This College Track Coach Was Fired Because He Wouldn't Stop Running Marathons

Matt Aguero served as the track coach at Saint Gregory's University in Oklahoma for just over two years.

He was canned in April — apparently because he kept running the Boston Marathon.

Image source: screengrab via KOCO-TV 

"Your personal competitiveness can take away the energy and commitment to a program," athletic director Dr. Jeff Potter told Aguero during his firing.

Aguero was suspended last year after running the 2013 Boston Marathon, with Potter telling him in a letter that his running the marathon "resulted in your missing team practice time, class time, and a possible meet attendance" — but as the Deadspin blog Fittish points out, the 2013 Boston Marathon came at the end of a bye week for Saint Gregory's, so Aguero didn't miss any meet.

The 2014 Boston Marathon was a similar situation: held on Easter weekend, the marathon didn't conflict with any Saint Gregory's events since the school was closed.

Aguero ran the 2014 marathon in a blistering 2:35:33.

The athletic director took issue with Aguero's lack of communication and fired him, but Aguero recorded the proceedings.

"I was told that I was being fired for running the Boston Marathon," Aguero asks at one point.

"I said that's a trigger," Potter responds, seemingly reticent to come right out and say that a track coach was being fired for running too much. "That's exactly what that was."

"But that was the exact reason I was being fired, is that correct?" Aguero tries to clarify.

"That was what (Potter) came to me with," the human resources director interjects.

Fittish reports that another bizarre reason was given for Aguero's firing: he didn't push a runner hard enough to come back to school quickly after the student's grandfather died.

During his time at Saint Gregory's, Aguero rebuilt the discontinued running programs, beating recruiting goals and training championship-winning runners.

(H/T: Boston.com)

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