INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Sebastian River High School head baseball coach George “Buddy” Young has been fired as coach, effective this month, as a result of an alleged hazing incident involving his players, according to documents released Friday.
Schools Superintendent Harry La Cava’s June 9 letter told Young he intends to recommend a three-day suspension without pay in August from his teaching job at the School Board’s June 24 meeting. La Cava said in the letter Young failed to be “fully honest” in dealing with the SRHS athletic director Michael Stutzke and school authorities during the investigation of the incident.
According to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, teammates held a SRHS baseball player down, while another teammate placed a two-liter plastic bottle near the player’s rectum when the players were staying in a Plantation hotel room during a baseball tournament in March.
The sheriff’s office report said Young heard a bottle might have been used during the incident, but never told Stutzke or other school officials.
SRHS Principal Peggy Jones notified Young in another letter, dated June 9, he would no longer be head baseball coach.
Three of the players involved in the incident have been sent to the Alternative Center for Education for at least the first semester in lieu of a formal expulsion, district officials confirmed.
Young and assistant coach Christopher Rahal were relieved of their coaching duties pending the investigation immediately after the incident was reported, but both continued to teach at SRHS through the end of the school year.
Rahal told sheriff’s investigators he was in the room playing video games that night, but left at some point and did not believe he was in the room during the incident.
The district did not release information about Rahal on Friday because state law mandates officials wait 10 days after an employee has been notified before releasing derogatory information about the employee. Rahal did not receive his disciplinary letter until June 13.
