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Mountain Pointe High School’s head football coach speaks out following leak scandal involving now-fired assistant coach
The head coach of Mountain Pointe High School is speaking out in the aftermath of a game plan leak scandal involving one of the team's now-former assistant coach, Justin Hager. FOX 10's Matt Galka reports.
PHOENIX - On Wednesday, Tempe Union High School's governing board voted to fire Justin Hager, a former Mountain Pointe High School assistant football coach and assistant girls basketball coach accused of leaking game plans to opposing teams.
Justin Hager (Photo Courtesy: Tempe Union High School District)
According to a statement, the decision to fire Hager was unanimous, and Hager has 10 days to respond and request a hearing. His employment with Tempe Union High School District is set to end on the 10th day of that time period.
FOX 10 has learned a bit more about how the leaks were traced back to Justin Hager. As it turns out, it was the son of the assistant who went to yahoo.com and typed in WalterPayton12, and hit "Forgot Password". The recovery e-mail was that of Justin Hager.
The controversy surrounding Hager has become a scandal that has rocked Mountain Pointe High School, which is one of two public high schools in Ahwatukee, a suburb of Phoenix located south of South Mountain. On Thursday, the head coach of Mountain Pointe's football team, Rich Wellbrock, spoke about the ordeal.
Wellbrock did not want to speculate about what exactly was going on, or whether the head coach or the players were being undermined more, and Wellbrock said he did not want to guess if the leaked information caused his team to lose any games.
"I couldn't speculate on that," said Wellbrock. "I really couldn't. You could go back and look at film -- We talk to our kids all the time. Every game comes down to three plays. Every big game comes down to three plays, and you don't know when they are. Whether they're in the first quarter, it might be the opening kickoff. You don't really know. I mean, we've got enough on our plate right now rather than spend time, going back and look at which game would have been flipped if information was used in that."
Wellbrock also said Hager has not reached out to him since the news broke.
"I can't remember exactly what the last thing I said to him when he left my office that day. I have not spoken to him on the phone, by text message, e-mail, anything," said Wellbrock.