SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- The two high school football players who brutally hit a defenseless referee during Sept. 4 game can return to school in January.
An assistant coach at San Antonio's John Jay High School told the principal at the school that he ordered players to hit the referee in the game, due to anger that "the official used racist language," according to ESPN's John Barr.
Robert Harris, principal at John Jay, said secondary coach Mack Breed admitted to directing the "students to make the referee pay for his racial comments and calls," Barr reported.
Victor Rojas, 15, and Michael Moreno, 17, made the vicious hits during the loss to Marble Falls.
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Breed has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to KHOU.
Rojas and Moreno's lawyer, Jesse Hernandez, told KENS 5 that the two are "paying for it and trying to move past it." Rojas and Moreno were assigned to Northside ISD's alternative high school for 75 days. They can return to John Jay on Jan. 15.
"The boys' focus here was on accepting responsibility for their actions," Hernandez told KENS 5. "They're not the type of kids to do something like this... They admitted it was something a coach directed them to do."
"We really felt that the boys were being vilified," Hernandez said. "We wanted to give them a chance to give their side of the story.
Harris wrote a statement, obtained by ESPN.
"He then informed me that Coach Breed had disclosed to him (Gutierrez) that he directed the players to take out the referee," Harris wrote, according to ESPN. "(Gutierrez) stated that Coach Breed initially asked him what was going to happen to the players during their ride home from the game. After Coach Gutierrez informed him that the players would be removed from the team, he informed Coach Gutierrez that he directed the players to strike 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."
