Page:Veronica Ollier v. Sweetwater Union High School District (September 19, 2014) US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.djvu/44

 “he was a mean and intimidating person” who often spoke in a “rough voice” and could be “abrasive.” Coach Martinez, Sweetwater contends, “did not possess the guiding principles required of a coach because he constantly failed to follow the rules” at Castle Park.

Sweetwater disregards the salient fact that the district court held a trial on retaliation. The district court could permissibly find that, on the evidence it considered, Sweetwater’s non-retaliatory reasons for firing Coach Martinez were a pretext for unlawful retaliatory conduct. First, Sweetwater contends that Castle Park fired Coach Martinez “primarily” because he allowed an unauthorized parent to coach a summer league team, but also that this incident merely “played a role” in his firing, and that the reason given Martinez when he was fired was that Castle Park “wanted an on-site coach.” These shifting, inconsistent reasons for Coach Martinez’s termination are themselves evidence of pretext. ''See Hernandez v. Hughes Missile Sys. Co.'', 362 F.3d 564, 569 (9th Cir. 2004) (“From the fact that Raytheon has provided conflicting explanations of its conduct, a jury could reasonably conclude that its most recent explanation was pretextual.”).

Second, the district court’s findings underlying its conclusion that Sweetwater’s “stated reasons for Martinez’s termination are not credible and are pretextual” are convincing and not clearly erroneous. Coach Martinez was not fired as part of a coordinated campaign to replace walk-on coaches with certified teachers, as Sweetwater contends. There was a preference for certified teachers in place long before Coach Martinez was hired, and there was no certified teacher ready to replace him after he was fired. Nor was the district court required by the evidence to find that Coach