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Report: Texas High School Football Coach Admits He Ordered Hit on Referee
A San Antonio, Texas, high school assistant football coach allegedly admitted that he ordered his players to hit a referee during a game earlier this month. He reportedly said the order came as an angry response to allegations the game official used racist language directed towards his players during the game.
John Jay High School assistant football coach Mack Breed told the school’s principal, Robert Harris, that he “directed the students to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls,” according to an ESPN report by John Barr.
The school’s head football coach met with Harris shortly after the game, after traveling back to San Antonio from Marble Falls where the game was played. Harris told ESPN he met with Coach Gary Gutierrez in his office at the school on Sept 5.
ESPN reported on that conversation:
I later met with Coach Breed at John Jay High School … in my office in the presence of Coach Gutierrez. Coach Breed told me that he directed the students to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls. He wanted to take full responsibility for his actions. Mr. Breed at one point during our conversation stated that he should have handled the referee himself.
The University Interscholastic League, Texas’ governing body for interscholastic activities, will have a hearing on Thursday to determine what, if any, sanctions should be taken against Coach Breed and/or the school’s football program.
On Wednesday, the school conducts a hearing on whether players Michael Moreno and Victor Rojas violated the Student Code of Conduct. If the school comes to a guilty verdict, administrators my assess a punishment that could include assigning the students to an alternative school or expelling them, a school district spokesperson told ESPN.
The official struck by the players, Robert Watts, has repeatedly denied that he used any slurs or racist language during the game.
In an interview on Good Morning America, the two football players indicated that some of the calls made by Watts might have also been a motivation for the order to hit the ref.
