Westwood could forfeit all district games
District 9-3A school superintendents met in an Executive Committee meeting Monday, Oct. 21 to discuss the alleged violation of Westwood ISD coaches and district personal videotaping/filming/recording district opponents of an athletics contest (varsity football) without the prior consent of the schools competing in the contest.
When all was said and done, Diboll Superintendent Brian Bowman, Huntington Superintendent David Flowers, and Crockett Superintendent Dr. Douglas Moore recommended the suspension of Westwood ISD Technology Assistant Don McCoy from all District 9-3A athletic events and the suspension of Westwood High School Director of Athletics/Head Football Coach Richard Bishop for the remainder of the football season as well as postseason. Both of these suspensions will have to go to the UIL State Executive Committee for approval.
The committee also voted Westwood would have to forfeit all District 9-3A football games for this season. Westwood ISD Superintendent Wade Stanford noted the school would be filing an appeal on the forfeits.
Teague ISD Superintendent Chris Skinner and Fairfield ISD Superintendent Joe Craig were also in attendance for the meeting and spoke throughout. They could not vote on the recommendation because their teams were involved.
When making the decisions, Skinner said, “We have to keep the best interest of the students in all districts in mind, not just those at Westwood.”
Bowman led the meeting. Stanford, Bishop, McCoy and Glen Tunstall told what occurred during the Fairfield and Teague football game on Friday night, Oct. 11.
Westwood had moved their game that week to Thursday night, but none of the other schools had been notified.
Bishop and McCoy attended the game and sat on the home side at the 50-yard-line. McCoy, who is not a coach, but works for the district, took videos on his camera as well as Snapchat.
Skinner called Stanford at 8:04 p.m. on Oct. 11 to notify him of coaches filming signals on the sidelines and plays. Stanford immediately called Bishop. During halftime, which is when Stanford called Bishop, Bishop told McCoy to delete any videos he had on his phone.
McCoy admitted he was filming the sidelines and the plays. He stated he was taking the videos to send to a girl in Virgina. Bishop, who was sitting next to McCoy, said he didn’t know McCoy was taking videos.
Fairfield Coaches Tyler Terry, Aaron Allen and Shawn Welch, who were in the pressbox, told what they witnessed during the game. They also videoed McCoy filming the sidelines and the plays with Bishop sitting next to him.
McCoy said he videoed most of the first and second quarters of the game until he was told not to at halftime. He admitted to taking videos on both his camera as well as Snapchat.
“I was capturing almost every play until I got something good,” McCoy said. “I was trying to get some good footage to send her to show her what Texas football is all about.”
Craig then showed the videos the Fairfield coaches took from the pressbox of McCoy filming. His phone is turned sideways and can be seen zooming into the sideline and then zooming out to get the play.
When asked what he thought after seeing the videos, Bishop said, “It's less than ideal. It isn’t a good look. I would never tell someone to film, especially since we were sitting in the center on the 50-yard-line.”
Fairfield Head Football Coach John Bachtel noted Fairfield and Teague are now having to change all of their signals.
“We all know we can’t be videoing other teams. Videoing our staff is just wrong,” Bachtel said. “That is what hurts me the most. Don’t be sitting right there next to him while he is videoing. It’s the ethics of it.”
Bowman, Flowers, and Moore went into executive session at 11:53 a.m. before returning at 12:19 p.m. to discuss what actions should be taken.
Bishop has been coaching for 17 years. Westwood is currently undefeated and has a 7-0 overall record with just three district games remaining against Teague, Fairfield and Huntington.
