Michael Grover, Minnesota School Baseball Coach, Claims He Was Fired For Being White

Michael Grover, a baseball coach at Johnson Senior High School in St. Paul, Minn. claims he lost his job at the school because of his race, the Pioneer Press reports.

After he and his assistant coach lost their jobs last week, Grover posted angrily on his Facebook profile -- claiming the school removed him to replace him with a coach of Asian decent in an attempt to attract more Asian-American students to the team.

At Johnson High, nearly half the student body is of Asian descent, but the freshman baseball team didn't feature any Asian players last season.

The school launched an investigation after the post spurred several calls to the school questioning the decision. The district has since issued a statement saying the claims violate school policy.

"Under no circumstances do we base hiring or firing on a person's racial or ethnic background," district officials said in the statement, according to the Pioneer Press. "The district has a very clear policy on this, and we adhere to it."

The Associated Press reports that the district has placed athletics director Jeff Plaschko on paid leave pending results of the investigation.

The report also states that while Grover admits his team lost the majority of their games last season, he maintains that the athletic director brought up race as an issue for dismisal.

Yahoo Sports notes that Grover's Facebook post has since been deleted from the former coach's wall.

Comments

[Sam D man]

03:46 PM on 03/17/2012

Its Minnesota they should just can the whole Baseball program for Rodeo and Snow Boarding.

[Chipper1]

11:33 AM on 03/16/2012

Nonsense! Just a racist jumping on race to obscure the real reason he was fired.

[Eric J Workman]

04:51 AM on 03/16/2012

DESCENT, not DECENT.

[David Ziegler]

12:54 AM on 03/16/2012

Here's part two of what he wrote: "The numbers are down and they want more asians to play baseball, I get that, but to let a qualified person go to hire a unqualified person because of his nationality is unacceptable in this country. If this were a position in the private sector (where your pay is based on your performance) instead of a city position, would I have lost my job then ? I have argued many times that when a private citizen invests his own capital, he wants performance, but we don't have the same standard for tax payers investment. WELCOME TO THE NEW USA ! "

[noudidnt]

08:07 AM on 03/17/2012

Only b1gots ASSUME a person is "unqualified" because they are a minority.

[David Ziegler]

12:53 AM on 03/16/2012

The guy is known bigot and gambling bookie. Here's part one of what he wrote: Here's what he wrote:Yesterday I recieved word that I would be replaced as freshman baseball coach at Johnson High School after 3 seasons. The reason I was told was that there weren't enough asian players coming out for the sport, so the school decided to hire a coach of asian decsent, who already has a coaching position at the school. Now I believe them when they told me the reason, since 2 out of the last 3 seasons we won the conference, that sucess obviously hasn't trickled up. But lets take a closer look what really happened, a man lost his position as coach, not because of his performance, but because of his nationality. Now I'm not a rebel rouser, but just imagine if this situation was turned around, a asian man loses job to a white man to coach the soccor team to get more white kids to play. Or how about white man gets black mans job to stir more interest for whites to play basketball ? I love how the St. Paul school systems in their good heart tries to tell every student how diversity is done, accept when it comes to white person. LOL. All the while they continue to divide us. Does anyone have the number fo a civil rights attourney, or the white version of the justice brothers. LOL.

[El Chingaso]

01:12 PM on 03/16/2012

Maybe he was let go...for poor grammar and punctuation.

[noudidnt]

08:08 AM on 03/17/2012

LOL

[noudidnt]

03:52 PM on 03/15/2012

This guy wanted preferential treatment.

[David Ziegler]

12:56 AM on 03/16/2012

He did. He lost all but two games and had only 12 players left last year. Every year, the record got worse and team got smaller. He is a hateful right winger that got what he had coming to him. Don't take my word for it, read his facebook postings.

[genrel1248]

01:57 PM on 03/15/2012

Dang! I knew I shoulda checked the box that said Asian on the last census!

[Denise Miller Gulner]

01:47 PM on 03/15/2012

I cannot express how very sickened I am by the multiple posts claiming that because the team had an unsuccessful season last year, the school was justified firing the coaching staff...How short sighted can you be? The point of the story is that the AD claimed that he was dismissing the coaching staff based upon the fact that he feels an Asian Coach will have more success recruiting Asian players (the school is comprised of roughly 60 % Asian students). Why do you have such trouble seeing the problem...the men (Coach and Assistant Coach) were dismissed because they were NOT ASIAN. That is racism and is illegal. It had nothing to do with wins and losses. If their losing record had been the problem they would have most likely been dismissed at the end of the season as is customary...not a mere 10 days prior to this year's season. My son has been coached by Coach Grover, and I can assure you that there is not a more knowledgeable or dedicated Coach in the St. Paul School District. The only losers in this situation are the kids who will not benefit from the experience that Coach Grover has to offer. I am sure that eventually the WHOLE truth will come out (following the investigation by the school district) and many of you who have jumped to conclusions or chose to ignore the facts will owe Coach Grover an apology!

[David Ziegler]

12:58 AM on 03/16/2012

Coach Grover was let go because he has issues with asians and he runs an illegal gambling circle in St Paul. He will be very sorry when this investigation is over. The winners here are the kids who will have a chance to develop beyond this old school mentality.

[ThirdRAILKink]

12:37 PM on 03/15/2012

Just because he's white people are being very dismissive about his claim. Might be true. Racism isn't just a white thing.

[Frank51]

03:29 PM on 03/15/2012

yep.

They won their conference the previous two years, by the way.

There's no way any of us can know what happened. If the AD did talk about race, then maybe the coach has a point. I see nothing to indicate the AD denied it.

[PedroInfante]

12:46 AM on 03/16/2012

Sour apples. Move on...

[DanielaFearless]

06:55 AM on 03/16/2012

You're not allowed to be targeted for your race if you're white, didn't you know? lol

[jm26dream]

12:30 PM on 03/15/2012

serves him right for CHOOSING to be white

[DanielaFearless]

07:09 AM on 03/16/2012

lol

[nete peedham]

12:26 PM on 03/15/2012

Mommy! Ah'm whyte an' Ah'm entitult!

[Jjsedona1]

12:13 PM on 03/15/2012

Bigotry on all levels.

[noudidnt]

11:45 AM on 03/15/2012

Apparently this coach (loser) discriminated against Asian students.

[Now tense]

02:42 PM on 03/15/2012

Is this something you know for sure about?

[Sumocat]

11:38 AM on 03/15/2012

He later went on to claim the Asian freshmen were too busy studying calculus and working in their parents' restaurants to sign up for the team.

[dennissinned]

11:37 AM on 03/15/2012

"Grover admits his team lost the majority of their games last season" -- Easier to swallow the fact that he's white than to admit that he's a l0s3r. How many years in a row did he have a losing season?

[ideal0024]

12:33 PM on 03/15/2012

They actually won their conference the previous two seasons.

[Denise Miller Gulner]

01:20 PM on 03/15/2012

2 of past 3 years they won the conference. Last year was their first losing season, primarily because there were only 12 kids, none of whom had ever pitched or caught before...kinda tough to win without players in the skilled positions! Missing the point anyway, you can't TELL a coach that you're firing his staff to replace them with an Asian staff to boost numbers of Asian players!