Assistant coach who told players to hit referee resigns

A San Antonio assistant high school football coach who had reportedly admitted to instructing two of his players to hit a referee during a game earlier this month has resigned, according to multiple reports.

On Thursday, before he was scheduled to attend a hearing of the University Interscholastic League, John Jay High secondary coach Mack Breed released a statement through his attorney announcing his resignation.

“Some people are unfairly blaming one man, Mack Breed, for everything that happened at that game,” his attorney said in a statement, according to ESPN. “Mack Breed has spent three agonizing weeks contemplating his future since the fateful football game in which two players struck a referee. It has been a difficult road for Mack as he has stood silently watching the spectacle. He has replayed that game in his mind many times wondering how it all went wrong.”

Breed reportedly told Principal Robert Harris and Head Coach Gary Gutierrez that he “directed the students to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls,” according to a letter written by Harris and obtained by ESPN’s “Outside the Lines.”

A video of the incident shows two John Jay players, Michael Moreno and Victor Rojas, running directly at official Robert Watts while a play was taking place during a Sept. 4 football game. One of the players tackles Watts and the other dives on him.

The two players have said they were carrying out instructions from Breed. Moreno, a 17-year-old senior, and Rojas, a 15-year-old sophomore, are scheduled to attend disciplinary hearings Wednesday.

Several players and a sideline source told “Outside the Lines” that Watts used a racial slur toward African Americans as well as language offensive to Latinos. Through his attorney, Watts has denied making any racist comments.

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In his letter, Harris said he attended the game at Marble Falls but did not learn about the hit on Watts until receiving several calls from Gutierrez during the 90-mile drive home. Then after arriving at John Jay in the early-morning hours, Harris said, Gutierrez told him in the parking lot “that Coach Breed had disclosed to him that [Breed] directed the players to take out the referee.”

“I later met with Coach Breed at John Jay High School ... in my office in the presence of Coach Gutierrez,” Harris wrote. “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.”

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