JOPLIN, Missouri (AP) – Southern State fired coach Jeff Sims, who was training in Garden City, Kansas, in 2018 when a 19-year-old football player died of a stroke.
Athletic director Jared Bruggeman announced On Wednesday the dismissal of Sims but gave no reason Sims at the time of the year at Missouri Southern, but the team did not play this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. Three-game skating.
Sims said he knew the explanation for why he fired, but learned that Missouri Southern had hired a new president, Dean Van Galen, this year, the Joplin Globe reported.
“I had a contract and they exercised their characteristics in the contract,” he said. “We reached out and went in opposite directions. I’m aware of what they should do. “
In August 2018, Braeden Bradforth of Neptune, New Jersey, collapsed and died of a heat stroke after working out at Garden City Community College. One investigation revealed that Bradforth’s death was due to “a blatant lack of leadership” by senior school officials, adding Sims.
Bradforth’s family circle settled a lawsuit against the school before this year for $500,000.
A year after Bradforth’s death, Sims told KCUR in Kansas City that death was not his fault, adding, “It’s bad luck what happened, but God has a plan. “
“Sims’ departure will have to be an act of God, which was his initial reaction to the media when Braeden died,” Braeden’s mother Joanne Atkins-Ingram said Wednesday.
“The question that comes to the brain and Joanne is why she hired him in the first place,” said the family’s lawyer, Jill Greene. “Why did you ever think of a possible candidate for the position after what happened in Garden City?”
“We can only hope that Braeden has gone in vain and that there will be adjustments in the way things are treated in the best schools and universities, and even professionally,” Greene said.