SportsLetter

First the World Cup and now this, Mr. Beckham?

Life as an icon on the pitch and as a pitchman will not prevent you from being kicked out of a kid's soccer game, as soccer idol David Beckham recently discovered.

The LA Galaxy star recently visited the set of BBC television host Jonathan Ross and according to the Mirror revealed:

... he was sent from the touchlines after turning up early to watch son Cruz in action in Los Angeles.

He said: “I was watching the kids play the other day, it was the younger kids of [son] Romeo’s club. They’re playing in the game and there was a penalty given.

"And the kids are seven years old and he sent the kid off. And I was like, ‘Come on, he’s seven-years-old, referee, you can’t send him off.’ And he looked at me and was like, ‘Yes, I can.’ And I was like, ‘Ok, well, you can’t, he’s seven years old.’

"And he came over and gave me a red card. He told me to get out of the park. For real. The gate was only 20 yards away and I waited and went back in when my son’s game was on.”

Coaches behaving very, very badly

A high school football coach in Salisbury, Maryland, is "under investigation by police for steroid possession and distribution, and sex offense accusations," according to Delmarvanow.com.

From Delmarvanow.com:

David Nettles, 44, was placed on administrative leave Nov. 28 immediately after the school board became aware of the allegations; however, according to board officials, no criminal charges had been filed as of late Wednesday.

"The school system is following appropriate legal and personnel procedures in the matter," said Tracy Sahler, a spokeswoman for Wicomico County public schools.

Nettles, who became head coach during the 2004-05 football season, has led the Indians to five state playoff appearances including two trips to the 2A East regional final.

Nettles is only the most recent Wicomico High School coach to have been accused of sex offenses.

Last January volleyball coach Steven Mark Kiggins was charged with sex abuse of a minor after a student alleged he had sex with her on school grounds.  According to reports he has been released from the Wicomico County Detention Center on $50,000 bond.

And in 2007,

Robert Alan Borello, 57, pleaded guilty to three counts of fourth-degree sex offense during a Wicomico County Circuit Court hearing in March 2007 after allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old volleyball player. He was sentenced to 18 months in county jail and three months of probation.

Wicomico County is on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and, according to the county website, is one of "America's 100 Best Communities for Young People."

This week in youth sports embezzling news

The former treasurer of a youth sports organization in Roanoke, Virginia, pleaded no contest to one count of felony embezzlement, reports the Roanoke Times.  Bob Collis had stolen about $85,000 from the nonprofit Greater Southwest Athletic Association by writing checks to himself.  He repaid the full amount and, as a result, was charged with stealing "only" $8,000.  In a plea agreement Collis "received a three-year suspended prison sentence, was placed on probation for a year and was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service."

Across the country, in San Marino, California, "San Marino High School football coach Mike Mooney pleaded guilty to one count of grand theft embezzlement Tuesday for stealing $20,000 from the funds from the school booster clubs," according to the Pasadena Star-News.  Mooney was sentenced to three years of probation and 20 days of community service.

And, just to show that stealing money from children is not a uniquely American pastime, the Vancouver Sun is reporting that the former treasurer and chairman of the Richmond Youth Soccer Association in British Columbia has been sentenced to two years in jail and ordered to pay full restitution for embezzling a staggering $204,407 over a five-year period from 1998-2003.

From the Sun:

Listing the mitigating factors, Judge Chen noted that [Debbie] Judd has otherwise lived a law-abiding life, and although she "obfuscated" when initially confronted, she quickly admitted her crimes, cooperated with the RCMP investigation and pleaded guilty at first opportunity.

The judge also noted that her crimes continue to haunt her and her family. As result of the adverse publicity, the entire Judd family has been shunned by the Richmond community, and by the soccer community at large. They moved to the Calgary area, where Judd's husband secured a job as a soccer coach, but when news of Judd's misdeeds followed them there, he lost his job.

We do it for the kids

Last July SportsLetter told you about Washington DC Councilman Harry Thomas, Jr., who had been accused of stealing almost $300,000 from a city grant designated for a youth baseball program.  Thomas denied any wrongdoing and hired an attorney, who in turn created a legal defense fund to help cover the costs of defending Thomas against a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Apparently the defense was unsuccessful.

Today Thomas, Jr. plead guilty to the charges after resigning his council seat Thursday night.

From the Associated Press via the Washington Post:

A former D.C. councilmember pleaded guilty Friday to embezzling more than $350,000 in government funds earmarked for youth sports and arts programs and admitted that he spent the money on a luxury SUV, travel to exclusive golf courses and clothing.

Harry Thomas Jr., resigned his council seat Thursday night — a condition of his plea agreement — just hours after being charged with theft from programs receiving federal funds and filing a false tax return.

...Thomas, who for months had maintained his innocence, did not directly address the accusations in federal court but replied, “Guilty as charged, your honor” when asked how he wished to plead.

Honey, I changed the grades!

The spouse of a high school football coach in Antioch, Illinois, "accessed the school’s computer system to change grades of students who were on the school’s athletic ineligibility list," according to the Daily Herald.

Special education teacher Sara Glashagel has been accused of changing 240 grades involving 64 students between September 15 and 21.  On November 18 the Antioch Police Department charged her with a single count of computer tampering and she faces a year in jail if found guilty of the Class A misdemeanor charge.  She currently is free on a $1,000 recognizance bond. Although she has insisted that this affair “is a misconception that has spiraled out of control, " earlier today she turned in her letter of resignation.

From the Daily Herald,

School officials said Friday the grade changes were quickly caught and changed back, and they did not impact the eligibility of any students on the school’s in-house or Illinois High School Association eligibility lists.

The Antioch Sequoits varsity football team was undefeated and in first place in the North Suburban Conference Prairie Division facing Vernon Hills High School before the grade tampering ...

For his part, husband and head varsity football coach Brian Glashagel insisted he was "blindsided" by his wife's action, adding,

“I am assuring everyone beyond my word that I had no knowledge of this taking place in the past ... I have offered to police to take a polygraph, and I am still offering that up today.”

Should make for an interesting family Thanksgiving dinner.

Sexual abuse in youth sports

Mark Kriegel of Fox Sports has a column today that summarizes some of the sexual-abuse-of-children-in-sports stories which have surfaced over the last few years.

The list of reported sexual abuse claims includes the recent allegations against Jerry Sandusky at Penn State, as well as Don Peters, coach of the 1984 women's Olympic team, Andy King, a former swim coach in the San Jose, California, area, and a number of less-publicized but equally disturbing incidents involving other youth coaches.

And tonight's HBO Real Sports, Kriegel points out,

features a piece on Tennis Hall of Famer Bob Hewitt. Now 71, Hewitt is accused of abusing girls he coached (one as young as 10 years old) going back to the 1970s.

Kriegel also spoke with Dr. Doug Gardner, a youth sports consultant:

"I really do believe you're going to hear more and more and more stories about this," said Dr. Doug Gardner ... "One of my biggest concerns is that with the proliferation of this professional youth-sports model and all the traveling teams, you're going to see a rise in these types of incidents five to ten years from now."

A rise? Or an increase in the reporting? I wonder.

A bad week for youth football in Georgia

A post-game brawl this past Friday night involving two Georgia high school football teams, in which one head coach was hit with a helmet and hospitalized with head injuries, is being investigated by police.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

[Warren County Superintendent Dr. Jean] Carey, who witnessed the incident, said Warren County players were locked out of the visiting locker room after the Sparta school's [Hancock Central High School] homecoming game.

A group of more than 30 Hancock players attacked Warren players, said Carey.

"Our players had nowhere to go, and felt like they had to defend themselves," said Carey.

[Warren head football coach David] Daniels tried to intervene and was "smashed in the face with a helmet," said Carey.

Daniels was hospitalized with head injuries and has undergone major reconstructive surgery to his face, including crushed bones above and below his eye.

Hancock County Sheriff Tomlyn Primus refused Dr. Carey's suggestion to involve the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI):

"...[it is] "my responsibility to investigate any incident that has taken place, and [Carey] has not given me opportunity to do so ... Apparently Warren County has all the facts and we don't," said Primus, "but not all of what they say happened is true."

By the way, Warren County beat Hancock 21-2.

Six days earlier in Carroll County nearly 100 spectators upset with the way a youth football game for 11- to 12-year-olds was being refereed stormed the field after a fight broke out between players.

WSBTV.com reported:

According to a police report, several parents ran onto the field and yelled obscenities. A referee, who did not want to be identified, said at least one person pushed him and yelled profanities.

"The adults told the kids to fight the adult coaches," the ref told [Channel 2's Amy] Napier Viteri.

Indeed, one parent claims she saw another parent hold a player on the ground in order to "get his helmet off for his child to jump on him."  The assaulted player then said he was called a racial slur and witnessed a teammate being thrown to the ground by another parent.

Both teams were suspended for their next game and police issued disorderly conduct and obscene language citations to coaches from both teams.  

One of the cited coaches who cursed and "placed" his hands on the referee also was put on probation for one year by youth football officials and will not be allowed to coach during that period. According to CBS Atlanta, the coach was not even on the sidelines during the game but in the stands because of his involvement in a separate incident earlier in the year. 

Probation for a year?  Why will this coach ever be allowed on a football field with kids?

The dark side of youth sports

Fighting, gambling, cheating and sexual abuse.  Not things one would like to be associated with youth sports but which, unfortunately, sometimes are.  Over the past year SportsLetter has posted many articles on inappropriate behavior that has taken place at youth sports events.

Three more stories this week illustrate what one article described as "environments ripe for exploitation" by predator coaches.

The Orange County Register (OCR) has an extensive article on youth gymnastics club director and Olympic coach Don Peters who has been accused of having sex with some of his former youth athletes.

From the OCR:

A former U.S. Olympic team coach who guided American gymnastics to some of its most iconic and triumphant moments could face a lifetime ban from the sport after three women have come forward to accuse him of having sex with young gymnasts in the 1980s.

Don Peters coached the groundbreaking U.S. women's team to a record eight medals at the 1984 Olympic Games and built SCATS, a Huntington Beach gymnastics club, into an international powerhouse with a string of Olympians and national champions.

It was during that same decade that Peters had sex with three teenage gymnasts, three women have told The Orange County Register.

In Annapolis, Maryland, a high school girls track coach has been arrested on one charge each of soliciting child pornography and displaying obscene material to a minor after he allegedly "exchanged sexually explicit cellphone images with one of his athletes during a months-long relationship," according to HometownAnnapolis.com.

And an assistant swimming coach at a high school in the Pittsburgh area is on trial for having sex with a 15-year-old girl in her home before driving her to swim practice.  This week he failed to appear in court for the start of jury selection.  According to PittsburghLive.com, Raymond N. Novak has been charged with:

involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, criminal use of a telephone, indecent assault and corruption of minors.

From the OCR article, Charol Shakeshaft, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth who has studied the topic of sexual abuse of students by educators:

"There is a special relationship between a coach and an athlete, particularly in an individual event sport like gymnastics, swimming, tennis. The coach is very important to the success of the athlete, and there are no other places to find that support, or at least that's what the athlete believes, usually because the coach has taught the athlete that message: 'Without me, you wouldn't be able to do this.'

"In these relationships, the girls both love and hate their coaches. They are grateful for the good things the coach has done, and they don't like the bad things. Yet, they are afraid that if they speak up, they will lose all the good things and additional bad things will happen to them. The coach will hurt them, they will not be believed, they will lose their chances at the Olympics, etc."

Perhaps, then, it's no surprise that the youth sports organization Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) has started a fundraising campaign "to insure the continued education of coaches and parents to be positive influences and prevent the abuse of young athletes."

PCA's campaign website provides an opportunity for readers to donate money which it says it will use to  "broadcast this valuable information and training to the schools, clubs and recreation centers in the United States ... [including] the parents, coaches administrators and the young athlete" through press releases, interviews with news outlets and instructor training.

And, hopefully, by coming forward with their stories, victims of abuse will be just as effective as a marketing campaign.

Again, the OCR article:

Yamashiro and McNamara said by telling their stories now they hope to trigger a culture shift in a sport that they and other former U.S. Olympic and national team members claim exploits young girls.

"Once I talked about Don, I was suddenly free to talk about what really bothered me about the sport, which is everything," Yamashiro said. "The children really have no advocates. When the parents go loopy for success and the coaches are driven by who-knows-what to create a successful gymnast, then the child is stuck there."

Gimme a B, an R, an A, a W, an L! What does that spell?!

Last week SportsLetter reported on a nasty confrontation between referees, coaches and players at an age 13-14 youth football game in Sarasota, Florida.

Now comes the news that last Saturday night a brawl involving a cheer coach, her cheerleader sister, her mother, and members of another cheerleading squad broke out after a youth league football game in St. Petersburg, Florida. 

According to reports from FirstCoastNews.com and Yahoo.com, 16-year-old St. Petersburg Silver Raiders cheer coach Derricka (or Darricka) Maddox, who had her 10-month-old daughter with her, was walking to her car with her younger sister, a member of the Silver Raiders cheer squad, when Derricka was taunted by members of the Carrollwood cheer team.  A fight broke out and at some point Derricka managed to call her mother, Yolanda Jones, who quickly traveled to the parking lot and joined in the brawl. 

According to Yahoo.com, parents from both youth football teams crowded into the parking lot and many of them "encouraged the girls involved in the fight."

It took 10 police officers to stop the fighting, after which Yolanda, Derricka and members of the other cheer squad were arrested.  Naturally, it was all caught on tape.

Yolanda, who believes threats on Facebook made against Derricka and Derricka’s 10-month-old daughter were factors behind the confrontation, said,

"I'm trying to do right, but you have kids that just don't care. They don't care … It makes me angry, because [the other cheerleaders] really followed her, she's with her child, you followed her and continued to provoke her to a fight."

Video from FirstCoastNews.com:

 

Brawl at Florida youth football game may lead to arrests

Sarasota County Sheriff's Office (Florida) may pursue battery charges against four suspects in an attack on a referee at a youth football game last Saturday afternoon.

Coaches at the youth football game showed their displeasure at referees by throwing water bottles at them.  What happened next was captured on a video that helped authorities identify the suspects, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

 

The video shows several football coaches and players from the Sarasota Gators age 13-14 junior team attacking at least one referee.  One player in full gear except for his helmet tackled the referee to the ground then stood and appeared to taunt the downed referee.

Another referee tried to intervene but was attacked even as the referee on the ground was being kicked and punched.  A melee ensued as players, coaches and fans swarmed the field.

Assaulting a sports official is a third-degree felony in Florida, but Referee Jayme Ream, the man initially attacked in the video, declined to press charges.  Sheriffs still may pursue battery charges without Ream's help.

Said Sarasota County Sheriff's Col. Steve Burns,

"The video speaks for itself. It was disturbing ... I saw adults, entrusted in a mentoring position with the youth of our community, acting and behaving in a manner that is absolutely unacceptable."

Of the player who tackled the referee,

"Obviously, he's not getting a real good mentor from his role model, his coaching staff."

The organization that oversees the youth football league in which the Gators play seemingly agrees: it already has expelled four people identified as having participated in the fight, suspended the Gators age 13-14 junior team, and is looking to expel all teams in the Gators organization.