White privilege will all the time be part of Chris Beard’s story, however that’s on account of his race. Nevertheless, his skill to stay hireable is because of his expertise…and his race.
Amid a sign-stealing scandal turning faculty soccer the other way up, the start of the NBA season, the LSU girls’s staff getting obliterated by Colorado, and the weekly happenings of the NFL, even essentially the most diligent sports activities fan might have ignored that the return of school basketball signifies that Chris Beard is again teaching — a lot for believing girls.
On Friday night time, Ole Miss will face Eastern Washington in their second game of the season, as they’re trying to go 2-0 after defeating Alabama State 69-59 of their season opener.
“To start with, it’s all in regards to the gamers,” Beard said after the game in an attempt to take the spotlight off himself. “I all the time really feel that manner on opening night time… They work so exhausting. The summer time, the preseason, the practices, and you then get to sport night time and also you simply don’t need it to backfire.
“There’s no place I don’t assume anyone would reasonably be proper now than Oxford, Mississippi,” he mentioned.
That wouldn’t have been the case if Beard hadn’t been run out of Austin, Texas.
“(Beard) was responsible of ‘unacceptable conduct that makes him unfit to function head coach at our college,” Texas’ vice president for legal affairs, Jim Davis, mentioned in regards to the college’s choice to fireplace him with trigger in January. Beard was concerned in a he-said/she-said felony home violence arrest together with his fiancée, which later became a “she mentioned he didn’t do it” state of affairs.
“He choked me, threw me out of bed, bit me, bruises throughout my leg, throwing me round, and going nuts,” his fiancée instructed officers after the incident.
Due to how good he’s at teaching basketball, and the perks that come together with being a white man in America, anybody with a brain knew that Beard would be hired again sooner than later. A number of months later, Ole Miss got here calling. At his introductory press convention, Beard was requested if he put his arm on his fiancée’s throat. The coward refused to reply.
“Randi and I’ve agreed to not speak in regards to the particulars of not solely that night time however form of the nights that we went by means of this course of,” he said. “However what I can inform you is, a lot of what was reported was not correct, and that’s been confirmed with the case not solely being dismissed, expenses dropped, but in addition, Randi’s assertion on Dec. 23.”
The fees in opposition to Beard had been dropped largely on account of his fiancée wanting them to be. “Whereas I all the time had religion and confidence within the reality and this end result, it has been extraordinarily difficult to attend patiently and never publicly reply. I’m sorry and deeply remorseful to my household, mates, all my gamers and workers each most up-to-date and previous, and everybody at my alma mater The College of Texas,” he wrote in a statement that allowed Ole Miss to return in and scoop him up like nothing had ever occurred.
“What we realized is that the preliminary reviews weren’t correct, not an correct reflection of the occasions that occurred,” said Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter at Beard’s introductory press conference. “We had multilevel conversations with quite a lot of folks surrounding that night time, and coach Beard was extraordinarily clear with our discussions with him.”
In keeping with local outlets, two of Beard’s daughters had been onstage with him that day. His fiancée wasn’t. That is the person Ole Miss followers can be cheering for.
In faculty athletics, the coaches have all the ability. A program’s identification is instantly tied to whoever blows the whistle. And down in Mississippi, Chris Beard has been deemed acceptable to find out how that program can be operated. That’s not solely a nasty search for Ole Miss, it’s one for school basketball.
