Mickadeit: Pop Warner response to bounty talk? Mixed
By FRANK MICKADEIT
COLUMNIST / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Pop Warner youth football is at risk of fumbling away its national
franchise. The reaction from its national office Monday to the Tustin Red Cobras
bounty scandal seemed blasé, given the stakes, and the stakes are these: What
parent wants to entrust his or her kid's safety to an organization that doesn't
thoroughly and independently examine credible allegations that coaches paid
players to hurt opposing players?
But National Pop Warner on Monday punted to regional officials, not
demanding they look into the alleged money-for-injuries program that Keith
Sharon and I wrote about on Sunday. National merely said that if new parents
show up or regional officials decided to look into bounties, well, they'll be
happy to have a look.
"If people bring new evidence, the (Orange Empire Conference) would be willing to reopen the investigation," said Josh Pruce, a spokesman from the national office in Pennsylvania. "Until that time, it is the O.E.C. who controls the investigation. If Wescon wants to investigate (and) then talk to us, they certainly can do that."
Given that last summer's O.E.C. investigation (headed by a guy who once embezzled from Pop Warner) talked to most of the same coaches, parents and players we did and found no bounty program existed, my confidence in the O.E.C. is not tremendously high.
Fortunately, I got a much more serious response from the director of the Wescon Region of Pop Warner, an intermediate-level body that regulates Pop Warner in the Southwestern U.S.
"If that is the position of the National Office, I will be seeking a special allocation for investigative services to do an independent inquiry of this matter," Wescon region director Mel Rapozo wrote me in an email Monday. "I agree that this warrants National intervention. But please know that the Wescon Region will not wait. We will move forward to look into this matter."
Well, good for Mel Rapozo.
Keith and I are confident our sources were telling the truth. (And in an unexpected corroboration of our original sources, a sixth 2011 Tustin Red Cobras parent came forward Sunday to say her son confirmed there was a bounty program.) But I don't expect Pop Warner to simply adopt our investigation and mete out sanctions. I do expect it would reopen its own "investigation" and bring in people with no agenda, no local baggage, to conduct it.
Pop Warner talks a great game, at both the national and O.C. level. On the O.E.C. web site, there's an 18-page set of By-laws," a 65-page "Administrative Regulations" manual and a 27-page "Coaches Risk Management Handbook." They are full of discussion of sportsmanship and safety.
Let's talk about safety. As our story said, one of the Santa Margarita running backs targeted by the Red Cobras was hit in a helmet-to-helmet tackle in the waning minutes of a long-decided game last November, and a bounty was paid. The player had to be helped off the field, suffered a concussion and had lingering headaches, his father told us.
That same weekend, a player in another O.E.C. Pop Warner game in Orange County broke his neck making a tackle. Out of that injury and others, Pop Warner announced a new policy last summer. Full contact would be limited at practices. No more full-speed, head-on tackling or blocking drills. The national website even has a "Pop Warner Concussion Policy" that details what coaches must do in the case of a concussion.
In a Daily Pilot story on the new policy in June, an O.E.C. commissioner, Robert T. "Bobby" Espinosa, was quoted saying, "We keep praying for him," referring to the player who broke his neck. Weeks later, it was Espinosa who headed the O.E.C. investigation that said no Tustin bounty system was in place and took no action.
Years ago I went down the rabbit hole of Pop Warner for a series of columns and found a clubby collection of coaches and administrators, many who have known each other for years and have formed grudges and alliances that no newspaper could hope to sort out or correct. As we've seen from Espinoza's continued reign, even legal action doesn't keep Pop Warner from plugging along in its own insular world.
The O.E.C. has a regular meeting of its board at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Brookhurst Community Center, 2271 W. Crescent Ave., Anaheim. It will be interesting to see whether any parents attend and whether the O.E.C. has any stomach to clean up its own mess.
Pop Warner says it has 425,000 kids involved in youth football in 42 states. There are rival youth football organizations it competes with for young gridders, not to mention rival youth sports of all kinds. This story is getting national attention – all of the major networks contacted us – and national Pop Warner has a lot to lose if it blows this off.
Keith Sharon contributed to this report.
Mickadeit writes Mon.-Fri. Contact him at 714-796-4994 or fmickadeit@ocregister.com
"If people bring new evidence, the (Orange Empire Conference) would be willing to reopen the investigation," said Josh Pruce, a spokesman from the national office in Pennsylvania. "Until that time, it is the O.E.C. who controls the investigation. If Wescon wants to investigate (and) then talk to us, they certainly can do that."
Given that last summer's O.E.C. investigation (headed by a guy who once embezzled from Pop Warner) talked to most of the same coaches, parents and players we did and found no bounty program existed, my confidence in the O.E.C. is not tremendously high.
Fortunately, I got a much more serious response from the director of the Wescon Region of Pop Warner, an intermediate-level body that regulates Pop Warner in the Southwestern U.S.
"If that is the position of the National Office, I will be seeking a special allocation for investigative services to do an independent inquiry of this matter," Wescon region director Mel Rapozo wrote me in an email Monday. "I agree that this warrants National intervention. But please know that the Wescon Region will not wait. We will move forward to look into this matter."
Well, good for Mel Rapozo.
Keith and I are confident our sources were telling the truth. (And in an unexpected corroboration of our original sources, a sixth 2011 Tustin Red Cobras parent came forward Sunday to say her son confirmed there was a bounty program.) But I don't expect Pop Warner to simply adopt our investigation and mete out sanctions. I do expect it would reopen its own "investigation" and bring in people with no agenda, no local baggage, to conduct it.
Pop Warner talks a great game, at both the national and O.C. level. On the O.E.C. web site, there's an 18-page set of By-laws," a 65-page "Administrative Regulations" manual and a 27-page "Coaches Risk Management Handbook." They are full of discussion of sportsmanship and safety.
Let's talk about safety. As our story said, one of the Santa Margarita running backs targeted by the Red Cobras was hit in a helmet-to-helmet tackle in the waning minutes of a long-decided game last November, and a bounty was paid. The player had to be helped off the field, suffered a concussion and had lingering headaches, his father told us.
That same weekend, a player in another O.E.C. Pop Warner game in Orange County broke his neck making a tackle. Out of that injury and others, Pop Warner announced a new policy last summer. Full contact would be limited at practices. No more full-speed, head-on tackling or blocking drills. The national website even has a "Pop Warner Concussion Policy" that details what coaches must do in the case of a concussion.
In a Daily Pilot story on the new policy in June, an O.E.C. commissioner, Robert T. "Bobby" Espinosa, was quoted saying, "We keep praying for him," referring to the player who broke his neck. Weeks later, it was Espinosa who headed the O.E.C. investigation that said no Tustin bounty system was in place and took no action.
Years ago I went down the rabbit hole of Pop Warner for a series of columns and found a clubby collection of coaches and administrators, many who have known each other for years and have formed grudges and alliances that no newspaper could hope to sort out or correct. As we've seen from Espinoza's continued reign, even legal action doesn't keep Pop Warner from plugging along in its own insular world.
The O.E.C. has a regular meeting of its board at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Brookhurst Community Center, 2271 W. Crescent Ave., Anaheim. It will be interesting to see whether any parents attend and whether the O.E.C. has any stomach to clean up its own mess.
Pop Warner says it has 425,000 kids involved in youth football in 42 states. There are rival youth football organizations it competes with for young gridders, not to mention rival youth sports of all kinds. This story is getting national attention – all of the major networks contacted us – and national Pop Warner has a lot to lose if it blows this off.
Keith Sharon contributed to this report.
Mickadeit writes Mon.-Fri. Contact him at 714-796-4994 or fmickadeit@ocregister.com
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