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.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Pop Warner League President Flagged for Slurs

League President Flagged for Slurs

The Santa Ana Pop Warner head admits uttering racial remarks but says he's never used them on the field or among children.

August 29, 2003 H.G. Reza Times Staff Writer

As the kids in the Santa Ana Pop Warner league suit up for a new football season, parents and coaches - most of them Latino and African American - are feuding over the league president's use of racial slurs.

The controversy has spilled over into Internet discussion groups, spawned anonymous fliers and drawn the attention of the Orange Empire Conference - which oversees youth football in Santa Ana and 23 other Southern California cities - and two civil rights groups.

At issue is whether the league president has muttered racial slurs during games or if his foes hold greater blame by repeating the alleged slurs in Internet messages and fliers distributed at practices and board meetings.

League President Kurt Winn, who is white, conceded he sometimes uses racist words to identify blacks and Latinos, but only among friends who are comfortable with such language, never on the field or among children.

"If I'm a racist, why am I volunteering for a league where almost all of the kids are black or Hispanic?" said Winn, who grew up in Santa Ana and played in the league as a child. "It's crazy."

League officials say 420 boys and girls are registered to play in the league, the vast majority Latinos and African Americans. The league is open to children ages 5 to 16.

Winn said the accusations have been fanned by Michael Gonzalez, an old boyhood pal who was - until his recent dismissal from the league - a fellow Pop Warner board member. They played football together in the Santa Ana league and in high school. Both still prowl their old playing fields but no longer talk.

Conference officials said they probed the accusations after more than a dozen parents and coaches, including Gonzalez, complained this year to the league's board. Steve Sherman, conference commissioner, said he was unable to validate the accusations during interviews with coaches and parents.

Sherman said the most damning thing he turned up was that some parents thought Winn was "loud, obnoxious and sometimes a jerk."

The Orange County Human Relations Commission offered to mediate the dispute but was rebuffed by league board members. A local NAACP chapter intends to investigate.

With a new season at hand and practice fields jammed with children wearing shoulder pads and helmets, the debate - which had simmered over the summer - has been recharged.
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Orange Empire Conference Pop Warner officials doing their best to make youth football oh so fun for the children.

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