The former assistant coach alleged to have directed two San Antonio John Jay football players to attack an official has been suspended for the remainder of the 2015-16 school year, given a public reprimand and placed on two years probation by the University Interscholastic League, the governing body for state public schools in Texas.
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“I never told any players on the John Jay football team to hit, destroy, or do bodily harm to anyone”, Breed said. Head coach Gary Guttierez was given two years’ probation.
During the game, Marble Falls was running out the clock in John Jay territory.
“It was a powder keg”. “It’s unfortunate and saddens me”, Watts said. No Marble Falls players have said they heard racial slurs and the video shows they were around the play, Fitch said.
Breed said Jay starting quarterback Moses Reynolds – one of four Jay High Mustangs ejected from the game – complained to him during the fourth quarter that Watts used a racial slur while talking to him.
The Marble Falls Police Department is still investigating the incident.
During Breed’s testimony, he said that one player had told him Watts called him a racial slur and that the coach believed the player.
“He obviously made a few mistakes, but we got a chance to see him personally and my guess is that it altered the consequences a little bit because we actually got a chance to meet the man”, Mike Motheral, UIL Chairman, said.
The TASO, nearing the end of the investigation, said they find no fault concerning Watts. Players and coaches became furious when officials nullified two Jay touchdowns.
In the aftermath, multiple players reported hearing racial slurs.
The players were suspended from sports for the rest of the school year. Watts said he is “not well” since the incident but declined to elaborate. The two players had already been assigned to an alternative school and will be allowed to return to John Jay when the spring semester starts January 15.
“My comment was not meant to be taken literally by anyone who may have heard it”, he said.
“If they were in that area and they heard that, maybe they took action on that”.
It was decided unanimously to give him two years of probation and a public reprimand. Watts, who suffered a concussion, says he is still “not well” and uncertain when he will officiate again. No criminal charges have been filed in the case. “It’s unacceptable, and it shouldn’t happen”, Garza said.
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Messages left with the attorney for Moreno and Rojas were not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.
