A 'black eye in this community for a long time'

• Pop Warner teams in Tustin, Calif., play their games in hiding after bounty reports
• Red Cobras head coach Darren Crawford has been suspended
• Parent: "It's going to be a black eye in this community for a long time."

TUSTIN, Calif. – Chris Healy and his brothers have coached some of the best Pop Warner football teams in Southern California and it saddened and infuriated him Saturday when his beloved Tustin Pop Warner teams were so embarrassed that they went into hiding.

Healy, who is taking a year off from youth coaching, showed up for Tustin Pop Warner's scheduled games at his alma mater, Foothill High School, Saturday to assess the fallout from allegations in the Orange County Register that the coaches of a Tustin Junior Pee Wee (ages 8-11) team, the Red Cobras, last year offered cash bounties to kids for big hits on opponents and endangered one boy's health by forcing him to lose weight and play with inadequate pads in order to maintain a weight that kept him eligible.

But the Tustin league games had been moved to undisclosed locations to avoid the media scrutiny surrounding the controversy.
"I helped put Tustin Pop Warner on the map," says Healy, a short but powerfully built man who says he played defensive line at Foothill High in the late 1970s and at Saddleback (Junior) College. "For us now to be in the national spotlight for something like this is very unfortunate."

The national office of Pop Warner is assembling a three-member panel to hear the allegations. The Orange Empire Conference, the governing body over 28 Pop Warner organizations in Southern California, held a hearing earlier this summer and determined no disciplinary action was warranted. Jon Butler, the executive director for the national office, says "new information" has come to light necessitating further investigation. The panel will make a recommendation on discipline to the national office.

In the meantime, it has suspended Darren Crawford, the head coach of the Red Cobras, who went to Pop Warner nationals in Florida last year in the Junior Pee Wee division and this year are playing in the Pee Wee division. Also suspended is Tustin league president Pat Galentine, who was an assistant coach on the Red Cobras last season.

Even before the Pop Warner suspensions, Crawford had been placed on probation by the OEC for misreporting a player's weight, according to the Register. And another Red Cobras assistant coach, Richard Bowman, who is also alleged to have been involved in offering bounties, was suspended by the OEC for half a season for a physical altercation with another parent while the team was in Florida last year. Crawford, Galentine and Bowman all have denied the bounty allegations.

Bounties?

Lying about weight?

Drilling holes in shoulder pads to make them lighter?

A coach and parent fighting on a road trip?

The whole thing sickens Healy, who has been coaching youth football in Tustin for a decade and was a coach on two Tustin teams that went to nationals.

Healy says he has no first-hand knowledge that bounties were offered but tends to believe the allegations, which have been made by some of the parents and players, and also assistant coach John Zanelli, from last year's Red Cobras.

"There are six players saying the same thing," Healy says. "I'm so disappointed. It's just absolutely wrong. There's no room for any of that."

Butler, from the national Pop Warner organization, told USA TODAY Sports on Saturday that only one player testified at the initial hearing. Two other players had said money changed hands, but their parents would not allow their sons to testify. Six players testified that they "never saw any of that and didn't believe it happened," Butler said. Additional players have come forward since.

Healy says that some Pop Warner coaches and parents have let things get way too serious and way too competitive.

"Some of these dads are trying to live through their kids," he said. "You can't do that. You've got to let your son be who he is, whether that's playing football or being in the band. Eventually, that stuff comes back to bite you in the rear end. Look at Darren Crawford now, and it's bitten him in the rear end."

Crawford could not be reached for comment.

According to Healy, a contingent of about six kids and their parents from last year's Red Cobras, including some of the best players, approached him and his brother, Matt, about taking over the team this season as it moved into the Pee Wee ranks.

"They just didn't think the coach (Crawford) was very good," Healy said. "But we said we'd never undermine another coach in Tustin. We said no."

Those players, Healy said, eventually left the Red Cobras and formed a team in another organization – American Youth Football.

Meanwhile, the Tustin Pop Warner season lurches forward. Games in Tustin were played Saturday, just not where they were originally scheduled. When they will come out of hiding is unknown.

One Tustin Junior Pee Wee team – the Gold Cobras -- played an afternoon game Saturday in Yorba Linda, and several parents of Tustin players said they have had nothing but positive experiences with Pop Warner.

"This is the first I've heard of anything like bounties, and I've lived in Tustin for 16 years," says Singh Davinder, a taxi driver with a 10-year-old son on the Gold Cobras. "We've had a good experience. Our team hasn't won a lot of games, but nobody is going crazy or anything. This coach does a really good job."

Davinder says the Tustin Pop Warner league sent out an e-mail this week to parents acknowledging the allegations and offering to meet individually with parents about their concerns.

"Of course this stuff bothers me," he says. "It shouldn't happen that way. That's not what sports are supposed to be. We don't want our kids coached that way."

As the Pop Warner investigation – interviews with parents, kids and coaches – looms, Healy just cringes.

"I grew up here. I played football here. I've been here my whole life," he says. "To see this happen is just so sad.

"It's going to be a black eye in this community for a long time."

Contributing: Gary Mihoces