleaders, two mascots and five "Dazzlers" attended college cheerleading camp in Myrtle Beach, S.C., earlier this week, where they worked alongside teams from other schools to learn new stunts and work on pyramids, Moore said.
Of those, 15 chose to wear the T-shirts. Moore said other schools have worn similar spoof shirts during camp.
Moore's departure means the squad may be without a leader heading into UF's first football game in three weeks. The Gators play Middle Tennessee State University on Sept. 4.
Also leaving the program is Donni Frazier, whose last day is today. Frazier has been the spirit coordinator and Dazzler coach ? UF's dance squad ? as well as Moore's direct supervisor. She's leaving UF for a new coaching position with the Atlanta Hawks.
And Frazier, according to Moore, was in Myrtle Beach for the cheerleading camp. She apparently was not reprimanded for the T-shirt incident.
No replacements have been named, Hill said.
"We will run a national search for a permanent, full-time replacement," Hill said.
Moore, who operates a cheerleading company in Jacksonville and Gainesville, said he earned $9,000 annually his first four years at UF and $19,000 a year beginning last year.
He cheered at the University of West Alabama before joining the city of Jacksonville as a special events coordinator. After a stint doing volunteer coaching on the side, Moore decided to open his own business, Florida Elite All-Stars. It's a business he still owns.
He said he has been reprimanded in the past for being late to practice, the result of commuting between Jacksonville and Gainesville.
He also has been warned this year after receiving three traffic tickets within three months while driving his personal vehicle, he said.
But Moore said he remains baffled at his dismissal. He said he regrets allowing the student to wear the shirts.
"They are making me sound like I'm a bad person," Moore said.
Sheesh...make that "She and 3 other cheerleaders".
Who's going to complain if they are out of step.
HOMER NODS: Look Marge, that boobie is swinging the wrong way...
Is that the subliminal message in your post?
ick....no
Just an attempt at humor. The dude was wanting pics of cheerleaders (btw...thanks to whomever gave the link to the cheerleader's website......wowzers...!)
Anyway....Bush was a cheerleader in college, so I posted his pic.
Is the girl on the right's hand deformed, or is she holding something? What does the other girl's hand symbols mean?
why is a man in charge of any cheerleaders?
It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it...
Ummm, it might be a good idea to explain that line....
Firing him? Sheesh.
I remember shirts all over campus at A&M when I was there. "Study Naked." I'm not sure if they had a top 10 list, but to be honest, this was a pretty mild shirt.
We almost had a (laughing) riot in class one day when the guy in front of me took off his jacket. It was from some New Orleans place advertising the "original chicken finger" if I remember right. I sure remember the big Foghorn Leghorn looking chicken with his middle finger extended.
It also had the name of the establishment on there, but I'll let you all's imagination run wild on that one. I'd rather not get dinged on here.
This is absurd.
"Ummm, it might be a good idea to explain that line...."
It's the thong-thong-thongs. I had to go to Victoria's secret to buy her more modest looking undies. I tell her I feel like I'm doing the laundry in a whore house.
But really, she's a good kid, honors student, captain of two varsity teams, going to college, the whole deal. I blame her Scandanavian blood (from the other side of the family) for her, um, uninhibited nature.
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