Fullerton Junior All American Bears

The Fullerton Junior All American Bears are members of the Orange County Junior All American Football Conference (OCJAAF). Comprised of twenty-nine (29) chapter (city) members throughout the Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, OCJAAF is the largest youth football and cheerleading organization in the nation. The Fullerton Junior All American Bears are honored to contribute to OCJAAF's diversity, which makes the Orange County Junior All American Football Conference number one in competition. The Fullerton Junior All American Bears are proud to sponsor OCJAAF's core values of "family" and of "community" - the standards that keep OCJAAF and the Fullerton Junior All American Bears a leading youth football and cheerleading organization. Families come in many combinations and we celebrate the word of "family" as meaning: team, the Fullerton Junior All American Bears, community and the OCJAAF Conference. There is nothing stronger than the spirit in the word of family and you will see it and feel it within the Fullerton Junior All American Bears organization and our OCJAAF Conference.

The objective of the Fullerton Junior All American Bears program is to inspire youth, regardless of race, color, creed, or national origin; to practice the ideals of health, citizenship and character; to bring our youth closer together through the means of a common interest in sportsmanship, fair play and fellowship; to impart to the game elements of safety, sanity and intelligent supervision; and to keep the welfare of the player and/or cheerleader first, foremost and entirely free of adult lust for glory.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

New Segment: How Does This Happen? Wait...It's Pop Warner

Youth football embezzler still around
May 08, 2008
By FRANK MICKADEIT

This might be the record for spinning back through the Time Tunnel for a follow-up.
Remember the Great Santa Ana Pop Warner Brawl of 2004? That spawned a spate of Pop Warner complainants forwarding me their grievances - everything from team moms who ripped off the snack bar money to the internal politics of the oligarchies that control certain leagues.

Before I put a moratorium on reporting Pop Warner-related mayhem, I wrote about the ironic case of one Robert T. "Bobby" Espinosa, an Orange Empire Conference official who had been one of my sources on the Santa Ana case. Espinoza, as I reported, ended up being charged with embezzling more than $50,000 from the Fullerton Pop Warner league.

The case dragged on for years. He finally pleaded no contest last year, and then in a lengthy restitution hearing last month, he was ordered to pay back the Fullerton league $16,875 - the maximum amount the D.A. was able to prove he stole.

If he pays it back in a year, the felony charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor, according to Deputy D.A. Steve Shriver.

While the Fullerton league booted him from its ranks, what is really strange about this is that the overarching Orange Empire Conference not only keeps him around, but it apparently loves him! "Congratulations to our new regional commissioners" the conference Web site (www.popwarneroec.com) crows over photos of Espinosa and another man (the latter presumably a non-felon).

I have put in three calls to the OEC commissioner, Steve Sherman, and have gotten no response. I also repeatedly called the last number I had for Espinosa and got no response. He's told me in the past that the missing money was simply a misunderstanding that would be straightened out.
The OEC's position baffles a former Fullerton Pop Warner official. "He did do a lot of good for kids, but he stole money, too," says Bob Renfro, who served on the board with Espinosa. "Now that the verdict has come down, they should get rid of him."

This warm and fuzzy story is courtesy of the good folks at the OC Register.

An interesting follow up to this follow up: While this reporter for the OC Register reports Fullerton Pop Warner has "booted" Bobby Espinosa from their ranks, it is obvious the reporter was mistaken.

Fullerton Pop Warner's Facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=318557014442) lists Bobby Espinosa as an "Officer." Pretty high praise for a convicted thief. Fair warning to those who are listed as "Officers" on the Fullerton Pop Warner Facebook page: do you really think it is wise to associate yourself with this thief?

In what parallel universe does a thief get such high praise and is welcome back into the organization he embezzled - a proper way to say STOLE - tens of thousands of dollars from? How do you explain this to the children who because of this thief did not have jerseys until midway through their season?

Oh, wait...it is happening in the Pop Warner universe. Fullerton Pop Warner bizarro universe to be exact. Now, it makes sense.
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