Coach Resigns After Staged Shooting : High schools: The ill-advised skit with starter pistol and phony blood is set up to ‘motivate’ football players.

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. — A high school football coach who staged his own phony shooting to “motivate” his players resigned Wednesday.

“It is my opinion that using a weapon of any sort--whether it’s real or not--is totally inappropriate,” school superintendent Donald Gossett said.

One startled player, senior lineman Mike Duffy, said “the shock of the idea we were going to die” overshadowed any point Libertyville High Coach Dale Christensen was trying to make.

Panicked players scrambled for cover or fled the school cafeteria as Christensen fell to the floor. At least two calls were placed to police emergency numbers and three police cars sped to the scene.

But police found the gun was a starter pistol that fired blanks, the blood on the coach’s shirt was fake and the whole stunt was “a skit the coach was putting on for his team to motivate them,” police chief Dan McCormick said Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear how the shooting was to motivate the players. Christensen, a coach for 23 years, was not available for comment.

Gossett said the coach told him he “understood the ramifications” of his actions. “He also believes that people in general outside the football team . . . do not understand what he was trying to accomplish.”

The incident occurred in the school cafeteria Saturday, hours before the Libertyville Wildcats were to play Loyola Academy in a state semifinal playoff.

During a pep talk to players, Christensen interceded in a fake fight he had orchestrated between two youths. Shots rang out and Christensen fell to the ground as phony blood spread across his shirt. Christensen bounced up several seconds later and announced the shooting was faked, but some players already had scattered, seeking cover or escape.

McCormick said police and prosecutors were weighing disorderly conduct charges. Libertyville lost Saturday, 27-14.