'We've got to find a way to connect': First Coast football coach reacts to shooting

Following the violence that cut short Friday night's football game at First Coast High School, the school's longtime football coach and athletic director is hoping the incident doesn't cast a cloud over the coming season.

First Coast's Marty Lee said the evening began with a "perfect atmosphere" for the contest between the two Northside schools before ending in gunfire.

"The sad thing is we don't want to take away from the game and what was a great high school atmosphere because of what happened starting in a public parking lot with some young people that couldn't solve their problems without violence," Lee said.

Police shot a 15-year-old who they said fired a gun into a crowd during Friday's high school football game at First Coast between the host Buccaneers and visiting Ribault. The 15-year-old, whom police said sustained a gunshot wound to the torso as well as a grazing wound to the head, was charged Saturday with discharging a firearm on school property and carrying a concealed firearm.

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First Coast and Ribault were playing in the third quarter, with the host school leading 16-14, when off-field altercations prompted administrators to suspend the contest and cancel the remainder of play.

"We'd just come back [from halftime]… and next thing you know, we're having to get off the field," said Lee, who is entering his 27th year as football coach. Lee's tenure in the athletic department dates to the school's opening in 1990-91.

Lee said players from both teams had met before the game, talking, laughing and taking photos at midfield. Many of them had been looking forward to competing against players they had known since elementary school.

A crowd estimated into the thousands attended the season-opening exhibition for the high school sports season. Florida High School Athletic Association records registered the game as the Coach C Kickoff Classic in honor of First Coast defensive coordinator Fred Culver, who retired from the school during the summer.

"We had the police presence, everything was staffed very well," Lee said. "But we can't control what goes on outside the gates."

Ribault athletic director William Griffin echoed Lee's appreciation for the response from administrators and police in a post on X (formerly Twitter) following the incident: "Thank you to the SSO's, JSO, Coach Ram [Pinckney], Coach Lee, Principals Dr. [Gregory] Bostic and Mr. [Justin] Fluent and the administrations of Ribault & First Coast High Schools for keeping our student-athletes and fans as safe as possible."

The shooting follows several other acts of violence to disrupt high school football in Jacksonville in recent years.

In August 2018, three people were shot, one fatally, during a season-opening high school game between Lee (now Riverside) and host Raines. Nine months later, a shooting following a May 2019 football exhibition between Ribault and host Parker left one teenager with critical wounds.

Those incidents prompted Duval County Public Schools administrators to reschedule kickoff times for football, realigning several high-profile games to early afternoon or even Saturday morning hours and pulling all others to a 6 p.m. start. The county has since amended that kickoff time to 6:30 p.m. for subsequent seasons, which is still earlier than the 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. start in surrounding counties.

The school district also increased wanding and bag searches following the 2018 and 2019 incidents. Last August, DCPS approved a $7 million contract with Evolv Technology, a Massachusetts-based security company, to install a new weapon-detection system at the district's high schools.

Lee said it was too early to determine whether Friday's incident might also prompt additional security measures, but he said it should serve as an alert to Jacksonville.

"We've got to do a better job with our young people," Lee said. "We've got to teach them that they've got to live in the community together, that we've got to find a way to connect without resorting to violence."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville football game shooting: Coach Marty Lee laments violence