About 3 years ago, the parent coach (Brad) of my daughter's team pulled her from a game in anger, grabbing her by the face and poking his finger in her chest while he blamed her for a goal just scored by the opposing team. Prior to this game, he regularly sat her out of the game, refusing to put her in even if there were no other subs and kids on the field were raising their hands to come out of the game. There were many issues prior to this. When team captains were selected, each girl had to go privately to him and say who she thought would be the best captain. Although my daughter ( Jill) liked his daughter (Kandy), she felt that another girl would have been better in the role. Once Kandy was selected as captain (of course) all the girls had to run behind her in training, despite the fact they were being lapped by other teams who were also warming up, which really concerned and embarassed Jill.
Unfortunately, we never filed a police report or an official complaint to the club. After my husband addressed the issue with Brad, he simply walked away, saying that the conversation was over and it was about his coaching, not about my daughter. We did inform the club, unofficially, but they did nothing, since he showed up with an attorney when they suggested that there should be an investigation. We later got a letter from the club saying he had not committed any "sexual misconduct"- something which we never accused him of doing - and a letter from Brad's lawyer accusing us of libel and instructing us to stay "out of his life" or else.
Prior to this incident, during winter training, Brad wormed his way onto my younger daughter's (Emma) team as a "trainer". He regularly pulled her hair, and once actually put her to the ground by yanking her ponytail and refusing to let go, even after she screamed at him to stop. Another father on Emma's team complained about him as well, as he was always picking her up, which embarassed her, since her shirt and shorts would ride up when he did this. When Emma's coach voiced these concerns to Brad, he became angry and said he was "an upstanding member of the community" and stormed off. He never came back to train with the team, thank goodness, but never apologized or explained his actions to the father. There were other incidents that various other parents complained about, but none will speak up. One told me that Brad knew his social security number, and he was afraid of what might happen if he spoke up about how he bullied his daughter. Another said it was like "The Firm", that no matter who you complained to, he'd find a way to get on the board and file a lawsuit for one reason or another.
Three years later, this parent coach continually shows up at both Jill and Emma's tryouts, both high school and ODP. We managed to get him away from Emma's ODP tryouts, but neither girl made varsity soccer, as he was the evaluator, and we didn't allow Emma to play down on the 9th grade team as he was the 9th grade coach. He also came to Jill's B squad games, although he didn't have a child on the team and stood on the sidelines, watching her. After a year of dealing with Brad, the high school coaches saw the whole picture, and came to us for help in removing him from the high school system, as he was also threatening the school with an attorney since they didn't choose him as an assistant coach this year.
Does anyone know of any legal way to remove this person for my children's lives? My fear is that he will get on the soccer board at the state level, and who knows what he'll do to my children then?
