Texas police have started a criminal investigation of an incident in which two high school football players crashed into a referee from behind during a game, officials said on Tuesday.
The police department in Marble Falls, northwest of Austin, said it was weighing assault charges after Friday’s game at Marble Falls High School against John Jay High School of San Antonio.
The prosecuting attorney is receptive to filing charges if the investigation bears that out, Marble Falls Police spokesman Sergeant Tom Dillard said. He said the investigation could take about a week.
The Northside Independent School District, which includes John Jay, said assistant football coach Mack Breed, 29, was put on administrative leave to investigate reports he told players “that guy needs to pay for cheating us” in reference to the official for calls the team felt were unfair.
The names of the official and the players have not been released by police.
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The two players were ejected from the game, which John Jay lost 15-9, school officials said. They now face a disciplinary hearing.
The two players believed the official had made racial slurs toward them, Stan Laing, athletic director for the Northside district said at a news conference.
The football official denied making racial slurs in an interview with Austin television station KEYE.
The school district said it is filing a complaint with the Texas Association of Sports Officials against the referee about the suspected racial slurs.
In a video of the incident, which aired on television stations and was seen more than 5 million times on YouTube as of Tuesday afternoon, the two John Jay players are seen lining up behind the official, with one running into him from behind and the other plowing into him when he was down.
- Reuters
Two Ridgewater volleyball players honored
Sophomore setter Kaitlyn Sterner and freshman hitter Hailey Leiding of Ridgewater College were honored Tuesday by the Minnesota College Athletic Conference.
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Sterner, from Dassel, was named the MCAC Southern Division’s Setter of the Week after directing the Warriors to a 3-1 win over Fergus Falls with 30 assists. Leiding, from Trimont, was the division’s Hitter of the Week after she collected 15 kills with a .414 attack percentage and three blocks in the win over Fergus Falls.
Sterner was also the division’s top setter after the first week of play.
Ridgewater is 3-1 in the MCAC, 6-2 overall and plays at St. Cloud Technical and Community College today at 6:30 p.m.
- Tribune Sports
NBA changes rules on postseason seeding
NBA division winners are no longer guaranteed home-court advantage for their first-round playoff series under changes announced by the league Tuesday.
Starting with the upcoming season, each conference’s playoff teams will be seeded based strictly on their regular-season record. Under the old format, the three division winners in each conference plus the non-division winner with the best record were awarded the top four seeds. The tiebreaking procedure also was altered. For teams with the same overall record, the first tiebreaker is now head-to-head record.
- Sports Xchange
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