Ringling coach under investigation amid accusations of bullying, abuse
Law enforcement is investigating an Oklahoma high school football coach amid multiple accusations of bullying and abuse.
Ringling High School students and parents have said Philip Koons, the Blue Devils’ coach since January 2018, has verbally harassed children.
Jeremie Wilson, Jefferson County’s sheriff, said Friday that his department received information “about three weeks ago” and launched an investigation. After interviewing multiple students and parents, the department turned over the information to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Wilson said.
Multiple Ringling parents had asked the department to wait to go to the OSBI until after Monday’s school board meeting, he added. At the meeting, Susan Lyle, a mother whose son played football at Ringling and was suspended from the team, voiced her concerns about Koons’ behavior, but the board voted to keep him on staff.
“(Parents) wanted to have their issues heard at the school board meeting in hopes the school board would handle it,” Wilson said. “When that did not happen, that is when we turned it over to OSBI.”
This isn’t the first time Koons has been accused of misconduct. Ringling faced backlash for hiring him in 2018 after he resigned from Clinton following rumors of an incident with players.
The school’s investigation discovered no wrongdoing, but the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs had reported in 2016 that several students said Koons exposed his genitalia to players, saying, “Boys, this is a d—. You gotta have one of these to play football.”
In 2013, KFOR reported football parents wanted Koons fired from his job in Tuttle, saying he called their son derogatory names and taunted him to the point that the child “wanted to commit suicide.”
Koons, who was inducted into the Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2022, has not answered The Oklahoman’s attempts to reach him.