Youth Coaching Gone Horribly Wrong
AdventureDad | October 13A while back I read about an incident that made me really fucking pissed off angry. A baseball coach for a little kids team paid a player to injure a mildly autistic 9-year old boy on the team. The coach was apparently unhappy about the boy not playing as well as other players on the team. A judge just sentenced the asshole to well deserved “consecutive six-to-36-month sentences for corruption of minors and criminal solicitation to commit simple assault.”
Authorities said Downs offered to pay one of his players $25 to hit Harry Bowers, a mildly autistic teammate, with a ball while warming up before a June 2005 playoff game. Prosecutors said Downs wanted the 9-year-old out of the game, because the boy didn’t play as well as his teammates. Player Keith Reese Jr. said he purposely threw a ball that hit Bowers in the groin and another that hit Bowers in the ear, on Downs’ instructions.”
I’m not sure if the baseball coach has any children but I count him as a parent since he was responsible for the team. What a horrible role model. Can you image how confused the children on the team must feel after seeing what their coach did? And what about the 9-year old victim? His injuries were not serious but I assume an incident like this can cause scars for a very long time. The mother of the boy says she now struggles in trying new activities with her son since he’s still scared of being hurt. I don’t know what my reactions as a parent would be in a similar situation but I’m guessing something in between uncontrollable rage and a total loss of faith in human beings.
What’s your reaction? What would you do if you were the parent of the 9-year old victim?
This is stunning. One of the things I fear most for my two girls is that they’re intentionally injured by an adult, so this puts me around the bend. If I were wearing the shoes of the victim’s parents, I’d start exploring civil-law options: surely there’s some way to sue for damages, if only to cover the medical and especially psychological care the kid will now need. Talk about being betrayed by a role model.
I have no idea what I’d do. It’s just so shocking. Makes you want to lose faith in man…
I would talk to the parents of the boy that was “following orders” and make sure he understands that what he did was wrong, and that should he ever question an adult again that it’s okay to get help. Then I would kick the coach’s ass. Sometimes violence deserves to beget violence.
Hopefully this is what I would have done. Take on the coaching job and re-instate this kid asap in the team. Yes errors will be made, bad things will happen but you can’t let that dictate your life.
Hopefully this mom will not stop his kid from sports… If she does that…idiot has won…
I would hope that one of my children would say no immediately if they were in the position of the bribee, and then I’d have serious words with the briber. And he deserved every bit of that sentence. I’d also like to see him forced to work with autistic kids and their parents, so he knows how horrible he is.
I second Candances remarks.
This asshole not only needs punishment but rehabilitation. He needs to truly understand just how his lack of humanity will effect this boy with a (sometimes) very hard to deal with disability.
I’m insulted to be on the same planet as this guy
[…] There is a story apparently circulating around where a coach for a kids baseball team paid a player to injure a 9 year old autistic boy. The coach wanted the boy injured and out of the game because he wasn’t playing as well as the rest of the kids on the team and it was right in the middle of a playoff game. […]
As the father of a slightly autistic son, I do NOT want this guy to ever be forced to work with autistic kids. Quite the opposite in fact. There are plenty of other ways to convince him that what he did was a bad idea.
I’m afraid I’d have to take the coach out for some personal batting practice. A couple of bats to his groin and ear might make him think twice about doing something that stupid again.
I think I’d be getting my own 6 to 36 month sentence for assault on a baseball coach.
I’m a pretty mild mannered guy but I doubt I could control myself if an adult injured my child.
I don’t know, the way things are going with my oldest son (6 yo) and soccer I can see this happening to him :( He has mild cerebral palsy that although ‘invisible’ when he walks and in his day-to-day activities is noticeable when he runs.
He tries really hard, he can play, and sometimes he misses the ball etc, but he is really enthusiastic. The coach of his team doesn’t ever sub him in for matches tho and he is never on the team.
From standing on the sideline watching them play every mon, weds, sat, I see that the coach has an awful lot of influence. I would advise any parent enrolling their child in a sport to make sure that they stand around and watch and actually *see* what kind of character the coach has. Our coach is just interested in furthering his own career by making sure that the team wins every match (not letting the kids have a chance to enjoy the game).
If there was a rule at our club saying every child had to be included in a team I can really see this guy doing that. Luckily for him they can just exclude the kids that aren’t ‘good’. Which leads to other problems of course. Who wants to be six and the only kid not in the team?
We’re changing soccer clubs next year to a club where the kids all get to play for a few minutes in every game.
Eventually I suppose I’ll get over the urge to do serious bodily harm to the coach - violence is not good role modelling. If I was the parent I’d try very hard to find a coach who has some kind of experience with autistic children, and try to find a sport where it’s individual competition. Which does not help trying to help the child with autism to integrate with his peers, but will protect him. Somewhat.
I think I might be in the same boat as Childs Play x2. I don’t know what I could do keep my cool if an adult set out to have my child injured like that!
And as much as I believe we are in too much of a “Sue everbody” mentatility in this country, I would hope that those parents sue the ever living hell out of that coach, just so he can bear some sort of burden in all of this. Because somehow, I doubt anybody that could ever conceive and actually execute a plan like this has any sort of remorse… other than the fact he is probably “pissed” that he was caught. (Not sad mind you, but more likely angry that somebody “ratted him out”)