WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. —
A group representing school coaches across Florida is calling for changes after a now-former Seminole County football coach was allegedly headbutted by a player’s parent inside a locker room at Winter Springs High School last month.
The Florida Coaches Coalition took its concerns about coach safety to the Seminole County School Board on Tuesday evening.
“We want coaches here in Seminole County to feel safe,” Dr. Andrew Ramjit, the coalition’s executive director, told WESH 2 News.
Ramjit addressed the board after Winter Springs High School football coach Tim Dycus and his son, assistant coach Walker Dycus, resigned last month. Their voluntary resignations came after an incident involving a parent who entered the school’s football locker room after a game on Sept. 14.
“An angry parent breached a security gate, entered a boys’ locker room with students present, and headbutted and assaulted a head football coach who spent nearly 30 years giving so much of his life to his student athletes and this school district,” Ramjit told the board.
According to a Winter Springs police report, officers were dispatched to the school around 10:15 p.m. that night in reference to a battery following a junior varsity football game.
Walker Dycus told officers he heard a knock on the locker room’s back door and, thinking it was a player, opened it. He said the parent pushed open the door, was irate, pushed him, and began throwing punches at him without making contact, according to the report.
Walker Dycus told officers the parent then walked past him, approached Tim Dycus, pushed him, and headbutted him. He said some of the players attempted to break up the altercation before the parent left the locker room, the report states.
Tim Dycus confirmed his son’s account to officers and said he was struck during the headbutt, according to the report. He told officers, “the altercation must have stemmed from the coaches getting onto (the parent’s) son during the game.”
Both coaches declined medical attention. By the time officers arrived, the parent had left, and both Tim and Walker Dycus ultimately declined to press charges, according to the report.
“School administration nevertheless conducted a thorough investigation beginning the very next morning, and the parent was issued a trespass notice delivered to his home,” said Dr. Connie Collins, assistant superintendent of Seminole County Public Schools.
Ramjit also raised concerns about a woman who entered the locker room after the altercation.
“After the parent left, his partner, a female employee of the school, entered that same boys’ locker room to confront the coach, yet we have been told she faced no repercussions,” Ramjit said.
Collins addressed the woman’s presence in the locker room during her remarks to the board.
“I also want to clarify that the woman who entered the locker room after hearing the commotion was an assistant coach for the football team, a school board employee, and a parent,” Collins said.
Ramjit said his concerns weren’t limited to the parent’s alleged actions.
“(Tim’s) assistant coach, his son, stepped in to protect his father. Somehow he was suspended. And like any great father, instead of standing by and watching his son get dragged through the mud, the head coach resigned. The assistant coach resigned as well,” Ramjit said.
The school district acknowledged “appropriate action” was taken but emphasized the coaches leaving their positions was their choice.
“The facts presented here are that law enforcement was contacted immediately. The coaches declined to press charges. School administration thoroughly investigated the incident. The parent was trespassed, and both coaches voluntarily resigned,” Collins said.
The school district says the parent who allegedly headbutted Tim Dycus had been previously permitted on multiple occasions to enter the locker room with coaches and students, but it’s unclear whether that practice complied with locker room procedures.