Soccer Wars

[Papa_Complex]

Young soccer players sidelined after row between parent, referee


Amy Dempsey Staff Reporter

A team of preteen soccer players from North Scarborough has been off the field for a month after an altercation between a parent and a referee.

At issue is what happened in that altercation.

On July 12, Sgt. Gary Phillips of the York Regional Police said officers responded to a report from a parent who called them from the field in Aurora, but found everything to be fine when they showed up. Police arrived at the Monday night game around 8:30 p.m. and left less than 30 minutes later.

“There was no mention of any threats or no mention of any weapons,” Phillips said.

“The referees never approached (officers) saying that they’d been threatened. So it was just basically an angry parent yelling at a referee for a bad call. It happens all the time.”

Still, the Central Soccer League postponed all games for the Scarborough team until after a disciplinary hearing this Thursday. By now, coaches, parents and players throughout the league have heard variations of a story that a gun was revealed by the parent to the referee during the altercation.

“People are just making things up,” says Dwight Loblack, who has coached the North Scarborough Soccer Club Bulldogs since 2007.

“It’s so hurtful. It’s killing our club’s reputation. It’s killing me as a coach.”

The game between the Bulldogs and the Aurora Stingers was tied 0-0 near the end of the July 12 match. In the last minute of play the referee gave the Stingers a free kick. They scored and won.

“I’m not going to lie to you and say one of the parents didn’t verbally abuse a ref. But nothing like that happened,” Loblack said, referring to a gun.

The Bulldogs coach said he feels the team is being unfairly targeted because the kids, who are all under 12, are predominantly black.

“Any time a black team’s involved in anything, there always has to be a gun? That’s wrong. That’s racist.”

John Morgan, executive director of the Leaside Tigers, said his organization’s under-13 team played against the Bulldogs two weeks before the July 12 game.

He said parents at soccer games have become increasingly violent and threatening, but this is the worst he’s heard.

Morgan couldn’t name a person who saw a gun at the Bulldogs-Stingers game and said his information came from second-hand accounts.

He says it’s his responsibility to take this kind of threat seriously.

“I am not certain,” he says. “I could be wrong, but you’ve got to understand, I’m running this thing.

“I would be an absolute idiot to ignore it all.”

North Scarborough Soccer Club President Byron McCormack says he learned about the allegations when he got an email from the CSL about the postponement.

“We obviously are going to be seeking legal advice because they’re definitely butchering the character of our club right now.”

He said the kids are upset and they don’t understand what’s going on.

“They’re asking ‘why aren’t we playing? Why did we do?’ ”

“None of this stuff has been proven. And yet we’re sitting here in limbo.”

McCormack said he’s waiting to get answers at the hearing.

“It’s all speculation at this point,” said Ross Turnbull, president of York Region Soccer Association.

“Was there a gun? Wasn’t there a gun? Was it a water pistol? I don’t know.

“The only thing I do know is that there was a very angry parent that was being threatening to the referees.”