I have known Casey Weldon for many years. He is a good man, a good Christian and a great football player. When he left the Tampa Bay area after 10 years to coach for his old team, North Florida Christian School, he was excited. He had played football for NFC in high school and hoped he would do his old team justice. For two years he did just that.

Casey Weldon, who led the North Florida Christian Eagles to the state title game in each of his two seasons as head coach, was notified by school officials on Wednesday morning that he wouldn’t be leading the program in 2008.

The school also decided to bring back the previous head coach Tim Cokely, who led the program to an FHSAA-record four straight state titles and five overall before taking the Colquitt County (Ga.) head coaching job in 2004.

The outcry from Tallahassee residents, team parents, local media outlets and many others could be heard from all the way down here, and rightfully so. Casey brought so much more to the football program than the game itself. He brought with it pride and honor, he also was a mentor and a true role model for many of the players.

Pastor Randy Ray is the head pastor at North Florida Baptist Church which oversees the school, and his explanation of the firing is lame at best. In an e-mail interview with the Tallahassee Democrat he said:

"We are a ministry, a church with a school," Ray wrote. "As it is with all of our decisions we try to be led by the Lord we serve. Sometimes that leadership is popular and embraced by everyone and at other times it is not. In any case we must be true to our mission and follow God’s leadership.

"It is the consensus of our school administration that this is God’s will for what North Florida Baptist Church is trying to do through the program of North Florida Christian School."

What a load of crap. Hiding behind religion to explain away a morally questionable decision. Too bad Rev Ray doesn’t have the courage to stand up and tell the real reason why Weldon was fired. It’s a shame when someone you know is good is treated poorly. Even though all of this happened here is what Casey said at a press conference:

"I’m just so thankful for the opportunity. I loved coaching those kids,  It was the best two years of my football career."

The former Florida State quarterback said he was puzzled by what took place Wednesday when Randy Ray, the pastor and president at NFC, informed Weldon he was no longer the football coach.

"If there had been a problem that was so bad, golly, I wish it would have been addressed back then, so I could have made a change,"

We can only hope Rev Ray learns something about character.