Cary-Grove principal apologizes for student section’s ‘Fire Nagy’ chant

Cary-Grove principal Neil Lesinski issued an apologetic statement about a “disrespectful chant” from the student body at Saturday’s Class 6A football playoffs semifinal game against Lake Forest.

Late in the game, which C-G won, 40-7, C-G’s student section chanted “Fire Nagy” regarding Bears coach Matt Nagy, who has a son on Lake Forest’s varsity roster.

C-G staff quickly stopped the chant. The chant went viral on social media Tuesday morning, and Cary-Grove tweeted the letter about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Here is the statement from the school:

“On behalf of Cary-Grove High School, I want to assure our community that the chant was not acceptable nor appropriate and was immediately addressed by administration at the game,” Lesinski wrote in part. “We also felt it was important to meet with our student superfans that lead our chants and cheers to talk about what happened and give them an opportunity to reflect and correct their actions.”

During his news conference Tuesday, Nagy said he did not hear the chant. He also said that several youth players from Cary approached him after the game and asked for photos. Nagy said the kids were very respectful.

“I was there to watch my son play a football game,” Nagy said. “I was there to be a dad. It was a pretty cool time.”

Nagy was asked if he felt the chant crossed a line.

“Everybody has their own opinions on what they do,” Nagy said. “I hear a lot of chants across a lot of different high school programs. That’s sports right now, you know what I mean? I think everybody just wants to see how people handle it. But I did not hear it at the game. I was locked in on trying to watch my son play.”