Washington State University’s head football coach has been fired after refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19, the school said Monday.
The termination of Nick Rolovich, whose salary of $3.1 million made him the highest-paid public employee in Washington, came as a state Covid vaccine mandate was set to go into effect requiring health care workers, public employees and others to get innoculated.
“This is a disheartening day for our football program,” the university’s director of athletics, Pat Chun, said in a statement. “Our priority has been and will continue to be the health and well-being of the young men on our team.”
Four assistant coaches were also fired for non-compliance with the state mandate, the school said in a statement. The team’s defensive coordinator, Jake Dickert, will replace Rolovich as acting head coach.
The school’s president, Kirk Schulz, noted that while a minority of vaccine resisters have gotten outsize attention, 90 percent of university employees and 97 percent of students have been vaccinated.
“I am proud of all those members of our community who have set the example,” he said.
Rolovich, who was in his second season at Washington State and had led the team to 4-3 record so far this year, had applied for an exemption but was denied, Chun told reporters Monday. Rolovich was fired for cause, Chun said, adding that the mandate made him no longer eligible to work at the school.
Rolovich couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, but before the Pac-12 conference earlier this year — which required in-person participants be inoculated — he said he was skipping the vaccine for “reasons which will remain private.”
“While I have made my own decision, I respect that every individual — including coaches, staff and student-athletes — can make his or her own decision regarding the Covid-19 vaccine. I will not comment further on my decision.”
Rolovich, who was named Mountain West Conference coach of the year in 2019, was hired in January 2020.
“We believed we found the perfect fit,” Chun said. “To be at this juncture today is unacceptable on so many levels.”