PHOENIX — The Las Vegas high school coach that informed Mountain Pointe about the leak in their football program in August says his decision to tell the head coach was about operating with integrity.
Former assistant football coach, girl's basketball coach and teacher at Mountain Pointe, Justin Hager, has resigned in lieu of termination after he allegedly leaked vital gameplan information to opposing coaches of the school's football and boy's basketball teams at least 11 times since 2017.
According to the Tempe Union High School District, Mountain Pointe coaches and school administration were not informed by opposing coaches about what was going on until Mountain Pointe's first game in 2019 against a school from Las Vegas: Faith Lutheran High School.
We spoke with Faith Lutheran head football coach Vernon Fox Tuesday, who said he told Mountain Pointe head coach Rich Wellbrock at the game that he had someone leaking information.
In the emails obtained by the school district and sent to the Arizona Interscholastic Association, Fox responded to an email sent by WalterPayton12@yahoo.com, believed to be an account operated by Hager.
In the email, Fox said, "Sir...I don't believe in cheating. We are not looking to gain an unfair advantage. We will prepare as best we can and look to have a great competitive game."
"I got a series of emails that had screenshots and information in regards to their preparation and some of the things within their program and immediately I identified it was something that obviously shouldn't have been shared," Fox told 12 News over the phone Tuesday.
Fox said his original intent was to ignore it. He said he did not tell his players or staff members about the emails but he went to the school's administration to make them aware and that he was going to respond that he was uninterested.
When Mountain Pointe traveled to Faith Lutheran for the game on Aug. 23, Fox told Wellbrock about the mole.
"On gameday, I mentioned to the coach, 'Hey I don't know who you made angry but there's someone that is doing this,'" Fox said. "It if were me, I would want someone to inform me."
Fox said it seemed like Wellbrock was aware of the leak.
"He mentioned that he did kind of have an idea that something like that had been going on," Fox said. "He identified the email alias without me ever saying anything so I think they kind of knew what was transpiring but maybe just didn't have the details or where it was coming from."
Fox said his intent wasn't to expose anyone or gain attention. He just wanted to do the right thing.
"My decision to say anything to the opposing coach wasn't to be a hero or to get any public attention, it's something I knew was the right thing to do and until yesterday, our players had no idea that took place," Fox said. "It was a teaching moment for us."
We asked Coach Fox if he felt like any coaches should be held accountable who didn’t report they’d received an email. He said that wasn’t something he even cared to comment on. He just knows how he would handle the situation and he hopes his players learned a valuable lesson on integrity.