LOWER MERION, Pa. (WPVI) – A basketball game for second graders in Pennsylvania ended with an assistant coach and her father being arrested after a fight.
Brittany Ortiz and William Stanley face a number of charges, including assault on a sports official.
Police said the two attacked an opposing coach and his wife on Feb. 1 after a game at Holy Child School at Rosemont.
“Unfortunately, this took place in the hallway of the gym immediately following the game after some verbal sparring on the court during the game,” Lower Merion police Lt. Michael Keenan described.
A second-grade basketball game ended with arrests after an assistant coach and her father were accused of attacking members of an opposing team’s family.
Lower Merion police said Ortiz was an assistant coach for the game as part of the Malvern basketball league.
According to the criminal complaint, Ortiz was shouting and swearing during the game for children ages 7 and 8.
The opposing team’s coach confronted Ortiz about her actions, which started a heated argument, police said. That eventually spilled over into the hallway after the game, where things escalated.
Investigators said Ortiz grabbed the opposing coach’s wife by the hair and threw her to the ground, striking her head on the tile floor.
When the opposing coach tried to break the altercation up, witnesses told police Stanley then got involved. He allegedly hit the man in the head, who was holding his 3-year-old daughter.
Both victims were left with injuries, while the toddler witnessed the whole thing.
“It’s incumbent on coaches and adults alike at any children’s sporting event to act like the adults in the room, because we are,” Keenan said. “We’re there to foster a safe learning and playing environment for the kids. People get heated. It’s understandable. We like to compete, but when your little kids are involved and you are their stewards, you have to act like it.”
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