More concerns raised about Thurston Youth Football. President defends its mission, operations
A 13-year-old Thurston County Youth Football player who took a knee on the sidelines to protest what he felt was unequal treatment of his fellow players did not go unnoticed.
In the days after The Olympian published a story about the league — one of the largest organizers of youth sports in the area — several more people reached out about their own concerns.
They raised questions about the league’s culture, entrenched leadership and other examples of what they felt has been unequal treatment of players.
At the same time, league President Tim Claridge invited The Olympian to South Sound Stadium in Lacey to witness Championship Sunday on Oct. 27, a day filled with football, cheerleaders, awards and hundreds of family and friends jammed into grandstands on both sides of the field.
The volunteer-run league has been around since 1971 and serves as a kind of a football feeder program to 15 high schools in the area, Claridge said. Annually, about 3,500 children, ages 5 to 14, play football or participate on the cheer teams, he said.
The names of the teams in the league have the same nickname and colors as the high schools the players are expected to attend. For example, the TCYFL North Thurston team is the Rams. But the league and school district are completely separate operations.
“The program touches so many kids in our community and offers them an opportunity to learn the life lessons that this program has to offer — not just the football, but to learn the responsibility of being on a team and how to show up when it’s difficult to show up, and so many life lessons that come from participating in this program,” said Claridge in an interview on Championship Sunday.
“You know, we tell the kids a lot of times, one of the biggest lessons they will learn is how to control their emotions out there on the field,” he said. “It’s not an easy sport, and not everybody’s fit for it, but it’s definitely something that is a huge benefit for all of the kids who participate in this program.”
Still, The Olympian chose to take a closer look at two issues that were raised by parents.
What happened in Yelm on Sept. 7?
Parent Dena Reese of Yelm said her son, who is Black and an eighth-grader, played on the winning team in a TCYFL game at Yelm High School Sept. 7 and ran the football well.
She said, as he exited the field, the losing coach approached him and said, “You barely won, keep walking.”
Reese said her son replied with, “What do you mean? You got cooked.”
At that point, she said the other coach, who is white, had to be physically restrained by other adults to keep him from confronting her son.
Later, as her son was leaving the game with another parent, her son again said, “You got cooked,” and then showed his middle finger. Reese acknowledges that her son should not have behaved that way.
However, the next day her son was accused of saying, “Go suck my d---,” to that coach. Reese disputes that, saying parents in the area have told her that her son did not use that expression. Yet by the following day, the league had decided to suspend her son for the rest of the season.
Reese said she would understand if her son was suspended for a game or two because of his actions, but not the rest of the season. The only response she got from the league was asking her to produce a video of the coach allegedly being physically restrained.
There are video cameras near the Yelm High School football field, so she filed a records request with Yelm Community Schools on Sept. 11 for those video images. She said she still hasn’t received anything.
The Olympian also filed a records request for those images on Oct. 25, but the district responded that it was outside a 45-day retention period. Reese’s request, however, fell within that period.
Now, Reese is looking to consult an attorney about her son’s situation. It’s not about money, she said, but about her son’s emotional distress after he was dismissed from the team.
She said it broke her son’s spirit and that his attitude changed and his grades suffered.
“He wouldn’t come out of his room and he seemed to give up on everything,” she said. “It’s been hard.”
As for the coach who became confrontational, Reese said she was not aware of any repercussions for him.
“It’s sad,” she said. “They’re supposed to help our youth grow and do some good. Adults talking down to kids is just crazy.”
The Olympian asked league president Claridge about this situation. He took issue with the question.
“We will not engage in public debate regarding disciplinary actions taken with members of TCYFL,” he said in an email Friday afternoon. “Based on comments from your prior article, and your current questions about a player in the Yelm franchise, you are receiving less than accurate information and using your platform to throw rocks at TCYFL on behalf of disgruntled parents. This is very disappointing given the magnitude of good that TCYFL does for so many youth in the South Puget Sound region.”
Justice for Cheer
The Olympian also heard from several mothers in Shelton who were upset about the cheerleading at Shelton Football and Cheer, which is associated with the Thurston County Youth Football League.
They say they raised money for the program and then didn’t receive the items they say they were promised — specifically, warm up clothes and backpacks for the cheer team.
They and others have been so upset about the situation that they even launched a Facebook page called “Justice for Cheer,” which has 80-some members.
The Olympian reached out to those members and asked if any parent would be willing to speak on the record about the situation. None of the parents replied with a phone call. However, Jason Peck, the president of Shelton Football and Cheer, called to defend his role with the program.
He acknowledged there were delays in getting fittings and then he questioned, because of those delays, whether it made sense to spend that money with so little of the season left.
There also was a meeting with parents about the situation — a meeting he acknowledged that was confrontational and that he didn’t handle well — but he simply asked: Is this the best use of our funds? He felt that it wasn’t. He then asked if it should be used for something else?
At that point, though, all the parents heard was “no” and became angry, he said. Peck said the money they raised has not been touched.
“There are no missing funds,” he said.
But that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill, Peck said.
“I mean, there’s been so many rumors flying around about this: that I stole the money and went to the Bahamas; that I stole the money and went here; that I stole the money and went there, right? I mean, it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Claridge did not respond to questions about Justice for Cheer.
However, during his interview at South Sound Stadium, he said the league will continue to review itself.
“We get lots of feedback, and some stuff simply doesn’t work. Some stuff works. We try to look and see, are there ways for us to implement it? At the end of the season, we do solicit for that feedback.”
He also added in a Friday afternoon email: “At times we are tasked with making tough decisions that may be disliked by those that are receiving consequences for their actions. We attempt to be fair while upholding a standard that we feel benefits the entirety of the league with a positive environment for our participants.”
