 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Melee may get teams banned
By Compiled from Times wires © St. Petersburg Times, published September 26, 2000 Coaches and young players involved in a weekend brawl could be banished from Pop Warner football. The organization's top official said he is investigating the Saturday night fight. Punishment, if any, could include suspension or probation. Pop Warner officials could also dissolve the teams. Emotions ran high after the Hawks of Port Orange, south of Daytona Beach, scored a winning touchdown in overtime over the West Orange Wildcats, from Winter Garden near Orlando. Words flew between the 13-, 14- and 15-year-old players as they started to leave the field at Spruce Creek High School in Orlando. One team charged the other, then a fight broke out between the coaches and players, police said. Parents and spectators took to the field. Police broke up the fight, but not before taking a punch or two. A 15-year-old Winter Garden boy allegedly punched an officer in the face and threw a traffic cone at the officer. A 32-year-old woman is accused of resisting arrest. Police and prosecutors are reviewing videotapes of the fracas made by some spectators to help decide whether to file criminal charges. The aftermath may involve more than individual assault charges against unruly parents and youths. The future of the two teams is at stake. "We will not tolerate this sort of behavior," said Terry Chancey, the president of the Mid-Florida Pop Warner Association. Chancey said he wants to view the videotapes, interview witnesses and talk to both sides. There has been a spate of rising unruliness and violence at youth sports. In another ugly scene Saturday, a fight broke out involving several adults at a Boys and Girls Club football game between Kendall and West Kendall teams in Miami-Dade County, after a referee halted the game for 12-year-olds early because of unsportsmanlike conduct. Police on Monday were also checking videotapes of that game. In July, a hockey player's father in Massachusetts was charged with manslaughter after he fought with a referee, who died. About a week later in Hollywood, Fla., a Police Athletic League baseball coach was accused of breaking an umpire's jaw during an argument. Earlier this month, nearly two dozen parents got in a scrap at a T-ball game for 4- and 5-year-olds in Miami. According to a police report, the brawl in Orlando started when some of the West Orange Wildcats, both players and coaches, followed the Port Orange players to their bench, starting the first fight. Dozens of spectators jumped into the melee, police said. In the thick of it, one boy said, he was bitten on his upper left arm, while another boy was knocked to the ground and kicked. More than 130 people were on the field and sidelines when at least nine officers arrived. As officers tried to sort out what happened, a second fight broke out in the parking lot. In the Miami-Dade fight, witness David Mosure, a high school coach and teacher, said that after the referee called the game, players from the losing West Kendall team spewed profanities at the Kendall players. That caused one of the Kendall parents to yell something at the West Kendall coaches, one of whom sprinted to the Kendall sidelines, Mosure said. He said the coach began yelling threats and some Kendall parents tried to restrain him, a few falling to the ground during the scuffle. He said another West Kendall coach then ran over and began hitting one of the fallen men in the face. A police report identifies the suspected attacker as Glen Daniel Scott, 36, and the victim as Rudy Llana, 45. Llana suffered severe cuts to the mouth requiring stitches, the report says. -- The Orlando Sentinel and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times state desk
From the state wire
|
