An LCM Assistant Coach could be disciplined by the UIL following an investigation after the LCM at Bridge City game on Friday, Oct. 24.
Bridge City uses technology to send in their plays. The skill players have a band on their wrist that looks like an Apple watch and they receive the play from a coach in the press box. This is the first year the technology has been made available to high schools. LCM does not use the wrist bands. The majority of the time they use hand signals.
During the first quarter a BC player realized he lost his band and told a coach about it. Cardinal coaches searched their sidelines and then went over to the LCM side at halftime, asking if they had the band. They denied having it and did not find it on the playing field.
After the game Head Coach Josh Smalley texted LCM Coach Eric Peevey and asked about returning the band, saying he had video evidence of an LCM player handing the band to Gonzales. Peevey told Smalley he talked to his coach and he said he threw it down towards their bench after receiving it.
The band ($400-500) in question has still not been found or returned, depending on how you look at it.
LCM dominated the first half of the game. They lead the Cardinals 17-0 and held them to 50 yards of offense. In the second half the Bears scored first to go up 24-0. The Cards scored twice and added two two-point conversions to make it a one score game, but fell short 24-16. Smalley said they went back to signaling plays from the sideline in the second half.
In his defense, Peevey said, “Our gameplan was to stop their two best players (WR Abraham Munguia and RB Ashton Sumrall). BC had 20 offensive plays in the first half and 15 of those they targeted those two kids which played right into our gameplan.
The case was brought to the District Executive Committee on Tuesday and they met for almost four hours as both schools presented their cases and answered questions.
According to Huffman ISD’s Mandy Fortenberry who chaired the meeting, Gonzales’ story changed from not knowing what the device was, to knowing what the device was and throwing it towards the bench.
The committee voted 3-3 that there was “use of technology” by LCM. They voted 5-1 that Gonzales committed an “ethics violation” and his case was referred to the UIL. The committee voted unanimously that Peevey and the rest of the staff was not aware of the situation. The UIL will look at Gonzales’ case on Friday.
“LCM has a great team and great coaches, but after learning of the device that went missing and learning it ended up in the hands of an LCM assistant and watching film, we had some concerns that had to be addressed,” Smalley said. “We had the meeting and the DEC made a decision. This is not about sour grapes or crying over spilled milk. I think we had a legit reason to have concerns, we met as a district, a decision was made and we will live it and move on. Our focus is on Huffman and the challenge of playing the Falcons.”
Peevey said, “I will state it again and again that we didn’t use any technology to help us win against Bridge City. I’m done with this. I don’t want to be spiteful because that’s not the kind of person I am. I’m ready to move on because we have a huge game against Lumberton.”
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