A high school football coach was fired after his team used anti-Semitic language - including Holocaust references - to label play calls

• A top high school football coach lost his job after players were caught using anti-Semitic language.
• The team used "Auschwitz" - the Nazi concentration camp - among other terms to label play calls.
• The Massachusetts school heeded calls from the Anti-Defamation League to further investigate.

A prominent high school football coach lost his job Wednesday after hateful language used by his team embroiled their entire upper-class town in scandal and prompted calls for an investigation from the Anti-Defamation League.

Dave Maimaron led Duxbury to five Massachusetts state championships in his 16-year tenure at the helm of the football team. But under his watch, the team was caught using anti-Semitic terms while standing at the line of scrimmage during a game earlier in March.

Players were overheard calling out "Auschwitz" - the name of a Nazi concentration camp where more than 1 million people, the vast majority of whom were Jewish, were murdered during the Holocaust - as well as "dreidel" and "rabbi" to label team plays. Given that the entire team had to be familiar with the names in order to properly execute the plays on the field, the use of the terms is unquestionably a "systemic failure" rather than a one-off instance of hate, according to a statement from representatives for the school district.

"The fact that members of our school community used such offensive language, including anti-Semitic language, is horrifying and disappointing," a statement from the Duxbury district read. "It is important to note that while the players clearly demonstrated poor judgment, the responsibility for this incident also lies with the adults overseeing the program. In short, this was a systemic failure."

The district has canceled its upcoming varsity, junior varsity, and freshman football games for this weekend and will consider further action with regard to the remainder of the football season as investigations into the matter proceed. Additionally, the football program has "severed ties" with Maimaron and placed the former head coach on paid administrative leave from his role as a special education teacher at the high school, according to The New York Times.

"On behalf of the staff and players of the Duxbury High School football team, I want to extend my apology for the insensitive, crass, and inappropriate language used in the game on March 12th," Maimaron said in a statement released by the school. "Using the term was careless, unnecessary, and most importantly hurtful on its face - inexcusable."

Duxbury school district heeded calls from the Anti-Defamation League for a deeper investigation into the matter. According to ESPN, administrators hired Just Training Solutions LLC's Edward Mitnick - an attorney and an investigator - to assist in the further inspection of the football program.