Coach reportedly fired after 12-year-old Mesquite boy kicked off team for being too big

The boy weighs nearly 300 pounds and is taller than 6 feet, which violates the pee-wee team's policies.

MESQUITE — The news about 12-year-old Mesquite resident Elijah Earnheart being barred from playing pee-wee football with his friends because he’s too big made the rounds last week, even nationally. Now, according to MyFoxDFW.com, his coach has been kicked off the field too. Elijah, a seventh-grader, is 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 297 pounds — far exceeding the Mesquite Pee Wee Football Association’s weight limit for a player his age.

In the news report, the association’s president Ronnie Henderson tells Channel 4, “Our rules are clear. It says right there in black and white if you’re in seventh or eighth grade or 11 or 12 years old in seventh or eight grade and your weight is over 135, you cannot participate in our league.”

Marc White, coach of the Vikings team that Elijah played on, protested the decision, citing that other students over the size limit have been allowed to play. “If they’re over 135 they have to wear a symbol on their helmet, which is the X. So if they’re an X-man they have to play offensive line, defensive line only,” he said, according to MyFoxDFW.com.

Henderson said several other players were barred Sunday night based on size and weight, and only elementary school players are allowed the X-man exemption. Henderson also said he would look into allegations that other seventh graders over the weight limit were allowed to play in the league.

Elijah is allowed to play on his school’s team; however, he hoped to gain experience and play on the Vikings team with his friends first. ”What I’m fighting for is to play on my team that I want to play for,” he told Channel 4.

Read the full story here.

Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com