Viera High head football coach Shane Staples was relieved of his duties until further notice Sunday in the midst of a controversy over a video apparently featuring members of the Hawks football team simulating sex acts with each other.
An email from Brevard Public Schools Superintendent Mark Rendell on Sunday described the incident as “hazing” and noted that varsity and junior varsity activities have been suspended until further notice. Players will be required to take part in an anti-hazing educational program, and there will be “a parent-player team meeting to begin the process of improving team culture and raising expectations.”
An unnamed number of players were suspended already as a result of the BPS investigation. Viera’s varsity team was scheduled to play at South Fork on Friday and at Satellite on Sept. 1. It was scheduled to open its home season on Sept. 8 against Rockledge.
Staples was beginning his second season as the head coach, and the team had a successful jamboree performance Friday in New Smyrna Beach, scoring 68 points over four quarters, two each against Merritt Island and Seabreeze.
Staples took over the role in the spring of 2022, and last season’s team went 0-10. Derek Smith coached Viera varsity football from November of 2017 to December of 2021. After previous coach Smith left, the school conducted a search and hired Chad Raymond, who left weeks later and eventually became the Melbourne High athletic director.
Staples had been on the staff coaching receivers and moved quickly into the head coaching position after Raymond’s departure. The varsity team appeared to have improved its likelihood of success in the 2023 season with a convincing spring game victory at Bayside and its strong jamboree showing on Friday.
Viera High sports faced a separate controversy in May, after boys track and field coach Kerron Greaves scratched distance runner Aedan Rendek from the 1,600 meters at the District 10-4A meet in St. Cloud on Thursday, April 27, apparently based on a disappointing performance in an earlier race. The following Monday, Brevard Public Schools chief strategic communications officer Russell Bruhn said the coach was “no longer coaching Viera track.”
Rendek was eventually reinstated and ran at the FHSAA state meet in Jacksonville on May 20.
