A Pennsylvania high school football coach says he was ejected from a playoff game after he confronted referees to voice concerns about racial slurs being repeatedly shouted by players on the opposing team.
Burrell High School head coach Shawn Liotta was ejected with 11 seconds to go in the second quarter of his team's 42-0 loss to Mohawk.
“Their kids were repeatedly using racist remarks toward our kids,” Liotta told TribLive.com. “Our coaches and probably 20-some players heard the words. I kept asking the officials, ‘Can we please get control of this? They keep calling our kids these words.’ The officials kept saying they didn’t hear it.”
Mohawk coach Tim McCutcheon declined comment Sunday but in a text message called the allegations “heinous, irresponsible and false.”
Liotta walked onto the field during a timeout to confront officials. Burrell was trailing 28-0 at the time.
“It’s my duty to protect my kids,” he said. “That’s more important than anything that’s going on in the game. I cannot allow them to be subjected to that kind of stuff. That’s why I was ejected. I came out to midfield, and they didn’t like what I was saying to them and I didn’t like what they were saying to me.”
WPIAL adminstrator Vince Sortino declined to comment until the league receives a report from officials on the ejection.
Mohawk coach Tim McCutcheon reportedly accused Burrell of dirty play after the game.
“I had to talk about, truthfully, if they were getting punched in the head that they had to walk away,” McCutcheon told the New Castle News about his halftime talk. “It was certainly a different look that this team brought here this week.
“Unfortunately, there were a lot of other things that I had to be concerned about beyond football, and paramount was safety. Unfortunately, it was an unusual halftime talk and one I don’t care to have again.”
Liotta denied that his team was playing dirty and said his players were riled up by Mohawk's actions.
“It is not us being sore losers,” Liotta said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. We’re not a dirty team. We don’t do dirty tactics. That’s never been the case with any of the teams I’ve ever coached.”
