An Arkansas high school football coach suspended himself from the team's first game after a player waved a Confederate flag at a pep rally, the Hot Springs Sentinel Record reported.
The newspaper said Jessieville High School football coach Don Phillips suspended himself for the team's season-opening game at Mountain Pine High School last week after a senior player was seen holding the flag on a truck during the rally and parade.
Phillips told the paper he was checking in equipment when the event started and that he later saw the flag.
"I knew the ramifications of what might happen," Phillips told the Sentinel Record. "I know what's expected of me and what I expect of the team.
"If I had been where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there, this would be a nonissue."
Click here to read the full story in today's Hot Springs Sentinel Record.