Student athletes, alumni rally for reinstatement of suspended Miami Northwestern Senior High football coach

A South Florida school neighborhood came together to push a school to reinstate its suspended head football coach News cameras captured dozens of demonstrators chanting and holding up signs outside Miami Northwestern Senior High School Thursday evening Reinstate chanted one demonstrator Teddy chanted other demonstrators They were calling for the reinstatement of the school s head football coach Teddy Bridgewater We re here to make sure the rules are changed because what Teddy did it was the right thing declared alumnus Nathan Nadal We all break rules for the greater good Bridgewater a former Miami Dolphins quarterback was suspended from his position by his alma mater accused of providing impermissible benefits to his players by paying for rideshares to and from practice Earlier this month Bridgewater posted to Facebook asking for monetary donations for expenses he covered last season to help his players including paying for meals and a week for Uber fares According to Florida High School Athletic Association rules coaches paying for a athlete s transportation falls under the category of impermissible benefits Miami-Dade County Citizens Schools issued a declaration that reads in part The Florida High School Athletic Association FHSAA has clear guidelines regarding impermissible benefits and we are committed to upholding those standards across all our athletic programs The District is cooperating fully with the FHSAA to ensure all policies and procedures are being followed While FHSAA personnel declared they haven t taken any action on the matter their declaration reads We in recent weeks sent an allegation to the school and are gathering more information The suspension came from Miami Northwestern thus we do not have any violations to overview at this time During a Miami Dade School Board meeting on Wednesday several students and players came to Bridgewater s defense He never judged us he manifested us love and respect and leadership commented candidate athlete Ricard Lewis He came from the same place we did and instead of turning his back on his society he came to lift it up Coach Teddy is one of the the greater part selfless people I ve ever met because he genuinely cares about advancing every single one of us not only as football players but as young men stated a participant athlete who identified himself as Amir These students fight for their coach is far from over The players want their leader back That s all they want explained supporter Steven Rivera at Thursday s rally Bridgewater led the gang to a state championship in his first season as head coach in It remains unclear for how long he s suspended but the club s first encounter is just weeks away