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Cape Cod Area High School Team Under First for Antisemitic Play Terms

Update March 24th: Football coach Dave Maimaron has been fired; more here.

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Leaders of Massachusettes Duxbury’s highly successful football program are under fire and their head coach suspended for the alleged use of antisemitic terms in the team’s play-calling.

On Monday morning, the Duxbury Public School system issued a statement regarding how its varsity high school football team used “highly offensive on-field language” including “Hitler” Rabbi” and “Auschwitz” as part of its play-calling at the line of scrimmage during a season-opening 35-0 win over Plymouth North on March 12th.

The statement, signed by Duxbury superintendent John Antonucci, assistant superintendent Danielle Klingaman and high school principal James Donovan, went on to state while the players clearly demonstrated poor judgment, the responsibility for this incident also lies with the adults overseeing the program. They referred to it as a systemic failure.

The three pledged in their statement to the Duxbury community to review the situation and, “determine how we can integrate the elements of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all of our athletic and co-curricular programs.”

While the letter didn’t refer to it, the Herald learned that longtime head coach Dave Maimaron was suspended last Friday night for the Dragons’ contest against Silver Lake due to the team’s inappropriate conduct. In a statement to the Herald on Monday,

The letter added that once administration learned of insensitive terminology in regards to play calls, they ordered the verbiage be stopped immediately. They went on to add that mandatory training will be involved for the entire football program so they can better understand the power of their actions on and off the field.

Duxbury athletic director Thom Holdgate would not comment on the situation or whether Maimaron would coach the team in its game against Hingham this weekend, citing how all school matters run through the superintendent’s office.