Assistant Coach Mack Breed Says He Instructed Players to Take Out Referee

Outside The Lines reports that Mack Breed, the secondary coach at John Jay High School in Texas and a "second father" to the players involved, admitted to instructing his players to hit referee Robert Watts during a road game against Marble Falls high school. OTL obtained a letter written by the John Jay principal Robert Harris detailing his discussions with both the head coach Gary Gutierrez and Breed. In the letter, Harris writes that Breed "directed the students to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls."

The two students involved went on Good Morning America and confirmed reports that had surrounded the incident earlier: that the referee had used the N-word several times, as well as offensive language toward Hispanics. Harris was at the game but did not see the hit. Coach Gutierrez informed him of the incident after the game, and they were in constant contact until Gutierrez returned to the school that night, where they met face-to-face.

The phrasing here is a little awkward—it could be read as a straight admission from Breed, with the guilt forcing him to come clean, but it could also be seen as him trying to cover for the kids after he found out they would be kicked off the team. Breed met again with Harris, telling the principal that he wanted to make the referee pay for his "racial comments" as well as the calls that went against the team.

Neither Breed nor Watts, the referee, has spoken publicly about the incident. Breed will attend a University Interscholastic League hearing on Thursday in Round Rock, Texas, where he and the program could face sanctions as a result of his conduct. The two players, sophomore Victor Rojas and senior Michael Moreno—who have already been assigned to a different school and can't even watch John Jay football games—will attend a disciplinary hearing today, where they could face further punishment, including expulsion.

[ESPN]