Texas HS Football Assistant Coach Admits to Telling Players to Hit Referee, Principal Says

[Stuart G]

Source: Yahoo News.

An assistant coach at John Jay High School in San Antonio, Texas confessed to his principal that he ordered players to go after the referee during a recent football game, according to an ESPN report, citing a signed statement from the principal.

According to the statement, obtained by ESPN's "Outside the Lines," the school’s principal, Robert Harris, says coach Mack Breed admitted to him and head Coach Gary Gutierrez that he "directed the students to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls."

According to a sideline source and accounts provided to "Outside the Lines," official Robert Watts used the N-word twice during the game in Marble Falls, Texas, and also used language offensive to Hispanics. Watts, through his attorney, denied using racial remarks to ABC News.


Read more: https://gma.yahoo.com/texas-hs-football-assistant-coach-admits-telling-players-232839268--abc-news-topstories.htmlLink to source

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So, players hit the ref on orders from an assistant coach??? And what happens to that assistant coach??? One student said that he just did it because he was following orders. .

....Farther down in the story it is states In an interview last week with "Good Morning America," the boys said they were simply following instructions from coach Breed on the day they blindsided official Watts.

“You put your trust into this grown-up, this guardian, your coach, who’s been there for me. ... I trust him. I did what I was told,” Moreno said.

[TexasTowelie]

1. The students were suspended for 75 days to alternative learning classes.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/107828739

The UIL meets today to decide what other penalties will be issued to the students, coach and school.

[tabasco]

10. The coach should face criminal charges for conspiracy and be fired

The players should be charged with battery.

[workinclasszero]

16. I agree

It doesn't absolve the players from what they did of course.

They should have told him no I won't do that. Is it a football team or a mind controlling clut??

Maybe the whole team/HS/cult? needs to be investigated.

[oberliner]

2. That is pretty messed up

I think it's hard to expect the high school kids to go against what the coach tells them to do.

This coach ought to face serious consequence for these actions.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

5. I would have ran to the Head Coach and told him what his assistant was up to.

[oberliner]

6. That is a lot to ask of a kid

The adults are really the ones who need to act like adults, in my view. I think this coach is the culpable party.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

7. Not really - the HEAD coach is the HEAD Adult on the team. I would have been responsible to him

above the assistant hack. The head coach has a hell of a lot more to lose that the assistant does.

On edit: Not to imply that what you said about culpability isn't 100% correct.

[oberliner]

8. I respectfully disagree

In normal circumstances, if an assistant coach tells a kid to do something and the kid then goes to the head coach questioning what the assistant said, the head coach would not look kindly on such behavior. Most coaching staffs set up the expectation that you listen to whatever coach tells you to do something. Again, we are talking about high school kids here, not adults. I think it is a lot to expect them to have the wherewithal to disobey a direct instruction from a coach or teacher.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

9. I also respectfully disagree

Are you saying it's a "normal" circumstance to order a hit on a referee? You can speak for the majority of those kids, but I know that I would not have participated in an assault. In this instance I think the head coach would be very grateful that someone spoke up before this had a chance to happen.

I'm pretty sure we aren't going to agree, and I DO see your point, and I agree that most kids would be too afraid to speak up. I'm just very disappointed, as I'm sure their parents are, that someone didn't have the moral fortitude to report this asshole assistant to the head coach.

[oberliner]

12. Fair enough

Just to clarify, I didn't mean to suggest that it is a "normal circumstance" to order a hit on a referee. I was just saying that the general policy is "do what coach says" and "don't complain to the head coach about what an assistant coach tells you to do". The whole idea of: "when I'm around - do what I say, when this person is around - do what they say". The general rule at a school as far as the kids are concerned is that you do what the adults in charge tell you to do.

I do agree that these were extraordinary circumstances - in that what the assistant coach was telling these kids to do was so egregiously wrong. And I would have definitely admired the kids if they had refused the instruction and/or had told the head coach about it. However, I am saying that I do not blame the kids for not doing so - considering that they are students in a school being given instructions by an adult in charge.

But certainly we can agree to disagree about this, and I can totally see where you are coming from.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

13. And I see where you are coming from.

I would assign blame : 95% roach, er coach, 5% kids. Anyway, the coach should ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY be fired.

[dembotoz]

20. had a kid who played high school hockey...players do not questions they just do

what the coach tells them to do

they are trained not to question but to do what the coach tells them to do.

should they disobeyed the coach????
obviously
but i can see why they did not

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

22. If he told them to kill the ref do you think that would make a difference?

I doubt they would follow that "order". But assault and battery is not over their line apparently.

[dembotoz]

28. to hit a ref is a god awful penalty in hockey

but to knock a player into next week????

if it is a clean shot......

[TexasTowelie]

23. Keep in mind that this occurred during the course of a football game

and there is a 24 second clock between plays. There isn't much time for a player to think about the situation, run to the head coach and get set for the next play.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

25. Then I would have called a time-out.

[tabasco]

11. Then your standards for decent human behavior are very low.

I suggest you work on that problem.

[oberliner]

14. I have high standards for decent human behavior

I just know that it is difficult for kids at school to go against instructions given to them by an adult in charge. Again, we are talking about kids, not adults. And this action was not something that the kids just initiated independently of their own volition. They were instructed to do so by one of the adults in charge.

It would have been very admirable if the kids had disobeyed the coach's directions, but I can appreciate that they are just kids and were put in the very tough situation of having to go against instructions given them by an adult authority figure in a school setting.

The actions of the assistant coach, who is an adult, are reprehensible - and since he was the adult in charge, he is the person I believe should suffer the consequences.

His actions certainly did not come close to meeting even the most basic standards for decent human behavior.

[tabasco]

18. Please see my previous post.

Thanks.

[oberliner]

19. OK

I appreciate your insights and can see where you are coming from. I hope that you can understand my perspective as well.

[Gothmog]

3. This coach should face criminal charges

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. The coach should lose his job and his teaching

certificate. My guess is that there weren't any racist comments from the ref. The coach just said that to get the kids angry enough to go along with it. Think about it. He ordered these players to COMMIT A FELONY. I hope that criminal charges are brought against him.

I take no pride in saying that I called this back when it happened. I was a teacher for 9 years, in Texas, back in the 80s. The Texas Education Agency passed a rule called "No pass, no play". If a student wasn't passing all of their classes, they couldn't participate in any after school activity, including sports. the logic was, if a student was failing, they needed to be hitting the books, not the track. The uproar from the coaches was DEAFENING.

Here's another thing. The head coaches at high schools often get paid more than the principal. So any decent coach is going to try to work their way up the ranks. But when that doesn't happen and they don't get promoted on the coaching staff, many of them get their Master's in administration and be come PRINCIPALS! Now they may have done nothing but coach and teach PE, but as a principal, they evaluate teachers. Imagine having the responsibility of evaluating teachers, having never taught an academic class. So Texas middle and high schools are largely being run by mediocre coaches on a power trip.

I've been out of the classroom for 25 years. I miss the kids still, but I'm glad I got out when I did.

[packman]

17. Sounds like the old Pennsylvania system

Football reigned and a successful coach was always in line for an administrative or counseling position.

[geek tragedy]

15. Fire the coach, give the kids a brief stay in juvi, put the coach in jail nt

[hamsterjill]

21. There's a larger issue here, in my opinion.

I live in San Antonio and I'm familiar with John Jay High School. Certainly, the coach shouldn't be coaching any more after this, and the boys need to be held accountable for their part in all of this.

But what strikes me as something that is an elephant in the room in all of this is the great emphasis that is put on FOOTBALL, and high school sports, in general. Particularly, in Texas. And that winning is everything.

John Jay is one of the schools in the poorer parts of town, and I haven't checked statistics specifically today, but it is largely Hispanic. There is a LOT of emphasis put on sports, on winning, and on making a name for the school through athletic accomplishment. There is more emphasis and more dollars put toward sports than academics.

When the emphasis and the goal becomes to win at any cost, and players are pushed too hard (as in this case) everything goes awry. The purpose and goals of high school athletics should not be to win every time. It should be to teach students about teamwork, about strategy, about ethics and sportsmanship, and about the student (individually) setting goals to push himself/herself higher, farther, faster, etc.

Somehow, that concept has been lost because of the almighty dollar. It is the football games that bring in the school support and the revenues. It is the football stadium that is built higher, bigger, etc. and it is the football games that the local newspapers and news stations give the greatest attention.

We need to remember IMHO that these boys are, although not babies, they are still young and impressionable. By all means, let's impress upon them that what they did was absolutely wrong, but let's also impress upon them that a football game is not important enough to injure anyone and that it's all right to lose once in a while.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

26. Great post! I agree 100%.

[duhneece]

27. For the kids, this may be their only way to college, to a future, out of desperation

For them, this is their life.

[TexasTowelie]

24. Assistant coach is banned by the UIL and resigns.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/120458002