- April 29, 2024
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What started out as Halloween costume day on Saturday, Oct. 28, at the Palm Coast Little League ended with calls to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and the FCSO filing a misdemeanor assault charge against an assistant coach.
That coach was also removed from the league, the president of the PCLL said.
According to an FCSO report filed on Oct. 30, the coaches of one of the teams at the Indian Trails Sports Complex dressed up as coaches from the movie “The Bad News Bears.” The coaches held candy cigarettes and cans of Liquid Death water. Parents from the other team complained that the costumes were inappropriate.
The head coach from the team apologized to the other team’s coaches and fans, but an assistant coach from the other team became irate and aggressively approached one of the coaches who had dressed up while yelling at him and saying he would "knock the smile" off his face.
Staff on the fields tried to deescalate the situation. The assistant coach who became aggressive said “silver Ford Edge,” as if he wanted the coach to meet him at his car. Shortly after he was asked to leave, the assistant coach yelled, “West Virginia boy, I’ll be at my car, I got a 40 under my seat.”
A deputy spoke to the assistant coach at his car. The assistant coach consented to having his car searched, and no firearm was found, according to an initial case report filed from the Sports Complex on Oct. 28.
According to the Oct. 30 report, multiple parents heard the assistant coach’s comment about having “a 40” under his seat, leading to calls to law enforcement. The deputy who filed the second report interviewed the coach who had been threatened.
Because the assistant coach placed the other coach “in fear for his life and safety” and threatened to knock the smile off the coach’s face, the deputy said, a charge of misdemeanor assault would be filed with the State Attorney’s Office.
Tiffany Schmidt, the president of the Palm Coast Little League, said in an email to the Observer that “one of our coaches made a threat to another coach that forced us to call the Sheriff's Department to intervene.” She said the PCLL board met on Oct. 29 “to discuss the matter, and that coach has been removed from the league.”
