The Santa Clarita Warriors have not released any new information about the youth football coach who put his hands one of the players during a violent incident practice. All we know right now is that he was fired before the start of the season.
However, there is “additional context” that supposedly helps to explain what happened and why.
Regardless of what occurred before that specific moment in time, there is no excuse for poor behavior and Santa Clarita agrees. A youth sports coach should never get physical with an athlete unless it is a legitimate teaching moment. This was not.
A youth football coach was caught on camera in California.
The Santa Clarita Warriors are part of the first and oldest youth sports group in the Santa Clarita Valley of California. The Santa Clarita Valley Athletic Association was formed in 1965 and has been going strong for over 60 years.
As members of the Pacific Youth Football League, the Warriors offer football and cheer for kids as old as 14 and as young as 9 depending on the year. This unfortunate incident appeared to occur with one of the older teams.
A video from practice shows a payer lined up at wide receiver on the outside. He makes a soft block to push the defensive back toward the sideline while the quarterback cuts back to the inside and breaks loose for a short gain. At that point, the wide receiver jumps around on the field in what appears to be a celebratory manner. He might’ve shouted a few words. It is hard to tell.
Meanwhile, a coach comes off of the sideline to address the defense. The wide receiver jubilantly jumps into the path of the coach. The coach proceeds to push him away. (Push is a soft term. It was somewhere between a shove and a punch.)
Here is the video:
Here is a second angle:
No matter how you look at it, it was not a friendly exchange in good fun. It was tense.
The Santa Clarita Warriors claimed there is additional context.
The youth football coach in question was suspended from his role as soon as the video went viral. Danielle Peña, the President of Santa Clarita Warriors Football & Cheer, released the following statement:
The Santa Clarita Warriors are aware of an incident involving one of our coaches and a player from a different organization. Upon learning of the incident, we took immediate action and proactively suspended the coach involved while the matter is being addressed.
We want to be very clear: we do not condone a coach making inappropriate physical contact with a player. Regardless of the circumstances leading up to the incident, the adults within our organization are held to a higher standard, and the physical response that occurred was not appropriate.
There is additional context surrounding the moments leading up to the incident, and we believe it is important that the entirety of the situation be considered. However, that context does not excuse the coach’s response or change our responsibility as an organization to take the matter seriously.
The coach involved is deeply remorseful and understands that he should have handled the situation differently. While his actions in this moment were unacceptable, we also do not believe that one moment defines the entirety of a person’s character. We can hold someone accountable for a serious mistake without disregarding the person we have known them to be.
For more than 60 years, the Santa Clarita Warriors have been committed to providing a safe, positive, and supportive environment for the youth and families in our community. The safety and well-being of our athletes will always come first, and we will continue to uphold the standards expected of every adult entrusted with coaching and mentoring our children.
Out of respect for the player, the coach, and their families, we will not publicly discuss additional details surrounding the incident and no other public statement will be made at this time.
— Danielle Peña
The above statement was released at the beginning of August. BroBible received the following update from Peña on Monday:
“The coach has been released, he is no longer coaching with us.”
The ouster is warranted. That can’t happen. However, Peña initially said that there is “additional context surrounding the moments leading up to the incident.” What is it? Santa Clarita cannot say.
“It was a very unfortunate situation that occurred, regardless of the context our coaches are held to a much higher standard.”
Why did the coach snap on the wide receiver in that manner? Did he use foul language? Was his celebration part of what caused the reaction? Was this a build-up of disrespect over the course of the practice or the entire preseason camp? What exactly made the coach so mad at that specific player?
There are a lot of unanswered questions for which I would love to know the answer! What is the context??