ANDY STAPLES: Luther Campbell In Fight For Right To Coach High School Football In Miami
Source: Andy Staples / Sports Illustrated
Miami Northwestern High’s defensive coordinator stood before his players last month with a marker in his hand and a board full of plays at his back. “Any time in this game we’re going to check goal line, I’m going to go Eagle,” he yelled, referring to a blitz call. “We’re going to hit the quarterback all night.” The players nodded. Some smiled. Some scowled.
The coordinator knows more about moving posteriors than he does about kicking them. Long before he became the coordinator — before his players were even born — he was known by several names. To his family and before the U.S. Supreme Court, he was Luther Campbell. To the fans who bought the raunchy albums he produced as a solo artist and as a member of 2 Live Crew, he was known as Luke Skyywalker (until George Lucas sued him), Uncle Luke or just plain Luke. To Tipper Gore and the others who called his music obscene, he was Public Enemy No. 1.
Now, Campbell wants to be known by one phrase: Coach Luke. In August, he’ll enter his fourth season as a high school assistant coach — if Florida’s Education Practices Commission will let him. For the past three seasons (two at Miami Central and one at Northwestern), Campbell has coached using a temporary certification. That certification expired at the end of the 2011-12 school year. To continue coaching in Miami-Dade County, Campbell will need a permanent certificate.
An administrative judge has recommended that Campbell be allowed to coach, but last week the Florida Department of Education appealed that recommendation. In the appeal, the department’s attorney, Charles Whitelock, wrote that “the Petitioner lacks the required good moral character” to coach students. The state has investigated Campbell’s past and present, and the Education Practices Commission will have to decide sometime this summer whether it should allow one of the men behind Me So Horny – and other songs whose titles aren’t printable in a family publication — to influence high-schoolers.
To read this article in its entirety visit Sports Illustrated.
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