North Carolina football coach suspended for hidden offensive abbreviation on school’s wall painting
Sometimes, even a well-intentioned coach’s effort to fire up his players with a bit of rivalry can land him in hot water.
As first reported by Greenville North Carolina ABC affiliate WCTI, Greenville (N.C.) J.H. Rose High football coach Dave Wojtecki was suspended for five days without pay in connection with a team mantra that was painted on the wall outside the team’s weight room.
The team motto -- Family, Unity, Discipline, Heart, Commitment -- was painted in vertical fashion with the first letter of each word capitalized, as you can see in the WCTI photo above. While that might seem to be harmless enough, it actually served as a direct affront to Rose High’s chief rival … Greenville (N.C.) D.H. Conley High.
Go ahead and look at those initials again and you can see what Wojtecki was getting at.
There weren’t any real victims to Wojtecki’s attempt to excite his players unless some would be so offended by the veiled use of the f-word that they would be unable to focus and move forward. Perhaps good taste was a victim.
Nonetheless, the weight room wall was the latest salvo in a bitter rivalry between the two schools which grew more caustic during the offseason when Rose superstar Maleek Gorham transferred across town to play at Conley High.
Wojtecki is eligible to return to coach his team on August 5. Meanwhile, the offensive acronym on the weight room wall has been painted over, according to WCTI.
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