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Letter to the editor

Northside's coach, AD have their say

David Masuck, the coach, denies swearing at an opposing player. Pete Cimino, the AD, wants a level playing field.

By RODNEY THRASH Times Staff Writer
Published October 12, 2007

Sometime during the Sept. 8 game between the Westchase Colts and the Northside Dolphins, someone hurled an expletive toward a Colts player.

The Colts said it came from the mouth of the Dolphins' coach. And even though a league grievance board collected enough witness testimony to issue a guilty ruling against him, David Masuck said one of his players - not him - had the potty mouth that day.

"I'm not a coach that goes out here and cusses at kids," he said. "I'm 100 percent sure that I never cussed."

A week after the St. Petersburg Times published a story about a little league football game that went terribly wrong, Masuck and Dolphins athletic director Pete Cimino said they are ready to set the record straight.

Yes, the Dolphins lost the game, 13-12.

Yes, the team filed a grievance against the Colts for not playing a player five times, the league-mandated minimum.

Yes, that move gave the Dolphins the win; prompted league officials to slap the Colts' coach with a one-year suspension before reducing it to three games and a $100 fine; and resulted in the cursing counter-grievance from the Colts.

But Cimino said he didn't complain out of spite or because his team lost. Even if the Dolphins had won, Cimino said he would have approached the Tampa Bay Youth Football League, the governing body that oversees the area's 12 teams.

"I wasn't there to win," he said. "I wasn't there to get a coach ejected for the year. I just wanted everybody to play by the same rules.

"For a kid to practice six hours during the week not to get his plays on Saturday because the coach is overzealous in trying to win, that's not right.

Already, Cimino said, he has noticed teams making more of an effort to give their players equal time on the field.

"I believe that people are governing themselves at this point," he said. "They are watching out for kids' plays. They are getting their just time."

Both sides are ready to put the events of the last month behind them, said Ty Hawkins, the Colts' athletic director.

Brandon Miles, the Colts coach at the center of the controversy, returned to the field this week. He will coach his first game on Saturday.

"At the end of the day, both grievances were dropped," Hawkins said.

Rodney Thrash can be reached at (813) 269-5303 or rthrash@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 11, 2007, 08:05:41]