Coach Bit Player? Doyle Wolverton and Girls' Basketball Team Tight-Lipped on Incident
Famous Coach Wolverton Resigns After Facing Scrutiny
Doyle Wolverton, the coach who bit a player allegedly was accused of the crime recently and resigned as a result. The famous Leake Academy girls' basketball coach reportedly grabbed one of his player's faces and bit her during a timeout at a game last week Tuesday.
The coach who bit his player allegedly is Dolye Wolverton of Mississippi, one of the winningest coaches in high school girls' basketball history. He has 1,245 wins and 182 losses since 1975, ranking second only to Leta Andrews, who coaches a Texas team with 1,375 wins. Wolverton avoided speaking about the incident with the girl.
"I have no comment on any of that," he told The Clarion-Ledger Monday. "It's all still being … I can't say anything right now."
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The incident allegedly occurred at a Nov. 12 game in Marion County. During a timeout, Wolverton bit the girl on a face during a bad play. The unnamed player was taken to an emergency room in Carthage, and hospital staff notified police that the bite seemed to come from human teeth.
Toby Thaggard, the girl's father, filed a police report, and a deputy took pictures of the injury. The family has not pressed charges because "the parents and coach are trying to settle matters themselves," Leake County Sheriff Greg Waggoner said.
However, other officials are being tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding Wolverton's abrupt departure.
"For the last hour (as of 3 p.m.), we've had coach that have called here asking about this rumor," MAIS executive director Les Triplett told the Clarion-Ledger Monday. "From an officials' standpoint, the only thing you know is what everyone else knows. There's nothing I could source to tell you what exactly happened. I can't even tell you he resigned."
Wolverton is a part of the Mississippi Private Schools Coaches Hall-of-Fame and the basketball court at the school is named for him as well, according to WJTV.
