THE COLONY, Texas — A Texas youth baseball coach has been banned from a sports league after his assault of a Denton umpire, which was caught on video.
In the video obtained by WFAA, you can see the Abilene baseball coach argue with the umpire about a call at home plate he disagreed with. The coach was ejected from the game and subsequently shoved the umpire, knocking him to the ground.
WFAA spoke with L’Erin Hampton of 24 Sports, the host of the tournament in The Colony. While Hampton did not release the name of the coach, he confirmed the incident happened and explained how.
"The umpire proceeded to remove the coach from the game because he started to show a little bit of aggression," Hampton said. "It's pretty protocol if we ever get a heated coach, we have to remove them from the game. So once that umpire decided, 'Hey, you have to leave,' that's when he was assaulted by the coach."
Watch the video here:
According to Hampton, the coach has been banned from 24 Sports events. Hampton said the kids are always welcome but have to be with a new team without that coach.
"The team, itself, does have to disband if they continue to participate in baseball tournaments with us. That again, is also protocol as well, too. But the coach has, you know, he's been in good spirits," Hampton told WFAA. "We've talked with him. He's very supportive and remorseful for what happened. You know, we support him, you know, in his path to getting better and he knows that this is not the ideal situation to be in, but he's taken full accountability."
Hampton said this isn't the first time something like this has happened at a youth sporting event, citing other attacks on umpires in other markets.
"We have to be better," Hampton said. "I think at the end of it, we have to remember that the kids come first. Right? So it goes back to 'why you do what you do? What's your why? Why do you coach? Why do you want to send your kids to play baseball?'"
Hampton said they wanted to bring awareness by making sure to put the focus of youth sports on the development of the kids.