Pop Warner Officials in Lawsuit

Oviedo Pop Warner officers targeted in father’s lawsuit
March 30, 2010By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel

SANFORD — An Oviedo Pop Warner football dad is suing four officers of the nonprofit sports organization, accusing them of fraud, self-dealing and buying gear from sporting-goods companies that pay a cut to one of the officers.

"This … thing is a huge scandal," said Dale Di Bernardo, 49, who filed the suit in circuit court. "These people are walking around town like they're doing the people who sign up for these sports a favor. They're ripping everyone off."

Named in the suit are four volunteers who have donated hundreds of hours to pee-wee football players and cheerleaders: Oviedo Pop Warner commissioner Frank V. Sloan, a sporting goods salesman; president Jeffrey Woodard III, a supermarket manager; treasurer Linda Lougee, an Oviedo High School secretary; and club secretary Debbie Long.

None would comment Tuesday except to say they had done nothing wrong.

"The allegations," said Long, "are false."

No one has been arrested or charged, but the suit accuses two of the officers of financial wrongdoing.

The suit says Sloan has put money in his pocket by having the league buy equipment from at least two sporting-goods companies for which he has worked or in which he owns an interest.

It also says Lougee, the treasurer, has donated Pop Warner money, without authorization, to another organization for which she serves as treasurer — the Oviedo High School Athletic Booster Club.

According to Pop Warner financial records turned over this year, Lougee has spent about $2,000 in Pop Warner funds on high-school boosters and bought them a large flat-screen television, said Di Bernardo's attorney, Lan Kennedy-Davis.

Lougee said that's not true. Her boss at Oviedo High, Principal Robert Lundquist, said he has seen no evidence of misspending.

Di Bernardo fought for months to get the league's financial records, Kennedy-Davis said, and when they were finally delivered, they were incomplete and showed misspending.

"This is not incompetence — not based on our belief," she said. "These are intentional acts."

Woodard and Long were sued, Kennedy-Davis said, because they consistently vote with Sloan and Lougee at board meetings.

Because the records were incomplete, Kennedy-Davis said she did not know how much money was misspent. The lawyer said it appeared that financial irregularities went on for years.

Two Oviedo Pop Warner coaches who know Di Bernardo said they have no information about financial improprieties. But they know Di Bernardo, and they say he is the problem.

He has turned against the league because coaches last season pulled his 12-year-old son from the starting lineup, they said.

"I have never seen somebody go to this extent over something like this in my life," said Ed Boyd, who coached Di Bernardo's son in 2007 and 2008.

"He's attacking some really good people. … Pop Warner is a great organization, a great organization, and Oviedo has been the model."

Di Bernardo, who used to coach Oviedo Pop Warner football as well as Babe Ruth baseball and wrestling, said that is not the case. Parents have to pay nearly $300 per child per year, and the money is being wasted, he said.

In addition, the children have to conduct fundraisers, such as selling cookie dough, to cover league expenses.

"I'm flushing money down the toilet [on legal fees] for the good of the town and the kids, to eliminate these bad apples from these organizations," he said.

He estimated that 300 children, as young as 5, take part in Oviedo Pop Warner football and cheerleading.

Among his demands in the suit is that a judge make sure that any misspent money is repaid, and that the four men who coached Di Bernardo's son — including Boyd — are banned from coaching Pop Warner teams again.

Rene Stutzman can be reached at rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394.