San Antonio district reviews attack of offifficial at game,
Video shows two Jay High athletes attacking offifficial.
A video showing two San Antonio Jay High School players blindsiding an officials in Friday’s game against Marble Falls shocked one veteran referee.
“I’ve only been doing this since 1978, but I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Wayne Elliott, executive secretary of the Austin Football Officials Association.
The video clearly shows two Jay players attack the Austin-based official in the closing moments of Marble Falls’ 15-9 victory over the Mustangs. Umpire Robert Watts was knocked down after being hit in the back by one player, and a second player followed by striking him with his helmet while he was on the ground.
Northside ISD Athletic Director Steve Laing told KENS-TV in San Antonio the two players involved in the incident — sophomore linebacker Victor Rojas and senior defensive back Michael Moreno — have been suspended from the team, pending an NISD investigation.
One of the players who was ejected was not involved in the play. Officials incorrectly tossed out senior defensive back Trenton Hobdy instead of Moreno.
One play after the umpire was struck, a personal foul was called on Moreno for hitting the Marble Falls quarterback, who had taken a knee to run out the clock . Moreno was assessed a 15-yard penalty but was not ejected.
“I was sitting at a Whataburger in Brownwood when I saw it for the fifirst time,” Elliott said. “I’m thinking this is a crime. I immediately called Mike Fitch, our executive director ( of the Texas Association of Sports Offifficials), to ask him what to do. I told him I don’t know the protocol for this because I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Four Jay players were ejected from the game for various reasons. Two had been tossed earlier for throwing punches. Free safety Moses Reynolds was kicked out after an altercation with a Marble Falls player. A fourth Jay player was ejected earlier for throwing a punch.
Marble Falls coach Matt Green declined to comment on Sunday, saying his team had nothing to do with the ejections.
Watts could not be reached for comment. The University Interscholastic League is conduc ting an investigation.
“The fifirst thing we want is for those players to never play again,” Elliott said.
On Sunday, Northside ISD spokesman Pascual Gonzales released the following statement: “This incident is extremely disturbing, not the sportsmanlike behavior we teach students at Northside ISD. We are cooperating with the UIL investigation. We will handle thi s incident on Tues- day morning and schedule a due-process hearing which will include formal interviews with coaching staff, the students themselves and other athletes, anyone who has knowledge of whatever was seen. The bottom line is, Northside will not tolerate this type of behavior. It does appear the athletes intentionally tackled the referee, but we have not confifirmed it.”
The investigation will try to determine why the players went after the officials.
“We have to be very careful with what we say until we get the entire story,” Laing told KENS. “It’s really unfortunate. We’re still getting stories on different things. That’s why we’ve got to make sure to get the entire story before we basically share it with everybody, bec ause we don’t want anything out there to be assumed. We want to be very clear on exactly what happened.”