A group of Las Vegas parents are defending a high school football coach after some players reportedly suffered burns on their hands while practicing on artificial turf.
About 90 varsity football players were practicing Sunday at the Spring Valley High School stadium when the incident occurred.
Sarah Ginsburg's son was at the practice, and she is support the coaches amid criticism that they didn't do enough to keep players safe.
“It was not known during the drill…the coaches were not intentionally burning them, or punishing them, by having them place their hand on hot turf,” Ginsburg told 8 News Now. “I value and I’m grateful for the time they put in with my student.”
Ginsburg's son returned home with blisters on his hands after practice, but she believes fault lies with district staff.
“More than one was hurt. More than one has blisters. Give them the opportunity to rectify the situation,” Ginsburg added.
A number of parents reached out to 8 News Now and reported their kids had blisters on their hands after returning home from practice. Some, however, added that some kids were punished for not wearing their knee pads correctly by having to crawl on the hot artificial turf.
“No one was going out there to try and torture a kid based on something as stupid as kneepads. That’s not what happened,” said James Wolfram who added that his son's hands were fine.
Wolfram said the turf was new and no one had experience with it in hot weather.
“We put in all these new surfaces, it’s very hot. It’s not something that anybody has experience with, and these coaches care about these kids,” Wolfram said.
Tara Powell, the principal of Spring Valley High School, issued a statement acknowledging awareness of the incident at Monday’s football practice. She also emphasized that all allegations are taken seriously but noted that individual personnel matters cannot be discussed.
According to several parents, football practice was canceled on Wednesday.
