Remember the story about the football team that had a chance to play for the championship taken away from them when their coaches were fired? Simply because the commissioner’s son was actually played at offense during a game? If not, read the original post. It’s amazing how selfish this guy was, no matter how much of his own money he spent forming his league.

Anyway, the kids refused to play in the playoffs under new coaches. They wanted to play for their original coaches who had been fired. Well, after this story broke, many parents in the county felt the actions of the commissioner were uncalled for and did something about it:

Just days before the team of 12- to 14-year-old boys from southern Fairfax County was headed to the playoffs, their season abruptly ended when the league commissioner fired the head coach and an assistant coach — all for moving his son from defense to offense in the final game of the regular season, according to the former coaches and players’ parents.

Now, some league officials are coming to the team’s defense. It won’t be the championship they dreamed of winning, but plans were drawn up yesterday for the team to play in a bowl game sponsored by the Fairfax County Youth Football League this month.

League Chairman Mark Meana said yesterday that he notified the coaches that the Raptors would play in a game against the winner of their division or an all-star team.

"We’re glad to do this," Meana said. "We didn’t like this situation from the start. We have never been faced with a situation like this before, the personalization of one team, and so we can’t change what happened, but we can do this."

You know, no matter what happens, parents like this Hinkle clown are NOT representative of most parents with kids in sports. They are the freaks and exceptions and while their actions are repugnant, most parents know right from wrong and will try to make things right not only for their kid, but any kid.


The Raptors played their hearts out and won their special bowl game. The commissioner let the team use league equipment and fields (he’d have been hunted down I expect had he declined), but his son didn’t play. As usual, it’s the players themselves who had the right outlook:

"It’s cold, but it’s good to be out here playing again," said player Andrew Rector.

Andrew punched in the winning touchdown with just under a minute to go in the second quarter. The 12-year-old from Lorton said he was sorry Hinkle’s son wasn’t there to share in the victory and said he wished Hinkle had been more sportsmanlike.

"I was sad when I found out we wouldn’t be playing," Andrew said. "It would be great if he would apologize, but if not, we’ll just have to hold on."

Hopefully this will serve as a wakeup call to parents. Allowing one person to have sole authority over a league is a dangerous arrangement bound to lead to abuse at some point. I’ll be the first to admit that I can be rather demanding as a league president (but NEVER when it comes to a situation involving my own kids). However, our league is run by a board of 6 volunteers, parents all. By the time the board comes to a consensus, the right decision has usually been made. Here’s hoping these county leagues take a hard look at single person associations.