Texas Wesleyan fires head baseball coach over drug and political remarks
Texas Wesleyan has fired head baseball coach Mike Jeffcoat, John M. Veilleux, TWU's vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications, told the Star-Telegram on Thursday.
Texas Wesleyan President Fred Slabach and Athletic Director Steve Trachier made the announcement during a news conference on Thursday, according to KRLD.
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after the former Rangers pitcher made controversial remarks about Colorado politicians and the state's marijuana laws. Jeffcoat stated that he and the program would not recruit in Colorado because players from there might fail a drug test.
The comments were sent in an email to 18-year-old Gavin Bell, a senior at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, Colorado.
"Mike Jeffcoat is no longer an employee with Texas Wesleyan University," Slabach said at the news conference, according to KRLD. "He was separated from the university due to the discriminatory remarks contained in an email to a potential recruit from the state of Colorado and for another factor that we have been investigating for the last week. This additional factor is an NAIA rule violation that has recently come to our attention."
Slabach would not go into detail about what the NAIA rule violation was, per KRLD, but he did say it concerned the "eligibility of players and in no way centers around a Title IX violation."
In an interview with KCNC-TV in Denver, Bell said he "didn't know what to think" when he got the email from Jeffcoat.
"My intention really wasn't to do anything to hurt anybody or get anybody fired," Bell revealed to the network. "It was just me talking to my coaches and my loved ones about what do I do with this."
The Young Conservatives of Texas at TWU released a statement in lieu of Jeffcoat's dismissal, which was sent to the Star-Telegram, Slabach, Provost Allen H. Henderson, the Dean of Students, and Student Life saying that they would "like to express our concern that this action may have been prematurely decided without sufficient transparency on the issue at hand.
"More specifically, we believe that the University has yet to express their grievances with Mr. Jeffcoat openly to the public in order to ensure transparency and legitimacy with the action."
This group went on to ask for clarification to the following questions:
1. Is this Mr. Jeffcoat's first violation of University policy, and if not, have previous instances been addressed and investigated by the University?
2. What were the specific grounds for dismissal of Mr. Jeffcoat?
Peter Dawson: 817-390-7657, @PeterDawsonFWST
This story was originally published March 1, 2018 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Texas Wesleyan fires head baseball coach over drug and political remarks."