October 11, 2025. In what is a shocking example of poor behavior, Stephen Sedesse has resigned from Williams Valley High School as the school’s head football coach. Also resigning from their post is his father, Mike Sedesse, the team’s Defensive Coordinator, taking their 28-6 win/loss record with them.
Williams Valley High School is located in Tower City, Pennsylvania, in Schuylkill County. It’s a small, tight-knit community where high school football carries deep cultural weight.
The reason for their departure in the middle of the season is the fact that they have been receiving threats from the parents of the players. According to reports from WNEP*, the local television station located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, over recent weeks, players began berating and cursing at coaches. In response, the Sedesses implemented disciplinary measures like extra conditioning and benching players for misconduct. This led to escalating backlash from some parents, who allegedly:
- Flattened tires on Mike Sedesse’s truck
- Vandalized a billboard with derogatory language
- Threatened violence if their children didn’t start in upcoming games
- One parent allegedly warned that extra security would be needed at a game if their child didn’t play.
After these threats intensified over a weekend, both Stephen and Mike Sedesse resigned. Stephen put it plainly:
“If my business is going to get threatened, if my family is going to get threatened, it’s small school football—I don’t need to have that in my life.”
Police Response?
As of the latest reporting, there’s no public statement from law enforcement about arrests or investigations. WNEP noted that they reached out to the school superintendent but had not received a response at the time of publication. It’s unclear whether any formal police reports were filed, though the nature of the threats—property damage and intimidation—would certainly warrant it.
Dr. David Hatfield – Superintendent of the Williams Valley School District. He issued a statement emphasizing the district’s commitment to a respectful environment. But thus far, there hasn’t been any further comment concerning the student’s behavior or any steps taken to punish bad behavior.
What the Bible has to Say
First and foremost, this isn’t the behavior of supposedly responsible adults. There was a time in this country when children were taught to respect those in authority, when a coach, a teacher, the adults in the lives of children; children were given strict orders to respect and obey those in authority. That these co-called adults who would side with the children over the coaches is nothing short of disgraceful. But this is a sign of the end times.
Secondly, out-of-control children come from out-of-control parents. These children didn’t suddenly decide to become monsters overnight. They acted like this because this is how they act at home. And if they get away with it at home, then they feel they have the right to act out in school.
Reinforcing bad behavior encourages children to persist in it. Mark my words, these same students who are now openly using profanity to express themselves, will soon turn to other destructive ways to vent their anger and frustrations, including violence.
The Bible gives us clear instructions on how we are to behave as born-again believers and how God expects each and every one of us to conduct ourselves.
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. – Romans 13:1 NKJV
Every soul means you; every soul means all of us, Christian, Muslim, Atheist. Even if someone denies the existence of God, that doesn’t exempt them from behaving themselves. People were created in God’s likeness and after his image, and he expects people to behave like an adult, not some spoiled brat who resorts to tantrums when they don’t get their way. There is simply no excuse for such behavior. None.
13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, 14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— 16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. 17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. – 1 Peter 2:13-17 NKJV
When a person goes to vote, one of the things that they choose are leaders of the Board of Education. A favorable vote means that person is giving them the authority to act on their behalf when it comes to matters concerning school activity. And that means who the school hires as a football coach as well. People literally have no excuse for this deplorable behavior. Not only deplorable but what God calls foolish behavior.
“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.” – Colossians 3:20 ESV
Now the obvious problem here is that if the parents are not giving clear instructions to their children on how they’re expected to behave, then the children are going to simply behave in a way that seems good in their own eyes. So ultimately, the behavior of the children is the responsibility of the parents. When parents fail to do their God-given duties to raise their children in a way that brings honor upon them, they receive disgrace instead. Keep this in mind; many children simply mimic the behavior they see at home. And this is a self-fulfilling prophecy that comes true hundreds if not thousands of times a day, when a teenager is arrested for a crime.
However, this marks a darker turn for not only Pennsylvania, but the nation, and the very world we live in today. More and more people are showing a lack of respect for authority, which can be described as lawlessness. Gone are the days when legitimate concerns were brought up to leaders and those in authority. Instead, we live in a day where all too often, violence is the first option people turn to in order to express anger or frustration. This is precisely what Jesus referred to when he spoke about the end-times being like the days of Noah.
First, let’s take a closer look at how the people of today often act:
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. – 2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV
Is this not exactly how the world behaves? People so caught up in themselves and their wants and desires. Boastful, proud, abusive; this could have been written as a description of how modern parents behave and this incident in Pennsylvania is only the latest example of a pattern that has taken form in America, especially since 2021. It really has seemed like a corner was turned during that time.
These are people who may attend church; they may conduct themselves in such a way as to have a good reputation with the community in which they live. However, just as Jesus described the Pharisee’s, they are like whitewashed tombs that may appear beautiful on the outside but inside are full of decay. That is what the Bible means by “Having a form of godliness”.
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. – Matthew 24:37-39 NIV
God has given us a description of how things were in the days of Noah. Those times were filled with four things: Wickedness, Violence, Corruption and Lawlessness. But there is one more shocking thing that is mentioned by Jesus but not noticed. Apathy.
We live in a world that not only is filled with apathy, but especially here in America, where apathy is considered a natural, normal way of life. Americans all too often have the attitude that if it’s not affecting them, it’s not concerning them. And that is exactly what is happening today. All around us we see evil. Murder, theft, threats, violence, greed, pride, and everything else under the sun. But we are tied up in our world instead, wining, dining, throwing parties; getting married and watching our children get married. Completely, willfully ignorant of the turmoil that has gripped the entire world. And the vast majority of us will be completely unaware of the return of Jesus until after the fact.
* WNEP is a local television station based in Scranton, Pennsylvania, serving Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania. It’s known as WNEP-TV Channel 16, and it’s the region’s ABC affiliate, owned by Tegna Inc.
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