A youth football league in Ohio is warning parents to be on their best behavior after someone fired a gun into the air last week to break up a fight between players.
“Our job is to make sure it starts from the top and teach these kids that violence and fighting isn’t the answer,” Thomas Walker, a youth coach with Toledo Elite Student Athletics, told the Toledo ABC affiliate.
Walker said his parents and players were very upset after the incident last Thursday, when someone fired three rounds into the air to stop the fight that took place between players.
“That’s zero-tolerance on our field around our kids,” Walker said. “I have a 5-year-old son out there playing in the small team. I have an 11-year-old son. I view all of the kids as my children and this cannot happen at all.”
Some parents want police to make an arrest. Investigators are following up on leads, and the league’s commissioner has since met with parents and players to set expectations.
“It’s very competitive. This ain’t the league you bring your kid to if you want everybody to play. This is where the best play the best. The toughest play the toughest, and the roughest play the roughest,” said the league commissioner Kenny Davis.
