TAMPA, Fla. — For Robert Weiner, the field at Dad’s Stadium is hallowed ground: It’s where so many memories have been made.

• High school football coach Robert Weiner trying to appeal suspension
• Suspended by FHSAA after helping a player in unstable living situation
• Faces 6-week suspension, $5,000 fine for violating recruiting/impermissible benefits bylaw

Friday nights are sacred to Plant High School Coach Weiner. They fill his football soul. The sideline is his home away from home.

But for now, Weiner is banned from the sideline, all because he made a choice in a tough dilemma — help a young man in need or abide by the FHSAA (Florida High School Athletic Association) rules?

“If I didn’t say that it hurt, I’d be lying” Weiner said. “It hurts.”

Weiner’s being punished for helping a player — one that, he said, needed to be removed from an unstable living situation.

The FHSAA suspended the two-time Florida high school coach of the year for six weeks and fined him $5,000 for violating the recruiting/impermissible benefits bylaw.

The impermissible benefit? The player was placed with a Plant volunteer who has since become his legal guardian. Weiner’s appealing the suspension and will appear before the state’s governing body in Gainesville on Wednesday.

“I’m not saying (I’m) blameless or faultless. We would go back and do things differently,” he said. “Again, in that moment, our only thing was, ‘let’s find a way to help this kid.’ We did something with the purest of good intentions for someone in need, but we did it in the wrong way, and we will pay whatever consequences we have to pay for that.”

Plant High School is the home of state champions. Under Coach Weiner, the Panthers have won four titles and become a perennial state-wide powerhouse.

But this season, the program has taken a big hit on and off the field.  Just before the start of the season, the Plant family mourned the loss of former Panthers star Eric Patterson, who was shot and killed in a home invasion.

Then the losses started piling up on the field — the Panthers are winless, including their first district loss since 2004, Weiner’s first season as the head coach.

“Winning and losing is not a defining moment of what it means to be a Plant Panther,” Weiner said. “So we’re not defined by 0-5, and we’re not defined by a state championship either. We’re defined by things that are much more than that.”

When you win, you become a target. When you win as much as Plant has and now your program is struggling, that target grows larger and the haters pounce.

The news of Coach Weiner’s suspension set off a wave of disparaging tweets and comments. And as upset as the Plant fan base is over their coach’s predicament, others are reveling in the Panthers misery.

Always a link — it’s more than a motto at Plant, it’s a way of life. It’s the Panthers version of “it takes a village.”

Coach Weiner believes in teaching his players more than Xs and Os. He teaches them to become better people. And this latest chapter in his coaching career is providing his players with yet another life lesson.

“If we had to do it again, would I do it a different way? No doubt,” Weiner said. “But if I ever have to choose between the well-being of a young person and a rule, I would choose the well-being of a young person every time.”