We’ll update you with any more information as it comes in; in the meantime, you can catch up with the whole backstory below.
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(Updated 1/18/17): A North Ridgeville assistant city prosecutor filed charges against a Pee Wee football coach accused of punching an 11-year-old boy during a game.
The incident went down back in October as the Elyria Mini Pioneers squared off against the North Ridgeville Rams. Keep in mind these are teams of 10 and 11-year-old boys.
One mother, Erica Kara, said one of the North Ridgeville assistant coaches punched her son during the game. The game itself got out of hand, as you can read in the original story below. Parents on the Elyria side said racial epithets were hurled by spectators and coaches on the North Ridgeville side.
The assistant coach, David R. Kelly of Elyria, had previously approached players on the field during the action. He was kicked out by the referee but returned from a parking lot to allegedly punch Devontae Armstrong, Kara’s son. He was taken to a local hospital in pain and spitting up blood.
Kelly is charged with misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct.
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(Original story 11/4/16): Here’s a really incredible story for you as we roll into the weekend. The Chronicle-Telegram‘s Lisa Roberson has done some fine work in sussing out the details of the controversial North Ridgeville Football League championship — a series of Nov. 5 games from which a handful of teams have already forfeited.
Here’s the gist: The 8-0 Elyria Mini Pioneers have been practicing for the game at the end of their first season in this league. (The league is for 10- and 11-year-olds.) But every other team in the league has said it will refuse to play Elyria in the championship, essentially forcing the Mini Pioneers out of their chance to play tomorrow. “They just feel they are outmatched athletically and physically,” North Ridgeville division director Chris Miscudo told Roberson.
But Elyria parents are alleging that racial epithets have followed them around all season, lofted across the field by the North Ridgeville players and parents. The tension boiled to a head last weekend, when an Oct. 29 game devolved into a pile-up on the field. According to Elyria parent Erica Kara, an assistant football coach from North Ridgeville leapt into the fray and punched her 11-year-old in the stomach. (He was taken to University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center, where he was treated for a blunt-force abdomen injury. Kara said that he was spitting up blood on the field.)
From Roberson’s report:
“I feel like they didn’t want us out here from the beginning, and it hit a boiling point on Saturday,” said John Dixon, program director for the Pioneers. “I have parents working the first down markers and those are the ones catching the racial slurs and remarks going on. Parents have told me about this all season, but we have remained focused on the game.”The championship event would have pitted the Pioneers against two other teams, but without players willing to take the field, Miscudo said those teams will forfeit. The elimination of the junior tackle team from championship games comes two weeks after the senior tackle team also was eliminated from its championship game.
Miscudo said the Pioneers are still considered the Inter-league champions and will receive trophies. Games involving other teams in the league will be played Saturday.
“I think our kids deserve to play on Saturday,” Dixon said. “I love the people who run the league, but they have let this get carried away. I don’t think it’s fair that the best team out there doesn’t get to play on championship day. No one does that. It just doesn’t happen, especially with all the other teams playing.”
The decision has been devastating, said Pioneer parent Sabrina Bibby.
It’s unclear if anything will change for the Mini Pioneers between now and tomorrow.
This article appears in Nov 2-8, 2016.
It sounds like an epic failure on many levels by those in charge of the football program. Where were league officials throughout the season…..how about game reports from referees and/or others concerning the alleged racially-charged intimidation…..and was there a police report – with any arrests – for what is being described as the assault of a minor by an adult.
In America today you can print whatever lies you want, just to get a story that creates a stir. The fact is that the parents of the other teams didn’t want to play them because they were a dirty team. In our two games with them, they were flagged for personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct at least 4-5 times per game. It was like this in each of the other games as well. This team is known to play dirty and has been kicked out of other leagues. In addition, there was not a single racial slur uttered in our two games with them. Why was this not an issue before, but now that they have been kicked out, this has somehow been an issue all season? furthermore, I was standing on the sideline when the kid was supposedly punched. The coach that is being accused absolutely did not punch anyone. At the time, the refs, other coaches, and a neutral man who came to watch the games all agreed that he had not been punched. Enough with the damn lies!!!!
The lies are in the comment above.
Says mr. Anonymous “enough with the lies”. And this team was never kicked out of another league. They left the first league they started in after a few games.
Have to let the courts decide.
He said she said doesn’t count unless there is proof either way. Nobody should be forced to play a game if they feel undo risk. And wether “enough with the lies” comments are true should be researchable.
Make kids quit when they face a challenge? That sets a good example for the kids. Unreal, you can’t get better if don’t push yourself, now those kids will quit later in life when faced with a challenge. Keep your heads up Elyria, start your own league, with equal competition, n keep pushing yourselves.
Our children are not quitters, they simply do not want to be carried off the field time after time from all the dirty plays. How many flags should be thrown before the Pioneer coaches realize their dirty plays won’t be tolerated? That’s why we don’t want to play them. I ask you, if a child was assaulted and racial slurs were yelled across the field as this article claims, where is the video or audio? Not one piece of evidence after several games with them? If this kind of behavior was happening “from the beginning” why weren’t the parents recording it each game to build their case? Where’s the proof? Show us being what you claim we are. We are a melting pot of people in this city and this league. We do not see color, we see character.
I heard the other side of the story and I am extremely ashamed of this pioneer mini team – my son went to Elyria high and I have never been ashamed of it until now. All the teams in this league were draft selected with the exception of this pioneer team – they were hand picked and some look like they could drive to the games. These are 9 to maybe 12 year old kids and this league has never had a problem until this team came in. AND the racial slurs that came from these Pioneer kids – calling the other kids the n word – really !!!! I bet this league regrets having INVITED this team to participate.
Disgusting all around, including the “reporting” which seemed pretty one-sided. I never heard NR parents using that kind of language but if they did shame on them. I did however personally see Elyria players repeatedly take cheap shots at our kids, literally kick them when they were down, and i personally heard Elyria players and parents cursing at referees, our kids, etc as well as parents letting the siblings not playing run amok and almost get injured (then yell at a NR parent who told the Elyria one their kid was in danger). So if our parents were yelling awful things shame on them but given the source of the allegations I have to wonder. I also have to wonder about an adult punching a kid since no credible witnesses have come forward.
We parents have no problem letting our kids get beaten by a better team. But when they had 14 year olds playing in a league of 9 and 10 year olds and when they are taking too many cheap shots it becomes a danger to our kids (more so than we signed up for letting them play football.)
Disgusting all around including the crappy one sided reporting. I never heard NR parents using that kind of language but if they did shame on them. I did however personally see Elyria players repeatedly take cheap shots at our kids, literally kick them when they were down, and i personally heard Elyria players and parents cursing at referees, our kids, etc as well as parents letting the siblings not playing run amok and almost get injured (then yell at a NR parent who told the Elyria one their kid was in danger). So if our parents were yelling awful things shame on them but given the source of the allegations I have to wonder. If a parent actually did punch a kid, that obviously is deplorable. But I heard from other people that were there but nothing like this ever happened.
It’s funny that all these Elyria parents are complaining. There were hardly any on the sidelines all year, in fact we would talk about how sad it was that their parents were not there to support them.
We were never worried about having our children get beaten by a better team. However, when the other team is consistently taking cheap shots, are four years older than they should be, and are kicking kids in the head when they are done, it is more risk to our children then we signed up for when we let them play football
Soooo where’s the video of all this “”dirty” playing and cheap shots? There’s a difference between aggressive and dirty. Real football is not a light sport. Unsportsmanlike conduct was called twice all season, one of which was offset by an unsportsmanlike on the opposing team as well. These kids are learning just like all the other kids. They do make mistakes JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER KIDS and they are corrected! But to say it was in excess is a bold faced lie. This is a first year team and also a first year league and most definitely have never been kicked out of anywhere except North Ridgeville…because they were “outmatched”. And there is not one single kid that is above the set age limit and that was proven many times. So yes I do give credit to NRFL for their accommodation of the team so they could play but please don’t do it again for anybody else because in the end innocent kids were treated very unfairly by the organization.
Yes the kids were innocent victims in this. They have not been taught to play “clean”. We had players on our team literallyget kicked in the head while being down on purpose with the players laughing at them. That’s differentr than a good hit. Just because it wasn’t called didn’t mean it didn’t happen. I heard them cursing at refs too. If they played clean and kicked butt nobody would’ve complained
ALL of you grown ups should be ASHAMED of yourselves. How do you think these children feel watching and listening to all of you grown ups acting like children! Let the boys be boys don’t tell them the team is dirty tell them the other team is tough, and get out there and give it your best.
Ridgeville should get a team together with all the best kids in the league, then play elyria next week
Also, with 4 middle schools at least and a much larger population, why can’t elyria start their own league?
What you don’t know about the game: Ram parents were upset because of the use of illegal plays being used by the Pioneers. The Pioneers were face masking, throwing the Rams players down by their throats, and knocking the players heads into the ground AFTER the play was over. The only racial slurs coming from any mouths, WERE FROM THE ELYRIA PIONEERS! The Rams family consists of every race! Yes, that’s right, the Rams have inter-racial families as well! The Rams parents were upset from game one when illegal play after illegal play was missed because it was done out of referee sight (did you know that an Elyria player was thrown out of game one because he started a fight with a Rams player after a play). THIS IS NOT A RACIAL ISSUE. The Elyria team, along with EVERY team in the league, knew going into this that the Pioneers were guests in our league and would not be playing in the final Superbowl. We were happy to play them anyway. Things took a turn for the worse when the refs missed a final face mask, and player number 4 from the Pioneers jumped on top of a Rams player (for telling the ref to watch number 4) and started to try and punch him through his helmet (fight number 2 started by the Elyria team!!). That is what the Pioneer mom conveniently left out. She also left out that the Pioneer that got hurt, somehow, was running to join his teammate in that fight! No one saw this child get punched. No one knows how this child got hurt. Please stop making this a racial issue. This is an issue on playing fair and using skill, not illegal plays to win. Yes, The Pioneers are amazing! Why wouldn’t they beat every team they played? They stand a good foot taller and weigh about 100 pounds more (no, I’m not exaggerating, my son weighs 60 pounds and they have children who easily weigh 190!). Please stop making snap judgments about this situation. The entire NRFL were happy to play the Pioneers until the teams found out that they play dirty. The refs should have thrown the few out that consistently made the plays (as not EVERY Pioneer played that way). You do realize that there are African American kids who play in the NRFL right? There has never been an issue with any other teams because they are good sports who play clean and have fun. Why do we constantly have to turn a bad situation into a racial issue? Can’t you see that only destroys this nation as a whole? Why must you take one person’s statement (because this article was written based on one woman from the Pioneers) as an entire truth? The whole situation, BOTH SIDES, is embarrassing. We personally had a talk with our son about everything that went wrong that day. You as readers must remember that a newspaper will also go where there is a juicy story. Unfortunately, there are quite a few facts missing in this story.
I have no idea who is telling the truth, but if I had a child who wanted to play football, it would not be in this league. These adults have so soiled this competition, good parents need to remove their children and form a new league that (one hopes) has zero tolerance for such things as using ringers, calling our racial epithets or adults hitting little kids so hard, they have to go to the ER.
Whatever these parents hope their children will gain from this activity, it cannot possibly be worth the ugliness they are exposing them to.
What a betrayal of the children. I hope they find a way to actually enjoy the sport again, next year.
Boil to a head? Anywho, Im glad I don’t have kids and have to deal with other parents….ew.
Lisa Roberson has done some fine work in sussing out the details Sussing? Really Eric. So basically sold your soul like big media. So when does “sussing” turn into real journalism? Way to go Scene and Chronicle. In the next 1-2 years, you are going to see a backlash against the media.
The league is racist but if people like racism this is the perfect league for you, hey they have perfect backgrounds like a coach sending a player to the ER by punching him until he bleed, the person that did that’s name is all over the streets trust me…
Working with children leaves you open to many false accusations. I did it for33 years, and although unjustly accused several times, was always found innocent. A witness came forward proving his innocence. The kids were fighting on the field! It will cost him his reputation, time, & money. Hurts his family too! I hope he counter sues. I fear for my son who also coaches. The word of children should never be accepted as gospel!