Texas High School Quarterback May Miss Season Due to Malicious Hit
This was nowhere near the play. This defender just wanted to hit this kid and he needs to be disciplined.
Video out of the Jasper high school football game is going viral for this hit on Leontay Sells. He had handed the ball off to the running back and was nowhere near the ball when the hit took place. Silsbee High School's junior safety Aaron Sells (no relation to Leontay) hit Leontay in the back.
Since Leontay had handed the ball off, he had his back away from the play and did not see the hit. In my opinion, this is targeting and this kid should have been thrown out of the game. Sadly, no refs saw this play because their focus was on the ball.
Aaron remained in the game after the hit, but sadly Leontay was taken off the field. He was knocked out and his coach said he suffered a concussion from the hit. His coach said he is definitely out this next game and may miss the season if the symptoms linger.
"That kind of play is something we don't teach at Silsbee," opposing coach Randy Smith said. He said Aaron will be punished for this hit, but no word on exactly what that means. Punishment maybe coming down from the District 10-4A I executive committee. If they don't consider Coach Smith's punishment severe enough, they said they will add to it.
Jasper football coach Darrell Barbay said he personally received an apology from Randy Smith for his player's actions after he saw the video of the hit. Many are wondering how the referees missed the hit and that is because they only had four on the field instead of the standard five.
A late cancellation for one of the refs changed the positioning of the four remaining refs. "The referee closest to the hit said he didn't see the hit and only heard it happen," John Ippolito, president of the Stephen F. Austin chapter of Texas Association of Sports Officials said. "We missed the call and that's unfortunate because there should have been a flag."
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