Officials plan to investigate shoving incident involving Dothan coach
Dothan City School officials plan to investigate a video from Friday night’s game against Opelika that appears to show Wolves’ head coach Jed Kennedy slamming someone on his own sideline to the ground.
The disturbance came as Dothan’s Raymon Blackmon was scoring the go-ahead touchdown on a 57-yard run with 2:14 left in the game. An official is shown throwing a flag on the play, apparently calling the man who was shoved to the ground for sideline interference.
The touchdown still counted. Dothan won the game, 14-7. The Dothan Eagle reported the man thrown to the ground was a volunteer staff member.
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Dothan City Schools Superintendent Dennis R. Coe confirmed in an email to AL.com that the man in the video was Kennedy.
“We do not comment on personnel matters,” he wrote. “We are aware of the video and will investigate and deal with it accordingly.”
The Dothan Eagle reported that Kennedy and the staff member were seen conversing and hugging after the game.
Kennedy is in his first season as Dothan’s head football coach after replacing Smitty Grader. He spent the last three years at Enterprise as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator.
Entering this season, Kennedy had a 14-year head coaching record of 115-47 with five programs. He led three teams to state championship appearances while coaching in Wisconsin and won a state title in 2011.
The Wolves are 6-3 overall and 4-3 in Class 7A, Region 2 play and battling for a playoff berth. They are scheduled to play at Jeff Davis on Friday in the final regular season game.
Dothan is in a three-way tie with Enterprise and Prattville for third place in the region behind Central-Phenix City (7-2, 6-1) and Auburn (8-1, 6-1). The Wolves lost to Enterprise and beat Prattville earlier in the season.
Kennedy did not immediately return a request for comment.