An assistant basketball coach at a basketball game of sixth graders is accused of biting off part of another coach’s ear at a Catholic Youth Organization game in Springfield, Massachusetts. Timothy Lee Forbes is reportedly the father of one of the players on his team that lost the game at Holy Name School in the Catholic Youth Organization final. He is charged with first punching the opposing coach and then going Mike Tyson on his ear. Jesus
Most disturbing are the reports that the kids (10-12) had lined up to shake hands but were knocked down in the struggle and left crying after the incident. Other parents pulled Forbes off the coach and Forbes fled the scene. The prosecutors clearly piled on the charges on this case to ensure jail time. Forbes has pleaded not guilty to disorderly conduct, assault and battery, felony mayhem and other charges.
I am not sure that Massachusetts school games are safe to attend without a bodyguard in light of last week’s story of another father blinding a goalie with a laser at a girl’s hockey game.
Source: USA Today
Friends, Romans, countrymen,
Even for a Catholic Youth tournament, that behavior is not kosher.
true that mike, with pick-up games the point was playing not winning or losing.
When I was young my when available spent playing sports. They remain some of my happiest memories of youth. The games I played were pickup games, baseball, football and basketball. When I did play these games organized by adults, mainly Little League, the fun departed.
JT,
Massachusetts has a long and checkered history of coaches, parents and even cheerleaders mixing it up. Remember the Bobby Knight “chair toss” incident? A North Shore basketball coach out did BK, he threw ALL the teams chairs and the water cooler onto the court, then threatened to mix it up w/ the other coaches, the referees, and anyone else that wanted a peice of him…
“Sports do not build character, they do not teach you how to lose (who wants to learn that anyway ?) they do not build life long exercise habits – so what is the point again?”
I totally disagree with these thoughts Frankly… With the right coaches and parents character is certainly built and learning how to lose is part of that. As far as life long exercise habits, you’re far more likely to find a 40 or 50 year old who works out and played sports as a child than you are to find a 40 or 50 year old who never did.
Where there is a problem in sports is that the focus is on becoming a star athlete, rather than learning all of those other skills.
This guy probably thinks his kid is the next Lebron and that a lose just can’t happen to his kid.
The focus on youth sports, especially below the high school age, should be on nothing but the fundamentals of the game, building character/resolve/confidence, and having fun. All positives. Winning/losing, while part of sports should be an after thought and used as means to help teach the positives of sports.
Plays the lord.
This guy needs some quiet time in prison! What a creep. I hope the kids weren’t scarred by witnessing this maniac! Yikes.
In a sports obsessed, win at all cost society, children should not be allowed to play sports. Sports do not build character, they do not teach you how to lose (who wants to learn that anyway 🙂 ?) they do not build life long exercise habits – so what is the point again? To feed the meat grinder that is collegiate and then professional sports? To provide invisible zeros of humanity some sense of identity that is shattered when ‘their team’ comes up short?
I may have missed something, but my sense of the situation from the article is that the assailant was not an opposing coach but an out-of-control dad incensed about the loss. In my experience most youth coaches are fine (maybe a little rough around the edges) and have the kid’s interests at heart. It appears to me that this is a parent with a problem.
He was confused…..he thought he was boxing….. Sometimes things are not as they appear…..