Posted on 05/17/2005 9:51:59 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
There were no winners on a youth rugby field this weekend.
A Rohnert Park girls rugby coach and his brother could face criminal charges, possibly this week, for their roles in kicking Alameda girls rugby coach Craig Stewart in the head and punching stand-in referee Paul Berman in the face three times. Another Alameda assistant coach also sustained rib injuries.Seven others, possibly parents or spectators, also could face criminal charges, police said.
The Northern California Rugby Football Union suspended all of the players and coaches in the Rohnert Park rugby programs, effective Monday.
The victims, meanwhile, are not only gashed and bruised but also being hounded so much by reporters for interviews they have switched off their phones and are no longer returning calls on advice from lawyers.
And the suburban cities of Alameda and Rohnert Park are the most recent communities to produce sports enthusiasts who just can't seem to get along.
Saturday's violence, which erupted during a tournament game between the Rohnert Park Girls Rugby Club and the Alameda High School Riptide club team, is the latest incident of bad sportsmanship in both the amateur and the professional level.
In 1912, center-fielder Ty Cobb jumped into the stands and punched a diehard heckler in the face. Cobb was suspended, but when the Detroit Tigers went on strike he was reinstated, according to published reports. Cobb wasn't alone. Ten years later, slugger Babe Ruth threw dirt into an umpire's face and then chased a heckler, according to an ESPN timeline of sports fights.
Little has changed in close to a century.
Although the preponderance of sporting events are entertaining and incident-free, there are occasions when fans and players and coaches and athletes fight and yell and toss chairs and beer and insults at each other in baseball and soccer, basketball and rugby.
Coaches punch and kick referees, and young players fight with words and fists, and sometimes more dangerous weapons, such as baseball bats. There are suspensions and fines and injuries and promises, but the practice of bad behavior in the playing arena continues.
"It is an institutional problem. (We) are not talking about a role within sports like fan or athlete or official or coach. It's not about one particular role that has left the track, (we) are talking about an institutional problem," said Harry Edwards, a retired University of California, Berkeley sociology of sports professor and a team consultant to the San Francisco 49ers.
Edwards said people behave in sports venues like they would never behave on the streets or in another setting
"People lose their bearings, they lose their ways," Edwards said. "How many times have you seen an athlete throw a punch at somebody and the referee just separates them? If you threw a punch at someone on the street, you'd be arrested."
In the Rohnert Park melee, police have identified two suspects — a 48-year-old Rohnert Park man and his 45-year-old brother, of Hawaii, who was watching the game. Their names have not been released because they have not been arrested, said Sgt. Art Sweeney of the Rohnert Park Police Department.
Investigators expect to forward the case to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office in the next few days, recommending felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon against the Rohnert Park man who allegedly kicked the Alameda coach in the head, and lesser misdemeanor assault charges against his brother and possibly other suspects, Sweeney said.
"We interviewed these two main suspects at the Police Department (over the weekend), but they have not been arrested," he said. "And we have as many as seven other adults from Rohnert Park who are suspects.
"We thought we'd be able to get this to the district attorney (on Monday), but every time we turn a corner we're finding more victims and more witnesses," Sweeney said. "So we really hope to present this to the DA by the end of the week."
In addition to Stewart, 55, of Alameda and Berman, 42, of Oakland, a third victim was identified by police over the weekend. William Travis, an assistant coach on the Alameda team, sustained three broken ribs when he tried to protect Stewart during the assault, police said.
"He jumped in as Stewart was being kicked in the head and threw his body on top of Stewart's head to protect him," Sweeney said. "He ended up with three broken ribs in the process, and was also taken to Kaiser and treated and released. I think his actions were quite brave. He probably saved Mr. Stewart from more serious injury."
As this brawl was taking place on the sidelines, another incident was happening on the field, Sweeney said.
"Witnesses told us there was an assault occurring on the field in which four girls from the Rohnert Park team were battering a girl from the Alameda team," he said.
It's not clear whether charges will be filed against any of the players, Sweeney said.
Investigators say they've had a hard time getting objective information in this case. When police arrived on the scene, all the adult suspects fled.
"When we arrived, somebody ran to the parking lot and got a van, and the adults involved in this assault had all gotten in and taken off," Sweeney said.
Also, witness statements have been diametrically opposed. "They run right along the lines of team loyalty," Sweeney said. "We're looking for the truth. We're still looking for a videotape to provide us with some objective information."
Joe Darracq, a former assistant coach with the Alameda team, recalled previous games when coaches have gotten overly emotional and parents had to be told to sit down and keep quiet. "I hate to say this, but when parents can't spell the words 'values' and 'principles,' this is the kind of thing that happens," Darracq said.
The violence this weekend was hardly an isolated incident.
Late last year, Albany soccer coach Mauricio Alvarez of Berkeley was charged with two counts of misdemeanor battery for punching and kicking a referee. Alvarez was allegedly upset over a team game forfeit because of insufficient paperwork, authorities said.
Last month in Palmdale, a 15-year-old boy was beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 13-year-old boy following an argument at a PONY League baseball game, according to published reports.
The list goes on, but is not limited to youth sports.
In September, Oakland Athletics fan Jennifer Bueno of Hayward was hit in the head with a chair thrown into the crowd by a Texas Rangers pitcher.
This weekend, Eric Anduri, 30, the son of Lafayette Mayor Carl Anduri, was arrested after he threw a cup of beer at New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi during a game against the A's. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office was waiting Monday to review videotape of the incident before deciding what charges to file. Anduri was arrested on suspiction of battery, public intoxication and throwing an item onto the field at McAfee Coliseum in Oakland.
Police are still seeking a videotape of the Rohnert Park incident and asking anyone with information or a tape to call detectives at (707) 584-2630.
"Coaches punch and kick referees, and young players fight with words and fists, and sometimes more dangerous weapons, such as baseball bats. There are suspensions and fines and injuries and promises, but the practice of bad behavior in the playing arena continues."
Yeah, but is there any bad behavior in the arena of news reporting? Or are 16 deaths acceptable loss?
oh..groan.. Look for D-Woolsey and her twisted sister Dems to demand more "sensitivity" and "conflict-resolution" FUNDING for these poor children witnessing the violence of adults. Oh, ick.
Rugby is the white middle class version of gang fights.
Start locking some of the clowns up with the Bloods & the Crips and maybe these idiots will learn to keep their tempers in check!
Anyone who takes any sport so seriously that it leads to violence has a BIG problem. Everything from Major League Football on down to neighborhood Tee-ball is just a game. In the big scheme of things they mean next to nothing.
these "parents" are reliving their inept childhoods through their children...
I don't think I'd be in a big hurry to blame this one on "whitey." Here's a link to some photos of the Rohnert Park girl ruggers in action. (R.P. team in red uniforms.) Some gnarly looking girls to be sure! And as for them being "white," well, see for yourself if it matters to you. That aside, I wouldn't want to get kicked in the head by one of these dollies, to say nothing of seven or eight of their dads! I hope they all go to jail; dads, kids, the whole lot!
http://groups.msn.com/TheBurbankAmazonsRugbyClub/amazonsvsrohnertpark.msnw
WOW!! Delicate little hothouse flowers they are NOT! LOL
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