'A total disaster.' Washingtonville Youth Football team bans 5 players to punish parents for code of conduct violations
After the board members contested their removals in emails and texts to other board members, the league's attorney emailed all four board members to inform them that their five children -one parents had two children in the program - are also banned from the program.
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Five children, ages 8 to 11, have been kicked off their youth football team because of their parents' accused violations, the childrens' parents said.
Nicole Berhau does not want to break the news to her son Nolan, 10, that through no fault of his own, he has been banned from the football team he has been with the last five years.
"I'm hoping that we can resolve it so I don't have to tell him," she said Monday morning.
The Washingtonville Wizards Youth Football program's board of trustees voted in November to remove Berhau and three other board members.
The expelled board members, all of whom have spoken with News 12 for this story, told News 12 their Code of Conduct expulsions came following arguments over team management, playing time, coaching style and how to handle complaints of bullying.
After the board members contested their removals in emails and texts to other board members, the league's attorney emailed all four board members to inform them that their five children - one parents had two children in the program - are also banned from the program.
Gary Specht, president of the Orange County Youth Football League, which oversees several teams including the Wizards, said that none of the five children expelled had committed any offenses worthy of expulsion.
"I think that I was a problem, and they had to get rid of him to get rid of me," Berhau said, "that I'm the problem, and they're using our children to punish us."
In an emailed statement to News 12, the Wizards football program's board president James Ferrazzano wrote that the decision fell in line with the program's state-approved bylaws.
This decision was not taken lightly," Ferrazzano wrote, "but our commitment remains to uphold the integrity and well-being of the organization, and we believe this action was necessary for the continued success of the WYFCL and all those involved in its programming."
Specht says the Wizards board did technically follow its bylaws, which state that any "member" of the organization could be subject to expulsion.
He added though that he cannot remember the last time an innocent child was removed from a team because of a parent's actions, and that the whole situation has become a "disaster."
The expelled board members said they were planning to appeal the expulsions in a more private manner, or just accept the board's decision and move on, but once their children were included in the ban, they decided to go public.
Expelled board member and coach Rocco Circosta said he has been receiving much community support since he went public about the dispute on social media.
Rocco Jr., 8, is without a team.
"The community at large is more upset now that the league has taken steps to remove children and families from the organization," Circosta said.
Specht said he expects that the league's governing board will hold numerous conversations about whether to reevaluate disciplinary procedures league-wide.
In a letter to the expelled families, the team board encouraged them to place their children on other teams in the league, and provided transfer paperwork.
In addition to the five football players, a 13-year-old volunteer cheerleading coach has also been banned from team activities following her mother's expulsion.
