Coach tells teen he is kicked off the team until he cuts his hair

LETHBRIDGE- 16-year-old Liam Nazarek has been growing his hair for a year to donate it to a child in need who is suffering from cancer.

But earlier this week, his baseball coach told him he had to trim his locks if he wanted to continue to play on the team.

“He asked for some effort on Liam’s part to be part of the team, and that effort was to cut his hair,” says Liam’s mother, Kimberley Jorgenson.

Jorgenson has since posted video of coach Bryan MacKenzie telling Liam he couldn’t play—which has gone viral.

However, the seven year veteran baseball coach maintains the issue was not about Liam’s hair, but rather about rules and respect.

“I’m fair and consistent. Am I hard? You could use any adjective you want to describe me,” MacKenzie says. “You are not going to hurt my feelings. This was the values and the principles that I learned from other coaches.”

He adds that for the past seven seasons, every player on his team has agreed to a haircut, to show team spirit and look sharp on the field.

“A rule is a rule, and there is no sense having a rule if you are not going to follow through with them.”

Howver, Liam and his mother made the decision to choose hair over baseball.

“You shouldn’t judge others, especially in community sport on how they look,” Nazarek says. “There are different forms of looking respectable.”

MacKenzie claims Nazarek failed to mention the reason why he would not cut his hair was because he planned to donate it to make a wig.