A veteran high school football coach who staged a phony shooting of himself to motivate his players resigned today.

The Libertyville High School coach, Dale Christensen, staged the shooting before a playoff game last Saturday. Students scrambled for cover or fled the school cafeteria as Christensen fell to the floor after apparently being shot. At least two calls were placed to police emergency numbers and three police cars sped to the scene.

But the police found that the gun was a starter's pistol that fired blanks, that the blood on the coach's shirt was fake and that the whole stunt "was a skit the coach was putting on for his team to motivate them," Chief Dan McCormick said today. One startled player said "the shock of the idea we were going to die" overshadowed any point the coach was trying to make. Even the coach's son, linebacker Reed Christensen, was apparently fooled. Witnesses said that as his father lay on the floor, Christensen shouted, "My dad's been shot!"

School superintendent Donald Gossett said that the coach had told him he "understood the ramifications" of his actions.