Via Larry Brown Sports:
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Those of you who thought the Saints bounty scandal was disturbing probably won’t even want to read this. A recent report from the Orange County Register revealed that a pair of Pop Warner coaches who coach 10- and 11-year-olds in Tustin, Calif., have been accused of paying their players to injure opponents.
The coaches, head coach Darren Crawford and assistant coach Richard Bowman, allegedly led their team to an undefeated record in 2011. Now they are being accused by an assistant coach, a parent and multiple players of instructing their team to target specific players on several opposing teams. Tustin Pop Warner league officials have denied a bounty program took place and Crawford admits he told his team to target opposing players, but claims he never said anything about rewarding his players for hurting someone.
“My son said he had won the prize,” an anonymous father from the Tustin Red Cobras said. “He had a good, clean hit. The kids voted his play as the play of the game. He showed me one $20 bill. He said the coaches, plural, gave it to him.”
Crawford and Bowman insist the accusations stem from “disgruntled” parents who are lying and manipulating their children to do the same. Crawford said he may have given a kid money to go to the snack bar before, but never as a reward for injuring an opponent.
“It’s amazing what disgruntled parents will put their kids through,” the head coach said.
Statements from six players and four parents allege that the coaches offered bounties from anywhere between $20 and $50 during the three playoff games at the end of the 2011 season. Three players and two parents reportedly met with the Register earlier this month and described the origin of the bounty system in detail, claiming Crawford was frustrated when his team lost in the playoffs in 2010 and was determined to win the Pop Warner Orange Bowl and Pop Warner Super Bowl in 2011.
Two players said the team was excited when the coaches informed the kids that they could earn money for knocking opponents out of games.
“We were like, ‘OK! We’re going to go hit them! Wow!’” one player explained.
“When we were after practice, getting our gear off, we were guessing who was going to get the money,” another player said.
Leading up to a game against Santa Margarita, the players say the Tustin coaches targeted three opposing players and taped their numbers to a tackling sled during practice. In regard to the payments, they were instructed to not go “bragging about this to anybody.”
If the accusations are true, it would be hard to defend the actions of the coaches as anything less than despicable. Stories about bounties like this one from the Saints or this one from college football have become all too common over the past year or so, and those are grown men who are capable of making their own decisions. Manipulating young children who look up to their coaches and feel pressured to please them would bring the issue to a new and even more disturbing level.
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Original Story:
years ago when my kids were playing the coaches, especially one, would deliberately place undersized kids on the line, knowing they would be beat up, so to speak - then he wouldn't have to play them. No money was involved, but still unethical. A lot of coaches are frustrated players.
Our culture places--WAY--too much importance on organized sports these days, and many parents even encourage it. When was the last time a lot of parents spent some REAL time with their family, (other than a sporting event), to create meaningful lifetime memories instead? ...Yeah..that's what I thought.
However, I take issue with the "organized sports" and it not being "real time" with your kids. While my kids are not in "sports" so to speak, they are involved in a class 5A marching band in Texas. They work just as hard, imo, as any "athlete." Going to the football games and competitions is what we do during the fall. My husband and I volunteer and ride the bus with the band. We help with fundraisers, etc. We are spending quality, meaningful, lifetime memory-making TIME with our kids...and every minute of it is "REAL." Don't try to disqualify it just because you don't happen to do it in your family. My daughter is about to graduate from high school. If you could ask her, she would tell you that her best memories are the ones she made in band and how thankful she is that we were there at every single event, filming and taking pictures, clapping, crying, and cheering. You think she won't remember it for the rest of her life? I think you're wrong.
Coaches should be held fully accountable for their actions on and off the field of play. My opinion in cases like this is, that the coaches in question should be suspended from a further involvement until a solid investigation and decision is reached by the Leagues authority. Be it POP Warner or even just the local City recreation programs, there is serious need to make sure issues such as his never, ever arise.
Now so far this is a "he said, she said" type of thing and is under investigation. If it is found to be factual, then POP Warner should drop the hammer hard and set a prescedent for all others. The PAYS program is another and isfor all parents of ther kids getting into sports. I believe it should be a mandatory class which will hold all parents accountable for their own actions.. We have all seen the major issues there over the past couple of decades, (and beyond) which has produces it's own troubles.
Sorry to be so long winded here but I am still caching and will be for as long as humanly possible so things like this hit close to home.... This is just my opinion on things and is always subject to comment. For those that tend to agree with what I have said, thanks, For those that will disagree I am fine with that. This is a free society and everyone is allowed to have their own say . That's why this country is so great.. Freedom to speak your mind.
Character is built through participation in sports. Our coaches should be building good character and values, not bad. If they are guilty, throw the book at them and kick them to the curb. At least the kids would learn that this type of behavior is unacceptable.
I know as does every parent and coach these 3rd and 4th graders were told exactly what to do and who was going to do it. I had the rules memorized, had a copy in my pocket at all times, and one game against this particular team, after protesting to the ref 4 times showing and explaining the rules, he started throwing flags and penalized the crap out them. Then when one of their coaches went to one of the kids and said quietly, softly, "hey buddy, you can't do that, o.k." I, along with my wife and other parents about puked.
This ego maniac and his cronie, did nothing more than scream, yell, curse, and demean children, it was all show. We, and I knew damn well he had told that kid to do what he was doing, the look on that poor boys face was pure confusion when his coach now said he couldn't do that anymore. You could physically see that child was lost, didn't know what to do now.
We had fun, I even had one of my daughters on my team and she was my secret weapon. she's slender, but stronger, tougher, faster, more athletic than every boy/girl/player... when i needed a big play or a touchdown, I would usually run a double reverse, get her the ball and let her do her thing. she was never stopped once. she was talented, gifted, had the "eye"; she could zig, zag, cut back, and once she was just one step ahead of everyone, she was gone, no one was cathing her. the other teams coaches would be screaming and cusing at his players to get back over to the sideline before she even crossed the goal line, because they knew there was no catchin her on offense, and they knew on defense there was no getting by her, she was more aggressive too.
She flat out embarassed every team we played. i had many, many good players on my team, and passed the ball around as eqaul as I possibly could. Never got upset with kids or yelled at them, I positively encouraged, and when they made a mistake, we all, even I, learned from it, moved on, and had fun making the other teams mad in a sense. mostly those 2 idiodic coaches i dealt with for 3 years, multiple games.
This crap goes on by the coaches at an early age. like i said at the beginning i don't buy the coaches B.S. for a second. It's not the "parents lying, and influencing their kids..." it's his ego and pride. that's why it's coaches and parents getting into fist fights at little kids games with one another or refs, becuase it's the kids not them... BULL S***!